What does photography mean to me?
What does photography mean to me? Oh my, you really want to pull on that thread?
Come on then, let’s do this!
But first, we need to start from the beginning and have a little background to go off of. So...
I can remember being given my first digital camera for Christmas one year. Man, it was a serious brick! Dark grey and turquoise. Kid you not, it was bigger than my current camera body is. [Ha. Ha.] But I can vividly remember sitting with it and thinking that it would allow me to create fun stuff. What it really did was allow me to take a whole bunch of average pictures of me and my mates, but still.
After that, I went from one little automatic camera, to another little automatic camera until I met @waitere. I think I must have talked about photography and wanting to create images that tell stories a lot because for our first anniversary, she bought me my first DSLR. The Canon 1000D. What an upgrade! I had so much fun with that camera and learned even more. I mean, a lens that comes off so you can put on another *unheard of*! After having that camera for about 3 years, I started saving for an upgrade. It took me longer than expected but eventually, I made it happen.
This upgrade felt like the biggest step in the right direction. Along with the upgrade I wanted to learn how to use this tool. I spent endless hours experimenting, playing with my editing, watching tutorials online, studying other photographer’s work [there are a lot of amazing creatives out there, each with their own style and so much we can learn simply from admiring]. I still do! This new camera started this obsession…
The next thing I did was turn this passion into my side hustle, into my Creative business. I have been focused, driven, motivated, passionate [and all the other feelings that go along with being a one-woman show in a business that feels like a calling] to create something special that hopefully brings good to this world. In February I ticked over the 1-year anniversary mark of my business, each year will bring more lessons, more confidence, more creations, and I can’t wait to see it all come to fruition.
The future will bring gear upgrades and plenty of experimenting but back to the initial question, what does photography mean to me? It means everything. It’s my outlet, it’s my biggest form of creativity, it’s how I tell stories and share memories with friends and family, near and far, of bringing awareness to the environment…
My goodness, it’s ingrained into every fiber of my being.
It’s my outlet, it’s my passion, it’s my calling.
As I sit and think about it, I simply can’t imagine my life without photography. If anything, the future will only bring more photography in the coming years. I wouldn’t want it any other way!
