How did a twenty-two year old end up owning a business?! What's MDB stand for? How did this Yankee end up in Savannah, Georgia?
It's not often that a fifteen year old girl knows exactly what she wants to do with her life. I can proudly say. . . I did!
In sixth grade, my class took a field trip to Ellis Island. My neighbors let me borrow their camera and off I went! I came home with tons of pictures, but none of the pictures had anything to do with the history - oops! They were all impressive (for a sixth grader) compositions of architecture and details. My parents instantly saw my eye for photography.
I would take photographs of my family and friends, but it wasn't until Junior year of high school that I realized my calling. In Pennsylvania, it is a requirement to job shadow professionals in industries you are considering. I shadowed a hotel manager and also the one and only Daniel Moyer of Daniel Moyer Photography. Dan is still the most influential person in my career - sorry Mom and Dad. I job shadowed him at a wedding and at the end of the night he asked me to be his intern! At fifteen, I always thought internships were for college students and people much older than me, but I was ecstatic! After Dan making me jump through hoops to make sure I wanted the position, I finally was the official intern for Daniel Moyer Photography! Yippee!! My high school was so supportive that they let me leave school early at 10 a.m. so I could drive to Philadelphia to work with him. Over the years of working for him, I learned more than I ever would have taking classes on photography and also a ton of life lessons. And honestly. . . I learned more business content with Dan than I did at COLLEGE! (Let's hope my business professor doesn't read my blogs.) This opportunity allowed me to set myself apart from my peers and hit the ground running.
My dream since Sophomore year of high school was to go to Savannah College of Art & Design, SCAD. It was truly my reach school because of the reputation, acceptance rate, price and distance from home. I had a teacher tell me, "You'll never get accepted. You should apply other places." And, I did apply to two other colleges, but my heart was set on SCAD. September of Junior year, I got accepted to SCAD with. . . not many scholarships. It was exciting, but I still couldn't afford it! After a plethora of phone calls, emails and more scholarship letters. . . I finally received enough money to go to my DREAM SCHOOL!
I knew my degree was going to be a BFA in Photography, but what would my minors be?! They didn't have wedding photography as a minor - LOL - they should! I decided I could learn to love advertising and fashion photography, so that's what I did! I double minored in Advertising Photography and Fashion Photography. I liked it but, continued to look back on my love for weddings.
I decided to make connections in the wedding industry in Savannah, Georgia so I could get back at doing what I loved. I knew Savannah was a huge destination wedding location. Soon, I was a second photographer for two wedding photography companies! I went to school during the week and shot weddings on the weekends. My parents thought I was crazy but they knew it made me happy. They made me promise that I had to keep up my grades if I wanted to continue. I did, don't worry!
In May of 2019, I graduated from SCAD with a BFA in photography with a double minor in fashion photography and advertising photography. Woohoo! I will never forget sitting in my last class at SCAD and my professor asked me if I had a job. I responded, "Yes, I'm starting my own business." Pretty much half the class looked at me like I was crazy. Yes, I'm a tad bit crazy, but that's better than being boring, right?!
Fast forward to October of 2019. . . MDB Photography had officially become a business! It's been a long and crazy ride! Thank you to EVERYONE that has supported me and my dream over the years! MDB Photography is just getting started!
Oh! For those that are curious where the name came from. . . my initials are MDB! I was named after Jimmy Buffett's daughter, Delaney!