Becoming A Photographer…Part 2

Pictured above: My very first barn photo. Taken with my Canon PowerShot S100 Elph.

I did not become a photographer the first time I picked up a camera. As a matter of fact, the first time I held a camera was for my high school journalism class nearly 35 years ago. I took several photos around my hometown and if not for the small stack of black and whites stored away with my yearbooks and diploma, it’s a memory I may have well forgotten.

A couple years later I was given a simple Kodak film camera that I carried around to family events and nights out with friends. I love the photos I have from those days but not once during the ten years that I had that camera did I think or dream of being a photographer.

In my early thirties I bought a Canon PowerShot S100 Digital Elph camera. It was the smallest and lightest digital camera with 2 megapixels and an optical zoom lens. As a wife and mom the convenience of being able to print only the photos I wanted was priceless, and proved ideal when my best friend and I started scrapbooking. I cherish every memory captured but over time I began to notice that there was something about photographing my surroundings…a certain peace and calm that would wash over me.

I’m a wanderer. Whenever I feel overwhelmed or upset the open road becomes my comfort. If I need to work through a challenge or idea, nothing helps me focus more than a long walk or a good hike in the woods. I began taking my little Elph along, snapping shots of anything and everything. Unfortunately, my little PowerShot was no match for the humidity and salty air of a vacation in Cancun. That’s when I bumped up to my first DSLR. It was beautiful with its buttons and knobs. The ability to change out lenses and set the dial to Manual mode was both exciting and intimidating. I took a couple classes, read a few books and took lots and lots of pictures.

Pictured above: Park in Ames, Iowa that reminds me lot of the arboretum in Overland Park.

On a gorgeous spring day in 2013, I found myself wandering around an arboretum in Overland Park, KS; just me, my camera and Matt Nathanson in my ear buds. I remember vividly getting lost in the trees and moss and sweet little meandering creek. Caught up in an indescribable connection with nature and the brilliant tool in my hand, time passed with little notice from me. On that day I became a photographer.