So, as many of you know, I'm the team photographer for the UWG Odyssey Team, and I've had my photography blog for about 4 years now. If you've ever seen me in any public place, I'm the one who always has a camera and is always snapping photos of everything I see.

I was talking to a fellow photographer friend last night about perspectives, and how awesome it is that as a photographer we have the capability to capture our perspective and present it to the world.

My beginnings in photography came from this little toy camera I had which didn't even have film in it, but I always loved the idea of snapping pictures.

As I was growing up, we had our family Vivitar camera which was used for all of our family vacations, and we always took pictures of everything we did as we were growing up, so we have an amazing archive of our lives in photos.

When I was on Facebook, as I got older, I saw some friends who were doing photos in front of walls which looked like professional portraits. It fascinated me.

I had a camera and a solid wall, so I could do it too. I found out about having a self-timer built into the camera and picking out outfits and I became my own photographer.

My earliest work is a lot of portraits of me, mainly before, during and while I had braces. It was my way of documenting that time in my life because it was a time when I was discovering everything I truly love. I found all of my favorite bands and I really had the time to find myself.

I always remember going into Best Buy and seeing all the professional cameras and I always wanted to get a really good camera because the Vivitar wasn't going to last forever and it was just a stepping stone in my photography journey.

I had a Blackberry phone which I used exclusively for listening to music and taking pictures. I took so many photos with it and I even got another one since my brother took our original one away to college with him.

Before Thanksgiving 2017, when we were packing up to bring my brother home for the holidays, he gave me his Canon camera and I've used it countless times. I finally had a good camera as I always dreamed.

As of today, I have taken over 9,000 photos with that camera and my photography blog turns 4 years old, and I finally started an Instagram account for my photography too.

Certain things come into your life for a reason, don't be afraid to follow it and see where it leads. Every event that happens to you will help you figure things out. It's all part of your life and truly finding yourself.

Check out my photography blog: https://preservationofmoments.tumblr.com/

Follow my photography insta: https://www.instagram.com/carmelacarrphotos/