My love of photography wasn’t just a recent development - it’s been a pivotal part of my life for nearly 3 decades, all thanks to this little 35mm film camera here.
It was a gift from my grandparents when I was 8 years old, and it turned my childhood passion from drama and dance into that of photography and creative arts.
The cost of film was a bit steep for my elementary school aged wallet, but that provided incentive to earn money from household chores and later, entrepreneurship. One autumn alone, I walked door to door and gathering up leaves for neighbors throughout my town, happy as could be with my Walkman and visions of new scrapbook pages being created, dancing in my head.
I covered every surface of my 3 ring binders and bedroom walls with candid photos of loved ones, created hard bound albums filled to the brim with multi layered pages, and convinced friends to do 'fashion shoots' with me, trying to imitate the old Hollywood movie star portraits. They didn’t turn out quite like how I’d envisioned in my mind though, and this would be one of the many examples of ‘a job well tried’ I had with art while growing up, especially with knock off editing computer programs!
As a teenager, I became fascinated with the movie Harrisons Flowers when it was released, and quickly discovered a kindred spirits of sort in Lee Miller after stumbling across her WWII work in a school textbook. I wasn’t sure if I wanted a life of landscapes or people in my future, but I already had decided that I would be documenting the rest of my life in some way or fashion.
In my early twenties, my personal photo galleries were catching the attention of loved ones. So much so, I found myself being encouraged to go into business from all sorts of different people in my life. I protested for years at first, continuing to take photos strictly as a hobby - but I found myself taking the leap after my child was born.
I started small and began assisting other local photographers as I grew up, eventually working up to second shooting gigs, taking advantage of various networking opportunities and TFP. I explored all types of different photography genres over the years working as a professional. Newborns and families, to weddings and boudoir - I wanted to give everything an opportunity, and that I certainly did! I met so many wonderful clients, many of whom became lifelong friends,
The catch came on slow - so slowly at first, I didn’t realize I had fallen for the trap of making your passion your job.
I was enjoying meeting and working with new people so much that I didn’t see how over the years, I’d slowed capturing my own families’ lives, much less my own.
The pandemic brought all of that to a halt.
When things started to open back up, I tried to go back to the way things had been before, too.
But my heart just wasn’t in it, and a prior history of social anxiety came to the surface again when I tried to force myself to try. Before the pandemic, I’d find comfort in getting lost in crowds of people, catching the range of emotions that makes us human. Afterwards. I found myself seeking solace in the woods that reminded me of my own childhood.
That’s where my portfolio is at these days - heavy on the landscape and lifestyle side, light on the client work.
When I first got behind a camera way back when, it was to document my day to day. Not just creating a catalog of memories to scroll through, but to also share how I viewed the world with those in it.
And as much as I love to share that talent with others, it’s no longer through paid portraiture work,
If you’d like to see what all I am up to these days, feel free to take a look around!