The word passion means “powerful emotion; an ardent love.” To be passionate about something is to put it first, because you love it. Melissa Wilson and Christi Colvin are passionate about photography, but even more so about their families.
Melissa Wilson married the love of her life after school, and is the mother of two, Tyler, 7, and Libby, 4. She works from home for Servpro, a cleaning service, but her true passion is photography.
Starting at a young age, she fell in love with her grandpa’s old film camera, but it wasn’t until after she was married that she realized she loved photographing people more than anything else.
Wilson says that her family is very supportive of her business, especially her husband.
“He’s my biggest cheerleader,” Wilson says. “He’s excited that I’m actually going for it now.”
For Wilson, to find success in her life, she makes her family her top priority.
“I’ve found that I have to first choose my family,” Wilson says. “I love what I do, but I make myself either wait until my kids are at school or sleeping and only set a few hours of those times for work.”
Local freelancer Christi Colvin agrees with Wilson that family is important.
Colvin, wanting to be actively involved in her children’s lives, has decided to take a small break from her own photography business to spend as much time with them as possible.
“God showed me that I could either be a great photographer or a great mom, but not both at the same time,” Colvin says. “Right now I’m a home schooling mom and that keeps me very busy; but one day when they’re older I plan to have a natural light studio and get back into it.”
Colvin, who has three children: Ryland, 9, Raeghan, 6, and Rieslin, 4, found her passion for photography after Ryland’s first birthday. She’s played catch up ever since, teaching herself as much as possible.
Although she has taken a break to be with her kids, she’s still shooting events, just in a more relaxed manner.
“I don’t charge or promote,” she says. “It’s a ministry.”
Photos by Lyanna Saito