Photography is my life

I have been doing Photography for a little bit over twenty years now. It all started when I was ten years old, when a friend's mother gave me a disposable camera. When I had developed the photos at CVS, I brought them back to my friend's mother. That's when she boosted my ego by stating that I had an eye for photography. Then it was game over for my parents. Every year for my birthday or Christmas, I would ask for a camera. My dad bought a camera at some point for himself to take fishing; however, he never ended up taking it, just totally forgetting it. So... I may have stolen it. It was a Nikon CoolPix L27, I believe. I was probably eleven or twelve when I started taking selfies and pictures of others. Everyone loved the way that they had looked in the photographs. However, the camera met its timely end when I took it out in a snowstorm. Something happened internally, and lines started to appear in photographs. I was devastated.

About a year or two later, my stepmother had gotten me a camera. I remember it being a Canon, just cannot remember the model type. But I was in LOVE. I took that camera EVERYWHERE with me, as long as my parents allowed, which was never. They didn't expect that I'd be so into Photography, they thought it was just a phase. Every time I went to a friend's house, I'd bring it. We would do fun photo shoots, and just being silly. I never thought at the time those photos would come out good or anything; however, when my friends saw their photographs, it boosted me up so high. Someone suggested I try advertising and see if I could get any clients. Well... Massachusetts is a hard area to advertise photography, especially when you don't have a driver's license yet. That wasn't even the issue, though. My prices were extremely low. I was just starting out and hadn't done a lot of research on how to price things. So I wasn't taken seriously.

At seventeen/eighteen, I moved out of my parents' house and moved in with one of my cousin and her husband, who severely abused me emotionally and mentally. During this time, I had lost the will to do photography, and it broke my heart. Later, when I left the toxicity, I wasn't allowed to take most of my personal belongings. Unfortunately, I ended up losing this camera to my cousin; she had sold it for drugs. It would take me almost six months to a year, I can't really remember, until I was able to get another camera. My next camera was a Canon Rebel SL1 DSLR. Man. That camera was beautiful. Once I was out of that environment, and I had replaced my camera, I continued what I did best.

I was able to heal through doing my photography. I was able to come out of the wall I had built when I lived with my cousin. Still, at this point, I was eighteen, maybe nineteen. Nobody in Massachusetts would book such a young photographer. However, I continued with my own personal projects. There were so many shoots that I did that were themed. I loved every single one of them. They were master pieces.

My first ever PAYING photography session was through a friend. We worked together at a place called Savers, a thrift store originally from Canada. She had asked me to take pictures of her daughter. Her daughter was in High School and home-schooled. However, the daughter had an option to attend the Prom that the virtual school was hosting. She decided to do an anti-prom session with me. I wasn't going to charge my friend because she had done so much for me, and I could never find a way to pay her back. We argued about pricing. She told me that I was asking way too little. So, we agreed to fifty dollars. Little did I know, she snuck an additional twenty dollars into my camera bag, which wasn't discovered until several months later because it was in a pocket I didn't use at the time. They loved her photos and the edits and the experience. My friend had said that the photographs gave her daughter the confidence boost that she had needed. This was when I knew that my passion of photography could help others.

Several years later, I moved down to Tennessee, where things drastically changed. My sister had opened a shop in the next town over. In one of her back rooms, it was *just* big enough to set up my photo equipment and do pictures for either Christmas or Easter. It was super successful, and had repeat customers come from this. Then word started to spread, and I was sought out to do an anniversary shoot. Little did I know, I was taking my first, or rather second, big leap. When I arrived at the couple's house, they were showing me their Instagram page where she posts about her dogs, Remington, Baretta, and Magnum. That's when she showed me that they had over eighteen thousand followers and still rising. The shoot went amazingly, and they loved their pictures.

Throughout the years, I have learned so much about photography and editing. A mother approached me to do a session with her and her boys. However, there was a specific request. Her father (the kids' grandfather) had passed away, I think, recently at this point. She and her oldest son were graduating from college together and wanted to take cap and gown photos a well as a family portrait. She was hoping to get a picture of her father with them at his favorite spot. How could I say no? I spent several hours doing research on how to add him to the picture. Then spent another several hours getting it *just* right. When I showed the photographs to the mother, she started crying. She loved it.

Photography has opened so many different worlds for me, experiences that I'll never forget. I know when I am able and feeling better, I plan on getting back into the swing of my photography. I miss it so much. Writing this article, and looking at past photographs has my gears turning slowly. I miss being able to do something I'm extremely passionate about. Once I am fully in remission from cancer, my photography journey will continue!!