My family pitched in for me to get my first DSLR. I remember one of the very first picture I took was of my cat, who is sadly no longer with me, but now I'll forever have that photo. I can still feel the excitement from that day. It didn't matter that I had no idea how to use this magic piece of technology, only that I could photograph anything, and everything, that I wanted to.
From them on I started viewing the world as a photograph, my eyes being the lens. I took my camera everywhere, and when I didn't, the words, "I wish I had my camera" was always coming out of my mouth.
Can I purposely have posed photos that look heckin' awkward?
The answer to all of these questions is "Yes."
You can do whatever the fuck you want on your wedding day!
So in 2019 I took a leap of faith and started my journey. These past six years have been full of learning and growing. Every single time I photograph another couple, my appreciation for what I do grows, and so does how much I value photography overall.
Photography is immortal. Photos are something that you can look at and sit down with your grandparents to hear their stories about the people they've loved, and the adventures they've taken. Photos are the things we have when we lose our loved ones, to remember them for generations to come.
Slowly but surely, I started to find hope. It was then that I found photography all over again, but instead of photographing nature and landscapes, I started photographing people and I never looked back. I remember going out in the woods taking pictures of nature years later, but it didn't speak to me the way photographing people did.
A day where emotions come out, and you get to see a photo of someone crying that you've never seen shed a tear before, because you mean so much to them. Or a photo with your best friend where you couldn't stop laughing to hard it hurt. For the rest of your life and beyond, these photos will exist.