Taking pictures has always been a huge part of my life. When I got into high school, my mom bought me my first point and shoot camera, and I then became obsessed with taking pictures. For me, pictures were so important. If I didn't take pictures, I felt as though I was going to forget. Forget what everyone looked like, forget what we did; forget us. I look back to the thousands of pictures I took in high school, and I am so grateful that I took as many as I did. Even though the quality of pictures was bad, and I annoyed every one of my friends in the process, I managed to do what I sought out to do; to capture the essence of our lives. All the highs were there. All the lows were there. All the spontaneous nights, midnight drives, sleepovers, band rehearsals: its all there for us to see. You can see it in the pictures- our high school years, protected and forever immortalized in the pictures.
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It is that fierce need to document and capture life in photographs that really drove me to become good at what I loved to do. I began to realize that as much as I loved to document my own life and my own adventures, sometimes I needed to just live it. I spent way more time documenting each experience than I did actually experiencing it, and it took me a few adventures robbed from me to realize that I needed to put the camera down. But I so wished that I had some random person tailing me and taking all the pictures so I could still have them and the experience all at the same time.
I began to become interested in taking pictures of other people's lives. If something interesting was happening to someone I knew, I would grab my camera and document the whole thing, and then give them a CD with the photos on it. They would thank me, saying that they were so happy with the pictures, and that is when I began to think about potentially becoming an actual photographer.
I bought my DSLR because my point and shoot finally gave out. (Poor thing, it lived a long and active life.) I bought it used off a photography buddy of mine, and my obsession blossomed into full on crazy. I couldn't put it down. Day one of owning it I took it to Guatemala and shot about 500 pictures. I loved it. And as soon as I began to understand the basics of how it worked, and I saw the quality difference in the pictures, I wanted to become good at it. I knew, then and there, I wanted to take this somewhere.
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Self doubt held me back for a long time. Now that I understood some components of actual photography, I realized how much I didn't know. Suddenly, I just felt limited by not knowing what white balance was, or what a proper photo composition was, or how to edit like a pro. I was, and still am, my own worst critic, and I truly didn't think that my pictures were good enough. I knew nothing of how to run a small business, or marketing, or web design. I felt inadequate and hid behind my lack of knowledge and equipment for a while. However, in due time I realized that the only way I'm going to get better, is to try, fail, and get better. So this summer, I dove in, head first. I still have a ton to learn, but I'm practicing and learning new things daily.
I have no idea how this photography business adventure will end up. It could flourish and be very successful, if I am wise enough to never stop learning and always push myself. Or it could not, and that is okay. What I am about is capturing life. I will do it as a pro, or I will do it just for fun. Regardless, this is what I am passionate about, and why I do what I do. I want to be able to look back and have the pictures tell me the story of my life, and the story of the lives of those I take pictures of. That's what I am all about!
-Kristen