I am seriously psyched to announce our winner of the Fundy scholarship to Tamara Lackey’s Australia Tour in Sydney–Lia Healy! Lia’s story touched all of us here and we are thrilled to share it with you. We hope Lia will inspire other photographers and are happy she will be learning all about business, shooting, marketing and making connections from Tamara Lackey herself!
A big thanks to all the talented photographers who entered the contest. Tamara’s tour still has some spots…you don’t want to miss it! Without further adieu, let’s see what Lia had to say…
“My name is Lia. I am a mummy, which (like Tamara) was the initial and continual inspiration for me to make memories for other people.
I have had some breaks with photography throughout the years. The first time, I had spent the day photographing a beautiful, terminally ill mum who was my age (late twenties at the time) and had a young baby (like me). She had been told that she had no more days to live. And I realized that I was wasting my time. For the next period in my business, I only photographed clients who were terminally or critically ill, premature babies, and people who could not afford a photographer for their weddings. It awoke something in me that was so much more important than the money. I felt alive.
Sadly I also felt hungry, as I still needed to earn SOME money. So, I started taking paid shoots again and with it came the burnout of not organizing my work and family in the right way. My husband was working away and I was running my business, while looking after two kids plus working in an office because I couldn’t work out how to make it all come together.
In the following years, I lost three babies–one gorgeous baby and then twins. I photographed a newborn the day before my operation to help my twins come out as they had passed away (do I have a work ethic–yes I do). It was a lot to take on. I felt unable to carry on. I doubted whether I should be a photographer at all. I doubted whether I really had a passion for this business or not. In the end, I decided that the only thing to do was to again stop working in my business and spend time with people far less fortunate than my family.
I took my family to Thailand for the 2009 / 2010 summer and volunteered in a rural area teaching at the local school and working with beautiful children with AIDS. I WAS IN LOVE…and so appreciative of my life and my gifts. Even after returning, I had fears and doubts, but at least I began to see a way forward.
I now have a five-month-old baby girl. I worked during my pregnancy and from three weeks after her birth, I slowly got back into this business, taking on only what I could handle. She has given me a new love, a new passion and I can’t wait to learn more about how to balance my family life and my work in order to give more, to be more, to inspire more.
I am so in love with my family and other families. I feel alive when I am giving and I feel that by learning how to be more effective in this business, I will be able to give the gift of memories to other families and hopefully also give more to charities and those less fortunate. I now have no doubt about my passion for photography. I know the importance of achieving a better family / work balance in order to NOT burn out again, and I look so forward to learning this from you. <3
I don’t have the money to hightail it to Sydney. I would dearly love the opportunity to meet you in person and learn.
Regardless of this application, THANK YOU for sharing, for giving, for inspiring. It means a lot to others.
With love,
Lia”
Thanks again Lia! To see more of her work, visit Lia’s website.
