So I was Skyping one of my closest friends last night and we were talking about if we would have ever guessed that we would be where we are right now in our lives. Seven years removed from high school, doing the things we love most–her using her remarkable talent in writing fiction and my photography. Her being an up and coming author was pretty much inevitable. Sophomore year, she was carrying around her first drafts of her writing in our science class. Me and photography though? It was a little out of left field. In the process of our conversation, I realized that I could identify the EXACT moment when I fell in love with photography. And the more I thought about it, my being a photographer wasn’t SO much out of left field as once thought. Memories of my first encounter with photography all came back to me. You’d think I was suppressing it or something, lol. I had completely forgotten!
Growing up, my mom had a simple little Kodak camera that she would take to Wal-Mart every so often so she could get the film developed. I always wanted to try to take a picture with her camera but she would never let me. She would always say that she didn’t want me breaking her camera. So shortly before my sixteenth birthday, I bought a Polaroid I-Zone camera.
I began taking pictures of everything and everyone. I felt like I had SO much power in my hands that I was able to take events in my life at that time and immortalize them. I was in love. That winter, my mom finally allowed me to touch her camera, lol. So what did I do? I took pictures right after a typical Kansas snow/ice storm. I loved the way the sun was hitting the ice on the power lines and trees and I was so happy I got to capture it. When my mom got the film developed, I was amazed at the picture I made! This is what I got:
In early 2006 I bought my first digital camera (after my mom and brother bought their own digital cameras a couple of years prior–I was behind the times, I know!) and later that year, I began taking a serious look at photography. And now here I am; loving photography and looking forward to all that I am going to learn!
So here’s to my apparent deep-seated desire to rebel by picking up a camera. I love you mom!
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