Making of a Wedding Photographer (part 1)

My interest in photography began in the late 1970’s. There was a project in a Boy Scout Magazine to build a home-made pinhole camera using 110 film. I made my own camera out of a butter box. It took horrible photos and I dont remember ever getting a sharp image, but I was hooked.

I took a photography class at my junior high school where we developed our own film in a dark room. Throughout high school I took photos with a 110 camera, my dad’s 35mm Pentax and disposable 35mm box cameras.

I’ve had cameras on and off throughout my adult years but my real love of photography wasn’t rekindled until until the early 2000s with my purchase of my first digital DSLR. I was in the Army stationed at Fort Lewis, near Seattle, WA. I was also in a position to travel quite a bit and take photos all over the world while I was working for Generals.

My wife, Kirsty is originally from Scotland and still has quite the accent. She enheritied my old cameras as I upgraded and developed her own interest in photography. That’s how we got the business name of “Scotch and Waller”

When I retired from the Army in January of 2016, I moved to the Smoky Mountains of NC. I was taking landscape photos of this beautiful area.

I had no idea how to make money with my photography until one day I was watching a Hill Climb car race and taking photos. I didn’t know how to get my photos into the hands of the racers. I linked up with a local photographer who had a business called Killboy.com and took photos of cars and motorcycles in the area. I worked with him for a couple of seasons on and off.

(to be continued)

Mike Waller

Retired Army Veteran, chef and photographer 

https://www.scotchandwaller.com
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Making of a Wedding Photographer (part II)