FOR THE LOVE OF SHOOTING THEM YOUNG! November 1, 2020 – Posted in: photography, Showcase

My resignation as a banker came as a shock to everyone around me. There was this yearning in me to do something I really enjoyed. I wanted something I could put in my best and become distinguished in.

The funny thing was that despite the fact I resigned, I was still not very sure of what exactly I wanted. Around that time, I also lost my father. It was a difficult period in my life. When I mentioned photography to people around me, there were so skeptical of my decision knowing that I am an introvert. Somewhere around that same period, I watched a documentary on T.Y Bello. She is a famous Nigerian photographer and singer. In that documentary, she was calling on more women to join photography. It was a turning point for me. Those priceless words she said kept ringing in my head many days after. In few days to come, I saw myself making research upon research on the basics of photography. After all, it wouldn’t be nice to go into full time photography without knowing my onions.

Not quite long after my resignation, I travelled to the United Kingdom where I did a diploma in Photography. I interned with Deluxe photography and later with Shola Animashaun. There, I was exposed to different kinds of photography – architecture, landscape, wedding and portrait. It was an opportunity to have an idea about every form of photography available. This profession has given me an edge despite my health condition as a sickle cell patient.

True to fate, I met a children photographer named Kelly Brown. Children Photography back in 2013 was not common then. I did few online courses with Kelly Brown. That was how my journey into full time children photography began. The journey was fun. It was exactly what I had always dreamt of. I could chill back, work at my own pace, laugh, eat and joggle the uneasy steps in getting beautiful images of these children. The pictures have a way of erasing the memories of pains, sweat and running around involved in capturing their images.

Shooting babies can be a handful. My first set of clients was my friend’s friend’s children. Being a newbie then, it was almost free until I learnt that services need to be well paid for if I would thrive in business. In the beginning some people not being able to wrap their head around the fact that I was strictly children’s photographer. Apart from children photography, the other kind of photography I can do is maternity shoot for pregnant women. It is in sync with children’s photography. It would be fair to say that the competition in this genre of photography is still minimal at the moment compared to other genres. My genre of photography does not have a lot of men in it. It is a niche that is quite new and occupied by few photographers at the moment, maybe because dealing with children is not easy at all. But little by little, professional children photographers are springing up every day.

I almost gave up on this journey not quite long ago. It happened that my hard drive crashed and I had to re-shoot. You know you would not get the exact image as you did the other time. Somehow, I remembered the factor that has been driving me all along. One thing is that there is no going back for me in this profession. Shooting children and babies’ picture is my life!

Damilola Adetoye – Domino Images

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