Christine Bentley | Capturing Wedding Details
The Quick Survey
- Business Name: Christine Bentley Photography
- Located in: Irvine, California
- Started: 2006
- Status: Full Time
- Types of Photography: Portraits and Weddings
- Primary Camera / Favorite Lens: Canon 5D Mark II / 70-200 2.8
- Interesting Personal Fact: I met my husband while riding my Harley, well actually I met him after I crashed it into the shop where he was the service manager. We were married 6 months later!
Main Site: www.christinebentley.com
Blog: www.christinebentleyblog.com
Facebook: facebook.com/christinebentley
Twitter: http://twitter.com/chrisbentley
Short Bio: Oh lets see. I love tell the story about how I got started, mostly because it's pretty crazy. I had a fav photog who moved to Southern California and I pretty much freaked out because she took ALL the photos of my children. So I decided that the last session we had scheduled I would take mental notes of her equipment and just go and buy everything that I needed to do what she was doing. So after leaving the amera store with over $10K of equipment, I thought I was a "professional". My husband came home to find me in tears in our living room with a camera that had a black LCD screen. I HAD NO IDEA WHAT I WAS DOING. Nothing was returnable and I was up the creek. I mean, I bought a 35mm lens cause the "35mm" sounded like "photo stuff" and I thought I needed it....I truly didn't even know what aperture was or ANYTHING. The learning curve was quit humbling to say the least.
Always up for learning (I have a Master's Degree in Education), I decided this was not going to get the best of me. The idea was to be able to take photos of my children, not really to start a business. Soon it became a healthy addiction and an artistic outlet. It was "me" time as all parents out there know you need that "me" time to indulge in your favorite hobbies. It was amazing to me that I could actually start making money doing this, I love it, still do.
I started to follow AMAZING photographers and learn from them. My early mentors who have now become friends are Bob and Dawn Davis. They started my career. I truly believe that. I took their workshop first, it was amazing and things have never been the same. I started simply with portraits, afraid to take on weddings, but realized soon enough, weddings are a LONG portrait session with a great story to tell. Then I was hooked. I blame and thank Mike Colon and his workshop on getting a lot of my business together, marketing etc. I have been really fortunate to have met some amazing people in this industry and if there is any advice I can give to those you start, do what you love first, and reach out to others. Without my early mentors, I would most likely still be lost.
A few short years later, I have a studio in Irvine. I have amazing clients both portraits and weddings. I have won Accolade and Merit Awards in both WPPI as well as PPOC. I plan on entering more images, and more and more. I continue to learn, I'll never stop learning, but now I also teach! Imagine that, I actually teach those in my community how to use their consumer DSLRs as well as do some professional mentoring. I believe in myself, I am blessed to have others believe in me, I am determined as all hell, but I love it, I love it all and I get to live it everyday!
