On the weekends, my mom, brother, and I would always go and spend time with my Aunt Judy, one of my mother's younger sisters. I always loved going over there because Aunt Judy had a formal living room that no children were ever allowed to go into but, I would always ask her nicely if we could go look at the pictures and she would always take me in there so I could walk around the room and look at the portraits of her, my Uncle Jerry, and my three cousins Jerry Wayne, Jeffrey, and Jeanette. That was one of my favorite pastimes when I would go visit her, hanging out in Jeanette's bedroom when she was gone and holding her doll Tabitha but, that is an entirely different chapter! ;)
It wasn't until my mother re-married, when I was 15, that I was able to learn how to operate a camera. My step-father, Glenn Christopher loved photography too. My step-dad wasn't big into photography, but he appreciated a good camera to capture memories of his family, closest friends, and of course his plants. He taught me the basics on using a camera. I learned in a hurry that it wasn't appropriate to cut people's heads off.
I was in my mid-twenties when the first digital camera broke out into the market. At the time, I was teaching myself HTML. A digital camera made photos so much brighter and cleaner in my opinion for websites, which was before I learned PhotoShop. One of my first websites I built and used digital photography was for a friend of my parent's, who owns a radio station. Even though, I loved taking photos with my point and shoot digital camera, I really didn't consider myself a photographer. During this time, I had taken more photos for a couple of different websites I had built and even took photos for my cousin's wedding.
I was in my first year of design school when I purchased my first SLR (Single Lens Reflex) camera. In case you are confused, it's one of those fancy cameras that you can take one lens off and replace it with another. That is how I explained it to my mother. I figured the SLR would help in projects for school. It was a good call! I still didn't consider myself as a photographer even though, I took photos as much as I could; 35 mm was a little expensive for me as a college student, wife, and mother. I was given the opportunity to travel to White Plains, NY and NYC in 2005 to show my portfolio with a prestigious company. I used my SLR the entire time I was there! I took photos in Chinatown, Little Italy, Time Square, and even the gigantic hole that was left in the earth from the Twin Towers during 9/11. Even to this day, when I think of what I saw, my heart breaks for the innocent people that died and their families.
It wasn't until 2012 when I first bought my first DSLR, (Digital Single Lens Reflex) that the photography bug really bit me...hard! I bought a cheap Canon Rebel T3i, I think... It was to create projects for my marketing courses at Full Sail University. In order to learn this camera, I began taking photos of anything and everyone. Like anything you are studying, the more you learn, the more you practice, the better you get. Once I felt secure enough to share my photos online, more and more people began liking my photos. Then people on my friends list began sharing them. It wasn't long until my viewers began asking me how much I would charge to take photos for them. The rest is history. My career as a photographer has been stressful at times, as it is anytime you worry about what one can do to build their clientele. Most in all, photography has been an outrageously fun, outlet for me. I can't say it enough that I have met some very interesting people and made some awesome friends over the years because of photography! I still get as nervous today when I am arriving on location to shoot a session as I did my first paid gig but, it isn't long after I flip the on switch and lift the camera to my face that feeling of nervousness fades away. No matter what kind of mood I am in, as soon as I start shooting photos, I become relaxed and I let my anxieties of every day life fade away.
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