Photography to me is the most powerful way to capture ideas, thoughts, emotions, beliefs, laughs, tears and they say “a picture paints a thousand words” but I don’t believe a thousand words could even encompass what you can capture in a single image. In a world where we are surrounded by images, and are capable of creating images with just a simple click of our cell phones I believe that professional photographers are still essential to help people capture memories. Its a chance for the whole family including you to step out from behind the camera and be part of the memory.
I have been surrounded with the “Arts” my whole life, my mother is a painter and all around fabulous person, and my father was a Military man when I was young and a professional photographer my whole life- they both always encouraged my siblings and my creativity. Once my father retired from the military and we settled in one location, south Texas, he developed his business fully. At one point we even had a dark room in the house. He focused on what he loved to do and shoot- Sports. The business became a family activity and we would always help out in any way we could. I was at that point not interested in photography in the slightest because I was never into sports and I guess I just assumed that if you ever wanted to make a living being a photographer you had to do a lot of volume, which was what my father did, team sports with individual photos and group photos. In my eyes it was a “wham-bam thank you ma’am” business and that never really appealed to me. On the other hand I was always taking pictures never really considering myself a ‘photographer’, i was always the friend that had a camera of some sort whether it was a disposable camera, or a 35mm Nikon that was handed down to me by my father, or later on a simple point and shoot. It wasn’t until I had graduated high-school, and onto college that I got my first DSLR Canon, again another hand-me down from my father. From there I really started to Create images, and that camera went everywhere with me, school, work, on walks with my dogs, and any gathering I went to. I learned as much as I could, trial and error, and really opened myself up to the Artistic side of photography.
I guess the first time I realized that I wanted to capture memories for a living is when I would visit a friends house and see my images displayed in their homes framed, printed on canvases, and even when I realized that some were giving images to their family members as gifts! Then I knew that this dream of mine wasn’t just a hobby anymore it was part of me. From there I realized what I really wanted to continue to create were amazing portraits, I still dabble a little in landscape photography but really the images I want to hang in my home and the images I hold dear to my heart are ones that feature a person in one way or another. My favorite thing to photograph is people, portraits, happy times, sad, but even people in their natural space- when they don’t even realize they are being photographed. Even I don’t have children of my own, they are my absolute favorite subject, capturing their innocence and wonder. They grow up so fast, I think its the fact that i like to “Freeze Time.”
So with all of that said, my goal for this blog is to use minimal words to express myself, but allow my “Captured Memories” to speak to your heart.
