Photography has always been something that I loved but
I never made it into a profession.
It wasn't until my husband's cousin’s wedding that I
really figured it out. No matter what you would find me with a camera in my
hand. I love pictures, I love capturing everything. I always thought that
people were supposed to be smiling in each picture but it wasn't until my
mother told me to take a picture of her without looking at the camera.
I thought it was weird, why take a picture of someone
without them looking at a camera, it had taken some time to have a real
understanding.
I took photography classes and went to after school
programs and mentored with a photography company (Komo Photos in Kentucky) my
senior year of high school but I still hadn’t figured out that I want to pursue
a career in photography. I just went because I loved photography and I wanted
to know more about it and I did get to know more about it. I got to learn to
how to process film in a Darkroom. I believe working in a Darkroom is what made
me love black and white photography.
The first camera I ever played with was my parent’s Polaroid,
you know the ones, the where you would put the film in and them get your image
right then and there but before you got it, you had to blow on it and shake it
to get the image. That one!
I had asked my father about it and he had told me a
story about when I was two I would run around the house and say
“Picture!”. So technically the Polaroid
was mine once my hand touched it.
Then I remember in living in Illinois and get
my first Instant Camera. It was called the I-zone.
At the time as a kid, I thought it was the best thing
in the world! The world, I tell you. I remember running outside and taking a
picture of everything I even remember taking a picture of our old blue house
and saying I wanted a picture to remember our old house. Well the thing is I
don’t have that picture anyone. I didn’t
take a lot of things with me when we moved and I know I had several pictures
that that were left behind even that camera. We stayed with my Great Aunt and I
believe she gave me my first real film camera.
It was a Kodak pocket. I remember when my great aunt
would give me money and letting me run in the store to get my film. I can’t
recall who had given me that camera but if I recall, I want to say it was her
old camera, at the time I didn’t care, I was the happiest person ever. It beats
getting the cheap plastic disposable camera. That was the day I learn the
different types of films.
It wasn’t the
type of camera where you could get your picture right then and there. Nope, I
had to wait… and wait…
Wait!
I wasn’t one to complain at the time. I got to enjoy
taking pictures. I don’t know what happen to the camera, I don’t know it was
lost again when I moved again to Louisiana, I didn’t have a camera, disposable
was my life again but again I never knew how much I loved taking pictures and I
never knew how at every moment of living there how, I always had a disposable
camera. How I will never know, I was a ten-year-old girl with no money.
It’s amazing how when recalling the small things like
always having a disposable camera makes your heart for the people you love,
like my parents.
My first digital camera that I got was from my father,
when he was deployed in Iraq. Oh, I can’t say I got because, to be honest I
don’t think he ever gave it to me. Just like the Polaroid it was mine when it touched
my hand and it was life. I remember almost everything about it, how small it
was, how it was the “Thing”, how it was silver with a purple on it, how the
screen was the size of a half dollar coin and how much I loved that camera but
the one thing I cannot remember for the life of me was the name. What kind of
photographer am I for not remember the name of the camera?
But I can tell you that I took that camera with me
everywhere. At that time that camera was my life. The idea that I could take
picture and see them right then and there and delete them if I didn’t like
them. I used that camera until it last shutter.
And it broke my heart. I had nothing.
It wasn’t until Christmas that my mother had gotten me
a Kodak Coolpix. Why I can remember that but can’t remember the name of the
Camera I stole from my father… I have no words.
I then took that camera everywhere, but as a teenager
I was very forgetful and one day I went to I went to the lake with a group of
friends, I had left my bag with my camera on their boat. I was devastated to
find that my camera had gotten wet from the rain the day after.
I had that camera all through middle school and part
of high school. Through of my high school years I had been a busy bee, with
Volleyball and boyfriends *Wink* I didn’t focus of photography as much but also
by that time my cell phone that my mother had gotten me allowed me to take all
the pictures in the world… Selfies were never considered art.
It wasn’t until
my senior year that I saved money away when I got my first job to get another
digital. I had gotten enough money away
to get a Sony Cyber- Shot. It was just in time for my drip to Hawaii.
And my passion for images had grown tenfold. I took
picture every day.
