My Photography Journey Started...

f4, 1/200, 80mm, ISO 800, flash with umbrella

​My photography journey started when I was a child of about 10 and I first swiped my mom’s Pentax 35mm. I blew through a roll of film with photos of the digital clock, my parent’s cheetah bedspread, my cat Sunny, and who knows what else. Everything I could see with my magical eye and the child’s eye truly is magical, but many of the images were out of focus. Call it bokeh. 
 
I used that camera throughout my teens and early twenties, learning how to manually focus and use the meter, but never paying much attention to photography’s “rules.” My images from that time were underexposed and cool in temperature, and I can see myself going back to that happy accident occasionally in my current work as the world around me is made of muted blacks, greens, greys, and blues. Lots of blues as I’m raising boys, but this canyon, at least in the winter months is a deeply cool place. 
 
I started by photographing people, places and things that I love. One of my cherished first photos is taken of my mother while she takes an afternoon nap. Another is of my first dog Zahara while she plays in the river, drool dripping from her muzzle and sand in her eye. I have photographs of rocks, mushrooms, tree trunks, and my teenage bedroom. 
 
My best work is when I photograph people I love. I find it easy to represent who they are and portray them through photography. Today the boys are taking a dual nap – something that rarely happens anymore, but is a treasured time for mama.

​Tomorrow we have Bear’s first big birthday party – a bowling alley day complete with the pizza, balloons, and bowling pin sippy cup. I have strawberry cupcakes to bake – his request the last two years – and groceries to put away, and contracts to prepare for clients, but first I think I’ll find a way to capture the canyon blues, the wind, the coming storm, and the quiet.