Misty Blue has had a passion for photography most of her life and in her younger days took pictures of anything that appeared in her viewfinder but her focus changed when her daughter was born.
“I took a lot of landscapes, a lot of self portraits and portraits of friends and bands and animals – things like that,” she said. “The passion changed when I had my daughter Brynn. She became my prime subject and she really got me interested in learning how to really master my camera.”
Blue shoots weddings and offers other standard photography services but her specialty at Misty Blue Photography in Fergus is family and children portraiture.
“I work with children and that includes newborns and family sessions,” said Blue. “I love doing newborns because I just love babies.”
She was born and raised in Guelph.
Blue began taking pictures when she was a kid but didn’t start taking it seriously until she graduated from Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic High School.
“For my 18th birthday and my graduation I got my first DSLR camera,” she said. “Prior to that I was using disposable cameras. I was taking artsy pictures of a guitar or a door on a house and things like that then I would go to Zehrs and give them my camera and wait days to get my pictures back. Half of them would be garbage.”
She slowly honed her skills but photography wasn’t paying her bills so she held a number of customer service jobs.
“I worked in cell phone sales for quite a few years at Telus in Guelph,” she said. “I helped open a store on Woodlawn that is no longer there.”
It was through her job at Telus that she met her partner Mike.
“His brother came in with a cell phone issue that took quite some time to figure out,” said Blue. “We got to talking and all of a sudden he said, ‘You know what? You would really like my brother.’ So, technically he set us up.”
Blue and Mike have been together for seven years and live in Fergus with their two daughters Brynn, 5 and Briar, 15 months.
After Telus, Blue took a job with Target Mobile in Waterdown where she worked until Brynn was born then she took a position with Shopify working from home.
“I was seven weeks into training and they just let me go,” said Blue. “It actually ended up being the best thing that ever happened to me because it was the kick in the pants I needed to eventually open this business.”
She already had an Instagram account with 10,000 followers and a blog where she posted her pictures.
“I started a Facebook page and made a post telling people I am looking for this, this and this for my portfolio,” said Blue. “I did a bunch of free sessions and built a pretty big portfolio quickly in the first month. That was July 2016 and I have been going since then.”
One of her specialities is cake smash sessions.
“Cake smashes are something that are really interesting,” said Blue. “When kids turn one or sometimes even two they come here and make a big mess and it’s adorable. It’s a lot of cleanup afterwards but it is a lot of fun.”
Blue prides herself on finding unique photo shoot locations that help to tell her clients’ stories and provides them with images they will cherish and pass on to future generations. She especially enjoys photographing pregnant mothers, young children, young couple’s and their families.
“Those are my biggest things but I will do anything,” she said. “Pretty much any big change in your life I can document it. I love it.”