I’m so happy you’ve taken the time to jump over and check out my new website and business! There are so many details in life that got me to this moment. It seemed fitting that I take some time to tell you about the journey and the people that have helped me make it to this point. After all, this whole thing is all about the memories that we make and making sure they are remembered – so this is my time to remember. To be thankful. To let you have a peek behind the camera and into my world.
Why Melissa J Burns Photography?
It’s pretty simple really. For years I worked for someone else. For another business. Always doing what I thought was right for someone or something or the bigger picture. Serving my clients, but doing so in the same way for years. At the end of the day, art is what you make it. Every photo I take, client I interact with, post I share – it has to be me. I need to be so out in front of the camera that when I’m behind it my clients are excited to see me standing there. So when it came time to choose a new business name I couldn’t help but think that it had to scream ME!
How I got started in Photography
You know that thing that you’ve always loved and don’t really know why? For me it’s always been photographs. I remember being young and about once a year my mom would pull out her wedding album along with another album filled with printed photos of relatives, my siblings and I, friends – you name it and it was in there. We’d sit on her bed and flip through the pages of that album and every time I loved every second. There was something magical to me about holding photos of the past in my hands. Of thinking about what my Grandpa was like as a young man or remembering the days of running in the open field out back with my cousins.
Fast forward a few years and I started asking for disposable cameras. I would take photos of everything and anything…I have some envelopes of the developed cameras as proof! When we would go on vacations or day trips my dad always brought his film camera, video recorder, and as the years went on, digital camera. I was always bugging him to let me use them. And often times he did! Being homeschooled opened up a world of exploring my interests over the years. I’m so thankful for parents that encouraged my interests instead of pushing for a education or career choice that “made more sense.”
Then what happened?
Over the year, I continued to enjoy photography as a hobby through high school and beyond. Friends started asking me to take their senior photos and even had family friends offering to pay me to do so. I felt so out of my element! I wasn’t a “real” photographer, why would they want to pay me? But it started to become evident that my skill set in the realm of photography was definitely portraits! It was the thing that inspired me to take more photos. The subject that captivated me when I had a camera in my hands. Sitting here typing this I started to get teary-eyed thinking of all the people that trusted me with a camera before I even trusted myself. They saw something in me that was made to do this. They saw the images that I saw before the shutter ever clicked.
After high school I continued to do photography as a “paid” hobby. But I also began working full time as a manager at Panera Bread. At 16 I started working there and when I decided college wasn’t for me it made sense in my mind to move up in the company I was already established at. I worked that job for years. I climbed up the corporate ladder and was darn good at what I did there! As a young women I figured I would get married one day and it made more sense to play it safe and make a decent salary while I could. I never wanted a career – I just wanted to work hard and make money.
Then in April of 2015 we almost lost my dad. It was a pivotal life moment for me. During the rest of that year it become a burning desire in me to do what I loved the most. To live life while I could. To stop hiding inside of the lines of, “it makes sense or it’s safe.” By the end of that year I knew I had to make a major change in my life. My job was eating me alive and that fire inside was about to erupt. I had to do the thing I was made to do.
Photography was the only thing that made sense.
Where to?
My goal for 2016 was to get my feet wet and start working doing photography. It didn’t matter if I had to start my own business, get experience working for someone else, or doing it in the little bit of free time I had until something happened. I just had to start. Then it happened. February of 2016 I saw a job posting by one of my favorite local photographers. For years I followed her work, aspiring to take newborn photos like her someday!
Lindsay had posted a position for a Studio Assistant position. It was perfect! The flexibility to work part time there and part time at Panera made it the perfect fit to start. I would be getting experience hands on and then one day be able to start my own business! I applied, interviewed and within about a week was starting my job with Lindsay. But it got even better, she wanted to train me to be a photographer for the studio. To start taking on clients!
For the next 5 years I would slowly learn to run the studio. I would get the chance to train Alexis and have her work with me for almost a year, and ultimately after years of watching and learning, even take on doing newborn photos! By 2021 I was able to make decisions and do things the way that I wanted. But it still didn’t feel like my own thing. I was still working for someone else.
MJB comes to life!
After many conversations and lots of prayer, (and a whole lot of encouragement from my husband, Jordan) the decision to start MJB Photography came to life! The beauty in all of it is that everything I needed to start was already in place – a studio, the equipment, the clients. You name it and it was already there and ready for me to take charge of! So at the beginning of 2022, Lindsay and I worked out a deal and I was able to purchase the bones of what was Wild Wonder Photography Co. But it only felt right if I was really starting my own thing!
I’ve said since I started working professionally in this industry that I’ve had the best of both worlds. Being able to do what I love but having the support to do it every step of the way. And now I can still say that! I was able to start a business while having the benefit of having everything ready to go for me!
This is just the beginning
I have so many plans for MJB! For you, my clients. For the future of memories coming to life! I’m so incredibly excited to have the chance to work with each of you. And I am so grateful for each of you that have stuck with me over the last 6+ years in this journey. I can promise you one thing – at the core of every session is a lot of love!
My goal is to help families have images that are filled with love and memories. I live for head thrown back, nose-scrunch moments. I love running through the grass and hearing children laugh. I love unexpected snuggles, butterfly kisses, and tickle fights. I love the raw love between parents and their newborn babe! I love photos and the stories they tell for years to come.
I so look forward to meeting you for the first time or re-uniting with you again! Let’s make some memories together!
To book a session click HERE!
xoxo – Melissa
