First picked up a camera in 2005, I learned almost everything from myself. I didn't read any photography books or even other photographers' work because I just wanna be myself (even I read, I will try to forget them so I won't be frustrated by ppl better than me). I learned my retouch skills in basically the same way. Right now I'm a full time third year dental student in UCLA. Since I didn't have too much time for shooting (averagely once per month), I tried very hard to make every shooting different and better. I started fashion shooting a year before. Check my website, you will see how much I have improved in this year.
Right now I'm building up my beauty fashion port because I havn't found excellent clothes designers to work with yet. MUA and hairstylist are welcome to contact me for TF (besides shooting, I can provide free consult for teeth problems). It will be perfect if you can do both ( I mean both makeup and hair:)
For more of my work, check my website
www.oxygenfoto.com