Sometimes a great personal loss can set us on a path toward an exciting new adventure in life. That’s what happened to Aimee Flynn. Losing her father was devastating. But it helped her make the decision to do something he would have applauded: launch her own photography business.
“I wasn’t always a photographer, but I’ve always been around photography,” Aimee says. “My dad was a photographer and I was his unwitting subject and pupil for most of my life.”
Aimee’s father taught her things like the best light is at sunrise and sunset, always face your subject toward the light, and don’t shoot directly into the sun. “I was eight, and had no idea really what he was talking about,” she says. “But his lessons stuck with me all the way to high school, when I took my first—and only—photography class.”
Some 12 years later, Aimee took a trip to Italy and a friend gave her a camera to take pictures. “It was during this trip that photography officially hooked me,” she says. “My husband gifted me my first digital single-lens reflex camera a few months later.”
One of Aimee’s favorite things to do was share her work with her dad. “Right out of the gate, he told me to build a portfolio, to get my work out there,” she says. “He said I had ‘an eye’ for it. And though a teeny party of me wished to be a real photographer very much, I shrugged him off.”
Sometime later, Aimee’s father was diagnosed with cancer, and after a long battle he passed away. “It was awful in ways I can’t describe,” she says.
Through her mourning, Aimee was able to find a new purpose. “I remember sitting on my couch the day after his funeral,” she says. “Our upstairs neighbor and friend had eloped to city hall the day before. I wished I could have taken their pictures.”
Aimee scrolled through her Instagram account to see if she could find photos of the couple. “And through the strange rabbit hole that is social media, I stumbled upon an image I remember to this day,” she says. “It was a couple in Joshua Tree [National Park], laughter and joy etched into every feature of their faces, their hair snatched by the wind and the sun splitting into a sphere behind them. It was breathtaking and real. Everything I ever wished I could do with a camera.”
The photographer called herself an adventure wedding and elopement photographer. “I had no idea such a thing existed until that moment,” Aimee says. “But as soon as I saw those words, I felt with absolute certainty that’s what I wanted to do.”
Her late father’s inspiration gave Aimee the confidence she needed to start such a venture. “He believed in me from the start, and if he believed I could be a photographer, then I could be a photographer,” she says.
She got started right away, researching, learning and practicing. And now five years later, Aimee has built a photography business, won numerous awards, and succeeded beyond her wildest dreams.
Losing her father and the aftermath of that loss was the hardest period of Aimee’s life, she says. But it made her bold in a way that wasn’t typical for her.
“I discovered this niche of adventure weddings,” she says. “Instead of hanging on ‘I wish I could do that’ I ran headfirst into ‘I’m going to do that.’ And it’s even stranger still to think that if I had made that discovery at literally any other time, I’m not sure what I would have done. I’m not sure I would have been so bold. My greatest loss put me on the road to what has turned into the greatest gift and biggest pride of my life. That’s the weird truth of it.”
On a daily basis Aimee says she tries to be “extremely intentional about being grateful for the little, day-to-day things. It’s so easy to get snagged on the things that are hard, are not working, are difficult, and those things matter. But paying attention to the things we love and are grateful for are also as immensely important.”
She tries to bring joy and meaning into her life, and into the lives of those around her, by doing things she enjoys and spending time with people she loves. “I find that when I’m actively pursuing the things that bring me joy or meaning, it makes me a happier person and in turn makes me a better human, partner, daughter, sister, friend, citizen of the world,” Aimee says.
Here’s her advice for others looking to find more happiness and meaning: “Pursue the thing that calls to you. Listen to that little voice. You don’t have to dive in head first or drop your life and move across the country. But if a dream is calling, listen to it.”
“Photography lets you find yourself. It is a passport to people and places and to possibilities.”—Annie Leibovitz
If you haven’t subscribed, you’re missing out on post updates! To subscribe, type your email in the box below then click on the green subscribe button. When you receive a confirmation message from WordPress, click on the “confirm now” button to complete the process.
Leave a Reply