Leila Photography…the beginning

I am super-duper excited to be launching my photography business, Leila Photography by heather sullivan (that’s me).  Along with that, I’ll be launching this Leila Photography blog.  (The people who read my personal blog will be oh-so-glad…no more random posts about photographing cakes and such ; )

Although I allude to it in my “about” section of my website, I thought I’d share how I came about choosing my business name.

The funny thing about naming your photography business, is that if you can think of a name, it is probably taken.  I’d read the recommendation of starting out with your business named after yourself.  Awesome!  Except that Heather Sullivan Photography was taken.  Heather Rene Photography-taken.  My kids names joined, seriously…taken.  (although spelled a little differently)  So, what’s a girl to do?  Anything and everything you can think of about light, pixels, creativity, images, etc…has so been done already.  Therefore, I was in a quandry.  What do I name my business?

I started doing some soul searching.  Why is photography important to me?  What started me clicking the shutter of my little 110 film camera so many years ago?  Why did I think it necessary to document life on film, or digitally, long before I had the thought that photography could become a hobby to pursue, much less a business?

The answer seemed to be a who.  My grandma, Leila, who lived only a block away from us growing up, filled her shelves with photo albums.  She kept every school picture, Christmas card, snapshot, portrait, and eventually printed e-mail photos, carefully tucked into album after album.  She took pictures of life.  She documented people, and events.  We didn’t sit down to flip through albums in order to evaluate composition and lighting.  We flipped through the images to remember life and those we loved.  She also passed down to me some albums of heritage, vintage images of people who made up my family tree.  I relished looking at black and white photos of people from the past, envisioning lives and events.  She’d given me an album filled with legacy.  Life, love, and legacy.  That is why I love photography.

As all of this came together in my thoughts, I had no doubt as to what to name my business.  I Googled Leila Photography…not taken!  I developed my logo, separated the lettering to make sure that her name gets pronounced right.  It sounds like Lee-eye-la.  In creating my logo, the “i” stood out.  I realized how much a part of Leila, I am.  It all seemed to fit.

The thought of being in business is a bit overwhelming.  However, I will continue to value the life, love and legacy of images.  I will strive to do my best with integrity and honesty, and I will always work to improve.  Afterall, that is what my Grandma expects of me.