Just a gush about photography
Let's Start Here
Like many people my age, I grew up with film cameras. One of my earliest memories of taking photographs was with a rectangular-shaped camera. I believe it was a Vivitar that took 110 film.
I remember shooting rolls and rolls of 110 film with that pink rectangle. Now, we all shoot hundreds of pictures daily with smaller, thinner rectangles that fit in our pockets.
In the early 2000s, I was a semi-professional photographer. I say semi-professional because I got paid to shoot events and sold prints of things here and there. I never really invested in turning it into a business. I just enjoyed taking pictures, capturing moments, and helping people preserve stories through photography.
Life happens as it is wont to do, and I stopped shooting as much as I once had. Part of that was for financial reasons. I was still shooting film in a world of digital cameras. I had played around with point-and-shoot cameras, but none of them inspired me to shoot the way my other cameras, my film cameras, had. Photography became something I used to do.
And then, I received a gift - an Olympus PEN-F Digital camera. My partner knew I had wanted this camera for a while, and when he got it for me, I was thrilled. I started taking photos of everything, and the best part about this fantastic digital camera was that it looked and felt as substantial as the old film cameras. The images were beautiful, and I didn't have to worry about running out of film.
I got the bug again—bad. Photography is once again something I'm actually known for doing—not professionally, but just in general. I'm never seen without at least one camera on me.
I had forgotten how much I loved taking photos. Now, I'm taking them all the time. I'm constantly exploring other photographers’ work, researching techniques on YouTube, and taking courses to improve.
Now, I've got this giant body of work that spans decades, and I'm not entirely sure what to do with it. I may do nothing with it in the long term, but for now, I would like to share part of it on this blog from time to time.
I look forward to sharing.