Check out Melissa McClure’s Artwork

Today we’d like to introduce you to Melissa McClure.

Melissa, we’d love to hear your story and how you got to where you are today both personally and as an artist.
I never meant to be an entrepreneur. I barely knew what self-employment was. I wanted to be a photojournalist and work for a big newspaper. Then 9/11 happened. I was working for my college newspaper and they asked me to cover a candlelight vigil. I went and took some beautiful images of mourners. The next day, my editor got mad at me because I didn’t interrupt the mourning to find out their name, major, directly link to the tragedy, etc. I was in shock. I asked him if he truly wanted me to walk up to a person sobbing to ask their info for a photo in the paper? I emotionally quit that day. I knew I wasn’t cut out for this line of work.

I found myself a few years later, Bachelor degree in hand, a nice camera collecting dust and a boring job in retail sales at the mall. I had no idea what I wanted to do. Then a co-worker approached me about photographing her wedding. I told her – absolutely not, you will hate the photos and I can’t pay you back. She said, that’s fine because I can’t afford to pay you in the first place. I went to the wedding, shot over 1200 images and fell in love with weddings. That was 14 years ago.

We’d love to hear more about your art. What do you do you do and why and what do you hope others will take away from your work?
I’ve never felt comfortable calling myself an artist. I wasn’t a natural with a camera. I spent many years not even knowing how to shoot manual. Heck, I graduate college still in auto mode! But once I started consistently shooting weddings it came naturally. I got more comfortable with the settings and the posing and the interaction. Even the editing came easy at one point. It took a long time but I was able to find my art in photographing weddings. Although the true art is connecting with human beings on their best day ever.

How can artists connect with other artists?
I’ve always been a huge fan of networking! From day one, I put myself out there and made many close friends. While networking has become a bit of a lost art thanks to social media, I try still to meet people in person often.

Do you have any events or exhibitions coming up? Where would one go to see more of your work? How can people support you and your artwork?
I’m still shooting weddings but I also run a boudoir studio based in Oceanside. It’s a beautiful natural light studio that I have photographed some amazing women in. I recently started advertising for birth photography as well.

You can find my website at www.melissamcclure.com or www.melissamcclureboudoir.com
On Instagram and Facebook I’m @melissamcclurephotography or @mmboudoir

Contact Info:

• Website: www.melissamcclure.com
• Phone: 760-504-8246
• Email: melissa@melissamcclure.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/melissamcclurephotography
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/melissamcclurephotography

Image Credit:
Photo of me by Jen Acosta

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