I’ve always loved photography.

In high school, l many years ago, I took photography classes and absolutely loved it. Back then, I bought myself a Canon AE-1 and emersed myself in all things photography. But as often happens, life progressed and my attention turned to marriage, family, and work. I quit photography altogether.

In 1992 my husband and I bought our first restaurant, and I continued to be an entrepreneur in that field for the next 26 years. We ended up owning and managing a total of nine restaurants in all.

It was around 2011 when the restaurants led me back to photography.
It was just a few years after the “great recession” of 2008, and I decided I wanted to take more control of my restaurant marketing and restaurant advertising.
Being able to create my own postcard campaigns, make my own point-of-sale signage and maintain my website would allow me to be more consistent, creative, flexible, and in some cases, quick with my marketing goals. I knew the biggest factor in this effort, if it was to work at all, was that I needed great food photography. It had to look professional. It had to sell the food!! So, I bought myself a digital camera and set out to learn food photography.

I initially I enrolled in one photography class through UCSD Extension mainly to learn all the features of my new camera. But like before, that first class quickly reminded me of how much I really loved photography! At that point, I enrolled in the entire Photography Program and earned my Professional Photography Certificate in 2016.

I also started shooting images for a local coupon magazine because I wanted to learn how to shoot for a “deadline,” and for someone other than myself. I did that for two and a half years and shot images for nearly 50 different restaurants around town.

In addition, I was blessed to find and join a fantastic online Food Photography Club, run by Christina Peters, where I learned an unbelievable amount of information about this very specialized photography genre. I even assisted her on a few shoots in L.A.

In closing, owning restaurants is now in the past for me. We sold our last restaurant in March 2018. And, yes, I’m so thankful that was well before Covid! I have so much respect for anyone navigating a restaurant, or any business for that matter, since then.
I don’t miss owning restaurants much, but I’ll always be very thankful that the restaurants lead me back to photography.

Thank you for reading (my rather detailed) photography history, and have a beautiful day!

Teri