If the mandate in Habakkuk 2, “…Write the vision, and make it plain upon tables, that he may run that readeth it,” was illustrated with a picture, Yolanda Rouse’s face would be front and center. The Augusta wife and mother, still keeps a handwritten note to God from over a decade ago, when she took a leap of faith to become a professional photographer. “To become skilled and knowledgeable in this field, I ask that God guide me in the right direction, for this vision I have before me,” it reads. “I will wait patiently on you, Heavenly Father for you know my heart. In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen.”
The now-53-year-old would lean on that prayer in the years to come like never before. In her 40’s, displaced by a knee injury from a successful career as a courier with FedEx, and no expertise in capturing images, she was at a crossroads. “I had no idea what I was going to do when I had to make that decision,” she recalls. “I should be settling down on my road to retirement, and here I am starting over. I worried, but I prayed, and you can’t worry and pray. So, I stopped worrying but kept praying.” Over time, those casual photos for friends and family at church improved and caught the eye of an unlikely prophet, her former supervisor who had seen her work and said, “I really think this is your calling.” Yolanda Rouse Photography was born.
Enter the Internet. Rouse unashamedly says it taught her mostly everything she knows about seizing special moments in time. “I don’t know if that’s good or bad,” she laughs. YouTube and Google, though, became on-the-job training and catapulted her into what has now become a rewarding and profitable career. She has had to learn many things to stay current and compete with younger professionals. Hard work is paying off. She went from enduring two decades of physically demanding 10-hour workdays to commanding hourly fees at her discretion, in half the time per day. “I might not shoot an event every day,” she admits. “But, when I do, it outweighs [financially] what I was doing. When I come home and sit down and edit those pictures and give the final product to the client, that makes it worth my while, the pain, everything.”
Back to that handwritten note. The rest of it says she wants to one day purchase a place instead of rent space. Even that part of her vision, added in September 2020, is plainly written. “My own studio! If it’s thy will, Lord, let it be done!”
Yolanda serves families, churches, businesses or organizations. See for yourself how Yolanda Rouse Photography might be able to bring magic to your magical event. Don’t forget to smile!
www.yolandarouse.com
FB/IG – yolandarousephotography
706-726-6443
