Welcome To The Blog!

Hello, and welcome to my first ever blog post! I am so excited that you’re here, and I am so excited to explore this new outlet of my business with you! I’m Sarajane, and I’m the human behind the camera at Sarajane Herrmann Photography! One of my favorite ways to help others get to know me is to do “about me” posts every so often, so consider this the extended edition.

I got my first camera in 2004 when I was a sophomore in high school. I think it was 12 megapixels, I felt so fancy, and I know it wouldn’t stand a chance to the lowest quality cell phone camera today.

When I started my bachelors degree in 2007, I enrolled as a Social Work major. After beginning to work with my first therapist in 2004, I felt completely committed to becoming a private practice therapist for youth and teens; my therapists name was Leah and while she has since retired, she has continued to be one of the most vital people I’ve ever had in my support system. As I began my social work intro classes and fell further in love with the social work program, I also enrolled in at least two photography courses each academic year and got my first DSLR camera body. At the time, those classes were for a fun creative outlet. I didn’t realize until graduation that about a fifth of my classes throughout my undergrad were photography courses or work study assignments with the photography professor!

My internships and paid positions in the social work field took me all over and afforded me the opportunities to explore working with organizations like Dress for Success, women’s shelters, Crisis Nursery, support hotlines, and Legal Services of Eastern Missouri. I had always intended to go for my masters degree immediately after undergrad but after four years of full time classes, a part time job, and a part time internship, I needed a break! I accepted a role with Legal Services of Eastern Missouri where I worked as a support system for families navigating the legal system and decided to hold off on enrolling in a masters program.

I had also just adopted my first dog, Reggie! His name has since been extended to Regulus Arcturus Black&White, but he still goes by Reggie, among several other nicknames. If you recognize his full name, my love of the Harry Potter books will be evident. (But let’s be so clear, I love Harry Potter but I do not love JK Rowling.) I’ll have been his human for thirteen years this August, and I truly think I love him a little more every day!

Eleven months later, Reggie was going to doggy daycare. The staff told me they had a puppy being socialized there and that she adored Reggie. I told them they could play together as much as they wanted, but I had no intention of getting a twelve week old puppy. Then I saw them playing together, my resolve crumbled, and I got my dog a puppy!

As it turns out, he loved her at doggy daycare but he didn’t love living with her. But I had already committed and I wanted to stick it out since she’d had a really rough start. Here we are, 12 years later this July, and Trix is endlessly devoted to Reggie. Because I stuck with the theme and wanted to name her for her personality in her early days, her full name is now Belly-trix LeStrange.

I was still working as a social worker and I loved the support I offered to my clients, but there was simply no way to earn a livable income and maintain a sustainable work load at the same time. So I made a career shift into banking. If this shocks you, it shocked me too! One really, really great thing happened while I was in banking… I met Brian! We met at a karaoke bar in 2014 where we had the same general circle of friends, but didn’t know each other. I sang “Love Is An Open Door” with a friend to show off to him. He said it was glorious! (It was not, he was being sarcastic and rightfully so!)

We just celebrated our tenth anniversary of the day we met and the day we started dating, and have never looked back. He seamlessly became Trix’s primary human and while Reggie took a lot longer to warm up to him, they’ve since become very important to each other. We got married in July of 2018 (on July 13th which, yes, was a Friday that year.) and we’ll celebrate six years of marriage this summer. He is arguably my favorite person in the world and I cannot express how lucky I am to love him!

Brian helped me realize that I was so unhappy at my job, and I made another leap. I took a role with a Montessori early education facility and worked with a classroom of 15 month to 3 year olds. It cemented that what I really love is working with families and communities!

About four years later in the spring of 2019, we were decluttering our home. I hadn’t picked up my camera in almost six years, and I decided it was time to let it go. I planned a trip to the Botanical Gardens to take it out for one last spin before selling it… and after that day, I knew I couldn’t get rid of it. I decided to pick up my hobby again! Three months later, I filed for an LLC as a photographer. Six months after that, I left my job to take my photography business full time. And the rest, as they say, is history!

I’m so grateful that I have had the love and support to explore my interests and passions. I’m so grateful that I’ve had the work experiences I have to help me piece together that I don’t just want to take pictures of people, I want to hold onto the skills I had as a social worker, as an educator, and as someone who works with the community. It has molded me to not just be a portrait photographer, but to be a portrait photographer who prioritizes your autonomy and consent and who understands the value of intentional language and privacy. It has made me into a photographer that values the humans who are standing in front of me far more than I will ever value the marketing content or price tag. It has helped me become a photographer who understands the importance of making sure that when you’re looking to book a session, that we take the time to make sure I can offer you what you’re looking for and that we feel like we work well together and communicate well together.

Thank you for coming with me on my very first venture into the blog! I have so many ideas and topics and I’m so grateful you’ve stayed with me for my very first blog post so that I could tell you a bit more about the person writing the blog! See you on the next one!