The Evolution of a Photographer

I've always been interested in photography. I remember as a teen living on Alakoko St wanting to take a picture of "fire and ice". I didn't know how I could do it so I don't think I ever even attempted it. All we had were instamatic-type cameras and I think I must have realized that that type of camera just wouldn't do the job. I know I wanted to do it in the dark, have the fire shining through the ice, or something like that.

Eventually I got myself a 35mm camera from a pawn shop and took Rachyl's senior pictures for High School. I was finally able to play with a camera. But in the same limited way that everyone could during the film camera era. It was a cheap camera and had a limited life with my gang. 

So in about 2000 I took the kids on a trip to the coast, hiked the entire Dungeness spit and visited the lighthouse at the end. I borrowed my Mom's 35mm camera and was so excited about the pictures I hoped I was getting. I recall having to reload the camera with film as we picnicked at the lighthouse. On the way back to the mainland I took lots of pictures. At one point I accidentally left the camera sitting on a piece of driftwood and Dane and I had to hike back at least 1/2 mile to retrieve it! Then, later that evening, after having the kids pretend to be scaling a cliff face while I lay on the ground to make it look like they were quite a bit above my head, then sunset shots and Keith taking pictures of a slug it suddenly occurred to me that we should be running out of film. I always had a hard time reading the film indicator numbers. Turns out that when I inserted the film it never caught on the wind-up spindle. I got NO shots of our visit to the lighthouse, the long trek back, the kids "climbing" the cliff and the sunset. Agh! 

The next year I was introduced to digital photography via another borrowed camera for a trip to Yellowstone. I was thrilled to be able to take tons of pictures and not have to worry about processing costs! It was not a great camera and my inexperience got even more in my way and some of the most important shots got bungled. 

I, again, bought a used camera, this time off ebay. I chose an Olympus because that's what Mom's camera was and it took great pictures. It was a 2 megapixel digital camera but I enjoyed the freedom of shooting a whole day's worth of shots and then only need to upload them to my computer to be able to view them. And EDIT them! Picture It was awesome! 

When I was preparing to head to Hawaii for the first time in 30 years I had the funds to buy myself something brand new so I got the same kind that a co-worker had bought and fallen in love with, a Canon Powershot. He was right, the camera was perfection! On our last day in Hawaii I drowned it under a waterfall and had to go back to my Olympus. But the pictures were safe on my parents' computer and on the memory card. 

That's about the time that people started commenting on my pictures. I overheard a person in line behind me at the store raving about the nice pictures, she had been peeking over my shoulder. Then a friend's relative told me they should be post cards or calendar shots. Hmm... 

A couple years later I decided to splurge the big bucks on a brand new DSLR and a class. 

I went kinda overboard with my photography, I loved it so much! And then Rick and I had that in common so it was even easier to overindulge. 

Right now we're in a bit of a slump. We had a downer autumn. But my family keeps me shooting, I've become the family photographer. I get requests for maternity, newborn, engagement, anniversary, etc.

I particularly enjoy shooting "outside the box", in this case meaning not your average poses and scenery. I had an idea for my granddaughters, I wanted an old-fashioned tea party shot. Rach and I got together to do it and it came out PERFECT!! 

Rick and I had been toying with the idea of joining a photo club and finally did when he signed on with Boeing, we joined their club that meets on Wednesday evenings. We've been going for about the last 6 weeks. 

For me it was a bit discouraging. They have a judging and then a critiquing session for all the weekly entries. Well, my stuff was all getting judged basically mediocre. While I don't consider myself an outstanding photographer I also didn't think my work was "mediocre". Last night was print night, meaning that our pictures were to be printed and presented on some kind of mat. I chose my picture for the night but also decided to include a copy of my little Tea Party granddaughters' picture since I had it available, I had printed new copies for the moms since the first ones came out rather dark. Well, my chosen shot again came in at a mediocre score but my Tea Party girls was a big hit! I was shocked and thrilled! They told me I should be a portrait photographer, if I wasn't already. 

So, wow! I'm happy to finally have some recognition from other photographers. Only problem is: from here it's all downhill...