Meet This Week's Judge: Corrie Heisey

This week, we have Corrie Heisey of Little Bud Photography judging our "simplicity" theme. She's shared some of her beautiful and whimsical work along with a few words here. 

1. Tell us about yourself...

I am 31 years old.  A wife, mom, friend, sister, daughter.  I love cooking, great (and not so great) television, my Boston Terrier, wine, and being outside.  

2.  What ignited your passion for photography, and what fuels it now?

At first, like many women who discover photography, I was inspired by my baby daughter and just had this pull to capture her with my camera.  My husband deployed when she was 6 months old and I decided to do a 365 project while he was gone.  During that time I read everything I could about photography and light so I could get better.  

Even though my daughter is still my biggest inspiration, gradually photography became more about me and trying to express something deeper about what it feels like to be in the moment I’m photographing.  My relationship with photography is always evolving and it has given me so many gifts.  Learning to put myself out there without fear and say “This is me.  I did this.” has helped me grow tremendously as a person.

3.  What's in your camera bag right now, what do use the most? the least?

Digital:  Nikon D7100, 85mm 1.8, 35mm 1.8;  Film:  Nikon F100, 50mm 1.4; about 15 rolls of film, extra memory cards for my digital camera, lens caps that are never on my lenses (please tell me I’m not the only one), a lens pen, ponytail holders.  

I almost always have my 50mm 1.4 attached to my film camera body and I would say the 85 and the 35 split the time on my digital body.  I have a 60mm that I love for portraits and macro that I use less often but I really love it.  I have a few zooms that I only break out very occasionally.  

4.  What's your dream project or shoot?

I would love to shoot all film of my family and my best friend’s family traveling somewhere awesome.  Lifestyle newborn in a client’s home with amazing light is always a dream come true.

5.  What is the biggest challenge you face as a photographer?

Shooting others the same way I shoot my own family.  I feel like I’ve improved a lot but it’s still hard to quiet the voices that tell me what I “should” be shooting during a session.  

6.  If you had $500 to spend on photography...

How should you spend it?

Save it to upgrade my digital camera body.

How do you wish you could spend it?

Buy a medium format film camera.

How would you really spend it?

Film, developing/scanning.

7.  Is there any one thing you wish someone had told you at the very beginning of your photography journey?

I actually feel like I’ve gotten great advice and met some incredible friends who have been so supportive of me.  I will say that I think we all struggle from time to time with thinking of ourselves as artists.  It seems so pretentious and I know sometimes I think to myself “who am I?  I’m no (fill in the blank with some amazing photographer you love).”  Women are sort of ingrained with this idea that we can’t be too proud of ourselves or value what we do too much or we risk looking like show-offs.  I think that just the act of posting an image you created online for the world to see is a brave act and you should be proud of what you create.  If you’re an artist it’s okay to say so even if you still blush a little when you tell someone “I’m a photographer.”

Thank you so much, for joining us this week, Corrie!