Today we’d like to introduce you to Julia Hitz.
Julia, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
I picked up a camera for the first time when I was about 15. I was on vacation with my family and my parents had their share of taking pictures for the day and handed me the camera. I remember after about five minutes of shooting anything and everything I could see, I was hooked. There was something about capturing a single moment & being able to hold onto it through an image that sparked something in my heart. I continued taking pictures on my trusty Sony all throughout high school & freshman year of college. The summer between my freshman and sophomore year, I bought my first DSLR from a good friend of mine and spent the remainder of that summer learning all I could about editing and developing my own style. I fell in love with capturing people & pretty much spent most of my sophomore year forcing my friends to model for me (you guys are the best btw). As time went on, I only fell more in love with every aspect of the art and began to see the beauty of how differently every photographer sees the world. Jumping forward to Spring of 2018, I began shooting weddings and have not been able to stop doing so since. I definitely found my niche with wedding photography and would love to pursue that full time.
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
I would say for me, photography has been an ongoing process of growth. I have seasons filled with so much creativity, I don’t even know what to do with it all & I will have seasons where it feels like I am hitting a creative wall. One of my personal challenges along the way has been killing the nasty monster of comparison. It was actually after the first wedding I shot, that I had to take a step back from photography because I had allowed comparison to completely steal the joy of getting to capture such a beautiful day for two people I loved dearly. At the time, I was following 100+ photographers on instagram & rather than letting the work of others inspire me.
I was using it to compare my work to theirs and always felt that I came up short. One of my favorite photographers India Earl, said “You’re the only person who is fair to compare yourself to” and I don’t think I’ve heard something more true in regards to being a creative. Over the past couple of years, I’ve come to deeply appreciate just how different every photographers eye is. I started pushing to find what I liked & valued as a photographer as opposed to always trying to make my pictures look exactly like all the ones I had been seeing on Pinterest. I can’t stress enough the importance of embracing your personal style and running with that. Never let comparison steal the joy that comes from creating art.
We’d love to hear more about your work.
I would say I specialize in people centered photography. Anything from senior portraits, to families, to weddings. If it involves people, I am all about it. My favorite thing to capture by far though is couples and weddings. One thing I aim for as a photographer, is to always capture raw emotion. I am so much more for capturing genuine emotion than I am for capturing the “perfect picture moment”. I want anyone who views a photograph of mine to feel the emotion that was happening the moment it was captured.
Do you look back particularly fondly on any memories from childhood?
Growing up, my family & I would go camping nearly every weekend. By the time I was five I had completely bought into all things outdoors. Every one of those trips holds such a special place in my heart.
Contact Info:
- Website: juliahitzphotography.com
- Email: Jhitzphotography@outlook.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/juliahitzphotography/
Image Credit:
picture of me: Jacob Alves
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