CreativeMornings/Findings

“When I first picked up a camera when I was sixteen, I felt alive for the first time in my life. I just wanted to eat, sleep, and breathe photography.”

Sharon Montrose, Photographer
speaking at CreativeMornings/LosAngeles(*watch the talk)

“Once you make a decision, the universe conspires to make it happen.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson
Quoted by Sharon Montrose, Photographer
speaking at CreativeMornings/LosAngeles(*watch the talk)

“I don’t shoot animals. I photograph them.”

Sharon Montrose, Photographer
speaking at CreativeMornings/LosAngeles(*watch the talk)

“In order to success, your desire for success should be greater than your fear of failure.”

Bill Cosby
Quoted by Sharon Montrose, Photographer
speaking at CreativeMornings/LosAngeles(*watch the talk)

“The question I get the most often is how do you become a working photographer. I don’t know.”

Sharon Montrose, Photographer
speaking at CreativeMornings/LosAngeles(*watch the talk)

“There’s pretty much nothing I’ve done right before doing it wrong first.”

Sharon Montrose, Photographer
speaking at CreativeMornings/LosAngeles(*watch the talk)

“My personal work really helped me reconnect to that feeling of photography being new and fresh.”

Sharon Montrose, Photographer
speaking at CreativeMornings/LosAngeles(*watch the talk)

“I think that working photographers really benefit from doing personal work.”

Sharon Montrose, Photographer
speaking at CreativeMornings/LosAngeles(*watch the talk)

“I have this ability to make shit happen.”

Sharon Montrose, Photographer
speaking at CreativeMornings/LosAngeles(*watch the talk)

“When I get to the end of my life, I’m not going to say I wish I made more money or sold more prints, I’m going to hope I lived life the way I wanted to live it.”

Sharon Montrose, Photographer
speaking at CreativeMornings/LosAngeles(*watch the talk)

The speakers at the December CreativeMornings/LosAngeles was an epic double hitter between Sharon Montrose and Clare Vivier.

Sharon Montrose is the force behind theanimalprintshop.com, her personal work beyond being a commercial photographer for companies like Pedigree and Casear. Sharon speaks on “keeping the spark alive” between her and photography, as well as how she built her own business from coffee shop shows to Etsy and, eventually, her own ecommerce site. Sharon hits upon some hard truths (and failures) artists and designers struggle with trying to make a living doing what you love.

Clare Vivier is a bag designer who got her start making laptop bags and selling them to her friends. Speaking on being a mother, a wife, and a designer, Clare talks about that delicate balance and making it work. Similar to Sharon, Clare talks about struggling through failures to come into her own, make her product desirable, and make a living doing what she loves.

A big high-five to Levi Obery for video production.

sharon montrose