Heather Blanton let go of her fear.

“I like to catch a moment in time on film,” says Heather Blanton, photographer and owner of Heather Blanton Studio in Jacksonville.

She received her first camera from her parents when she was 8 years-old. At age 23 she decided that she did not want to go to a regular college. She wanted to go to art school. “People told me becoming an artist would be unrealistic, but photography has commercial appeal,” she says.

Heather went to the Art Institute of Fort Lauderdale and earned her degree in photography. She tries to capture the “changing face of Jacksonville” in her photography, and portrays it in a way that is beautiful and appealing to a large audience. “I keep figuring out a way to make this my living. I followed my bliss and the money is always there somehow,” she says. “It’s about letting go of the fear and believing that what you want is possible.”