Photography, My First Love

I continue to question my own path and the purpose of life in general, which is very typical as a human being. The other day I began to realize that I have wanted to pursue photography for how long now? Professional camera or no, as I began to count the years on my fingers–10, 11, 12–twelve years now I have wanted to pursue this passion of mine, but after every excuse and distraction in the book I can no longer put it aside. How can I possibly question what I want to do with my life? Photography is the thing I always come back home to. Of course, there are a million other things I love to do, and I hope I can continue to do those things that bring me joy while also making enough money to support myself (and my cat), but photography is my passion. 

This passion for photography probably grew out of early social media usage as a young pre-teen. Yes, I was born in the late ‘90s and we were fortunate enough to have a computer with (slow) internet capabilities that allowed me to get in touch with my friends and the world. I used Myspace– even though I was technically not allowed to have one at the time– and I used photos I found online and began editing with free software and apps marketed through social media outlets at the time. I would edit terrible photos for hours and I loved it. I used disposable cameras before I got my first digital camera, a point and shoot Fujiiflm finepix with a slide away lens cover in the front. I loved that thing. I begged for a camera that Christmas, and though it was not a professional one like I had dreamed of owning, it was something I could learn from. I used this camera for a project in my seventh grade English class and I remember being so proud of the front cover of my English project. I had shot a photo of a dandelion blowing in the wind and edited it to be black and white and used it as the front cover of my project. ~Very Artsy~ I remember a lot of photography was used throughout this project and I loved that my teacher gave us some creative free reign. 

I used that old point and shoot until I completely broke it. I am not sure how it happened, but one day the LCD screen was fried and that meant the entire camera was useless. I did some quick research and found a place that would refurbish my camera for a relatively cheap price, but in hindsight it may have been better to upgrade at this point but I was about 13-14 years old and I had no money. My grandparents agreed to pay for the camera repair and I was back in business! I remember at the time being so frustrated that I couldn’t get a “good” shot or a sharper image, but having that crappy camera to start out with forced me to get more creative. It made me think differently since in some ways I was restricted, but it was a challenge as well. It wasn’t until my second year of college that I was able to afford a nice, professional Canon camera. It was the most expensive thing that I had ever bought. (Besides college, haha!) 

So here I am, proud to say I am now (fully) devoted to following my dream and sticking with it even when it gets totally discouraging. I am an artist and this is what feels natural to me. I hope other people can find something that inspires them and live their lives through their craft too. I thank you kindly for viewing this website and engaging with the images and stories that I share.