But every morning I wake up excited to be alive, to use my talents, and literally to make people smile. I also do a lot of work with families and enjoy telling love stories through wedding and engagement photography.
Today I’m proud to say that I have a full service studio in Boston where I serve actors, CEOs and startups. Eventually, I built a reputation as one of the top headshot photographers in Boston. I was determined, committed, and proactive and as I became involved in the local film scene I met more and more actors who needed headshots. Looking back, I can’t imagine doing one without the other. In the five years since then my acting and photography careers have flourished. To this day, I advise people who are trying to big things: “You have to stand on paint cans!” That means doing what you can with what you have and not making excuses. I did the best with what I had, including using overturned paint buckets to get a little height on my subjects (I’m 5′ 3″ and I didn’t have a ladder). It was precarious, but that’s the nature of a startup. People came to my house in Malden and I would shoot them on my roof. The beginning was an awkward moment living on credit cards and good karma, and somehow each month I made it happen. I stumbled forward into my dreams with little idea of what I was doing and no backup plan or fund to pay my bills. It was like a scene from a movie: me gripping the steering wheel, tears running down my cheeks, rain pelting the windshield, me crying out “What have I done?! I was terrified.īut I didn’t let my fear stop me. At the same moment, a torrential rainstorm erupted.
I got in my car to leave and I burst out crying.
I remember the day I told my boss that “I quit.” It was both liberating and frightening. After a lot of inner turmoil, I quit my job to pursue my passions for photography and film acting. I was working a job I hated and it became painfully clear to me that something had to change. My photography business was born in a moment of crisis. So, before we jump into specific questions about the business, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story. Today we’d like to introduce you to Erica Derrickson.