I think the first time I took a photograph was in 1991 when I went to Girl Scout Camp. My grandparents had gotten me a camera for Christmas the year before but I didn't really use it until the summer. It was a black and purple Minnie Mouse film camera, I think I still have it somewhere (at least I hope I do!). Anyways, the photos turned out horridly blurry and fuzzy but I loved taking them! I have always been "the photographer" amongst my family and friends. I was the annoying friend, sister, daughter that was always saying, "oh wait! hold that pose I need to run and get my camera!" However, it wasn't until Christmas 2007 when I got my Nikon D40x that I actually began to think about photography more.
You know when your parents ask you to make a wish list for birthdays and Christmas? Well you know that one present you put way down at the bottom, the really expensive one that you know you'll probably never get but you put it on there anyways in the hopes that you may actually get it? Well my Nikon was that present. So you can imagine my reaction when I tore open the wrapping paper and saw the yellow Nikon box staring back at me! I believe I took about 200 photographs that Christmas!
Anyways back to what I was previously saying. Once I got my camera I began to think about photography more and more. I took a digital photography course at my college and it was in that class that my passion grew. I had always liked taking photographs, but now I was in love with taking photographs! I would take photographs of trees, the sky, bugs, etc. Whatever I could find that would hold still long enough for me to snap their picture. Then, on April 17th, 2008 my passion for portrait photography was born, along with my niece, Emma Jane. I took a zillion photographs of her in the hospital. And since then, I've been documenting her life, almost on a dialy basis. Then, after seeing a few photographs of a friend I took for my digital photography class, more people began asking me to take their picture. And the rest, as they say, is history!
Photography Style
My photography style is quite simple. I like to capture my "models" as they are in everyday life. I tell them "just go about your business, smile like you normally would, walk as you normally walk and just be you...I'll just shoot." At first they are a little timid, probably because they are used to posing, but after they get comfortable with me, they're fine. I've begun to notice that when they are caught completely off guard that is when the best picture is taken.