Almost four years ago, I was sitting in the living room of the house that I would live in for three of my four years at the University of Virginia. It was mid-way through final exams at UVA, and while most students were using their downtime between studying to relax, I was using mine for something very different.
 
I was launching my first website.
 
I had been shooting portraits for friends and family and had even landed a few paid gigs over the three years leading up to this website launch. At the time, I knew that in a small way, launching a website meant that I was launching a business, but I assumed it would just be a side-hustle I would work at while in college. I figured it would make some extra cash while I studied for my engineering degree, and maybe I’d even shoot a bit on the side once I got a “real job” after graduation.
 
The website was simple – I had designed it myself using a very basic template, but it got the job done and would book me some of my earliest portfolio-building sessions and even my first season of weddings.
 
At the time, I had no idea that the business would soon grow faster than I could handle.
 
At the time, I had no idea that within just a few years, photography would be my full-time career.
 
And at the time, I had no idea that my then-girlfriend Sarah would also fall in love with photography one day.
 
As I sat in the living room of my college house, I thought I was just turning a small hobby of mine into an occasional part-time job. Photography had been my thing for years, but I never dreamed that it would be a career one day. But it is. And the only joy greater than getting to do work that I love every single day, is doing it alongside the person I love.
 

 
A few years back, Sarah picked up my backup DSLR and started learning. She would come along on shoots, and when I started shooting weddings, she started shooting weddings too. She picked up on the basics at a speed that boggled my mind, and she improved faster than I did during my early years by FAR. Now, she often leads shoots as the primary photographer while I carry the bags, as proud of her as I could possibly be. We switch off shooting, and we switch off editing, and she’s even fallen in love with the business just as much as I have. She’s caught the entrepreneurship “bug”, and has helped make this hobby of ours into our dream job that supports our (very small) family.
 
But more importantly than all of that, she’s been teaching me to grow in kindness and compassion in our work, and has made me a better photographer and business person and husband.
 
If you’ve been following along for long enough, you might remember the days when I posted photos from “my shoot this week” and my portfolio pointed to “some of my favorite work”. But if you’ve been following along for any length of time, you know that “my shoots” soon became “our shoots” and that “my favorite work” has quickly been replaced by “our favorite work”.
 

 
More than that, when we think about what makes us different as wedding and portrait photographers, it’s… well… us. Hunter and Sarah are what make this business special and Hunter and Sarah are who serve our clients day in and day out, so it only makes sense that our business is named appropriately. This change in name is by no means Sarah’s debut into the world of professional photography, but rather a long-overdue acknowledgement at her 50% share in our dream. So with that, we excitedly make the following announcement:
 
It’s time to say goodbye to “Hunter Sheldon Photography”.
 
Hello, “Hunter and Sarah Photography”.
 

 
P.S. Coinciding with this re-naming of our business, is a brand new website that has been months in the making. It includes, for the first time, a page made specifically for soon-to-be-brides looking for their wedding photographer. Check it out HERE!
 
—
 
We’d like to give a very special shout-out to our dear friend Meredith of Meredith Sledge Photography for capturing these special photos!