I remember when I got my first real camera. I messed with it's shutter speed and exposure, and I played around with different effects on my Dad's computer. Granted, I wasn't that good at first, but I soon discovered ways to make my photography more than just a picture on a camera. I remember the first photo I took that made me want to be a photographer. I took it on a cheap digital camera, and I cut stars out of construction paper that I taped on my wall (this is before I knew PhotoShop existed). I put the camera on a timer, and I took a self-portrait against my bedroom wall that I painted white just so I could take the picture.
Every photo I took after that point had a story, a message or a purpose. I created pictures out of absolutely nothing, and I made something simple into something more than just an ordinary object. I started dragging my friends around town with me so I could take their pictures, and eventually people called me and asked if I could take their pictures.
I also remember the first time someone told me: "You're not a photographer. You just have a fancy camera." That statement made me feel so stupid, as if my dream didn't really have a purpose. I questioned if photography was even a real passion, and if I should just give up on taking pictures. Looking back now after all I have accomplished, it seems so silly, but that statement forced me to prove myself to everyone around me.
Photography is so beautiful to me, and I want to continue to do it for the rest of my life. It's more than just pointing a camera at a person and saying "smile." It's looking at someone and being able to picture them somewhere, being able to know the perfect pose for them and being able to show their personality through a picture.
I have learned through photography to appreciate all of the beauty that I see every day. I find myself looking at the world around me, visualizing photographs everywhere I go. Photography has taught me how to look at life in a different perspective, and to look at every individual I meet and see them as beautiful in their own unique way.
So to all the photographers out there, keep following your dream. Whether you are using your camera on your phone or if you have the most expensive camera on the market, you are creating something out of your photos. Photography is an amazing passion to have, and I love every second of capturing the life around me.