It was around the same year that I was mentoring with
John Komo from Komo Photos. I didn’t
have a fancy DSLR like John did, but I wanted one! I learned so much in that
small building. I learned how an actual printer worked and how you had to apply
the right amount of red, yellow, green or blue. My hands developed my first
film in his Darkroom. I got a little of old school and a little new school
education when I learned how to whiten teeth on Photoshop. My first real photo
shoot was my friend’s senior pictures… They weren’t the best pictures but it
was the first time I got to play with a DSLR and edit the pictures and print
them properly.
You would think that that working there would have
told me I wanted to be a photographer but it didn’t. What I wanted to be in high
school was an Event Coordinator… I still have a passion for setting up events,
I even research and found Wedding and Event Coordinator school while I was
mentoring at Komo.
When I moved back to Mississippi, I didn’t go to
school for Photography, or Event Planning. I had plans to be a Teacher… because
everyone told me I was great with kids, then I changed my major to Athlete
Trainer… Somewhere in there I wanted to be a Veterinarian… They say that a
college student Changes there major at least three times. Well, I had changed
my major five times before I had finally graduated.
I graduated college with an Associate degree in
Interpreting (ASL) and Arts.
Why because I am a signs person. I believe in signs.
Three years later I had returned to school for
Business Management because at the time, I had been working for a company for
three years at the time and lost my passion. My goal was to survive.
I hadn’t
decided on my education and I had told myself that it was the best thing to do
and if I wanted to run my business that is was the best route. At the time, I
didn’t know if I was doing it to be a better manager or if I was doing just to
do it.
When I walked back in school to finish my schooling I
meet an old friend who was now a teacher and just seeing her told me to do what
I wanted to do. So, I did.
I continued to work on my business degree, but I also
went to school for interpreting because I loved it and I could go to school
without having my Arts degree as well. My plate was full, I was working full
time at a place I hate with my every breath I took but I was going to school
full time for something I loved. I know my family had looked at me like I lost
my mind.
But I didn’t want to hate what I did every day. I
wanted to live and breathe.
It wasn’t until my wedding and my husband’s cousin
wedding that Event Planning had crawled back in my mind and I had researched
schools again but I couldn’t make up my mind if I really wanted to do it. So,
when I had my wedding, I had that passion again.
Okay,
I know I am way off topic now. I should be telling you why Photography and how.
I am getting there I promise.
That passion I had been craving, had pulled my out of
my black hole that I was falling into. I loved putting my own wedding together.
I had talked my tell in figuring out if I still wanted to be an Event
Coordinator.
So, when my husband’s cousin said that she was getting
married, I had volunteered to organize her wedding.
But that wasn’t the only thing I was doing that day. I
was her photographer. I didn’t have a DSLR camera of my own but I barrowed my
mother-in-law’s Sony Alpha. No, let me tell you photography had never left my
love. I still had my Sony Cyber shot but My husband had bought me two new
cameras, one was stolen out of our home along with my Sony Cyber Shot, Nook
reader and laptop that I made available and easy for the thieves when I had
them all in one bag. It was my electronic bag. The second camera my replaced
for my first one being stolen. I remember my husband asking me if I wanted a
new camera or a new laptop and I didn’t hesitate in saying a camera.
Again, how did I not see that I should be a
photographer. All the signs were there and I still ignore it.
Sorry, I got a
little off topic there. Anyways! Me as her photography. I went wild and at the
end of the day. I still hadn’t realized that I was so excited about what I had
did. I just thought it was from organizing her wedding but I should have
realized it then that it was how much I loved taking pictures.
When I got home, I was going to apply for the Event
Coordinator school and then something popped up on my screen. I had been
looking at stuff for a baby shower for a friend at the same time but the page I
went to wasn’t for Event Coordinating. It was for a photographer who had
planned her friends baby shower and the more and more I read, the more I loved.
Then it clicked! My Sign had hit me in my face like a
ton of bricks.
She hadn’t gone to school for Photography, she hadn’t
realized that she had a passion for photography until she was in College. She
was going to school for Design. She had the same struggles as I. She has a love
for art but didn’t know where to apply it. She didn’t know what to call her
business because she loved to do graphic design but she also has a passion at
designing homes.
I had such a huge connection with this photographer.
I took a chance and asked some friends if they would
let me take picture of them. I found some seniors and took their senior
pictures and my passion had grown each day.
Each picture I take each lesson I learn.
I should have done this.
I should do this.
Why didn’t I think about doing this?
Every day is a learning process for me and I love it.
I not doing the same thing on repeat, I’m living.
That is why I choose
photography.
Photography equals Living.