A Lifelong Obsession With Taking Photos

When I was around 6 or 7 my mom bought me my own camera. She was getting tired of me shooting through rolls of film on hers and I think she was worried I might break it. I took that camera to the zoo and to family functions. While I can’t be certain how many rolls of film she actually bought me and allowed me to shoot through, I do know that somewhere in my house I have several photo albums full of blurry, out of focus photos.

It’s hard for me to say exactly what photography meant to me back then. Maybe I shot just because it’s fun to take pictures, or maybe I thought about it more creatively. But what I can say for certain is that when I first entered the darkroom in middle school, those early fascinations with a camera were amplified a thousand times.

Creating Something Unique

Those early days in the dark room were mostly magic. My middle school art teacher had taught us all how to make pinhole cameras out of shoeboxes. So we spent our time in the darkroom developing pretty terrible photos we’d made with garbage. And it was so cool!

By high school some friends and I thought that it wasn’t enough to just make photos with garbage, so a friend of mine bought a garbage can and we turned that into a camera. Another friend experimented with the idea of getting a junker car to turn into a camera obscura.

While they were going the route of finding the biggest most absurd items they could turn into cameras, I chose a different route. I used a mini-altoids can and made a pinhole camera I could fit in my pocket. For a minute, I experimented with using it as a spy camera and shooting using my mouth as a shutter, but that was... pretty difficult to say the least.

Refining My Passion

As I matured in my craft, I loved just carrying my camera around shooting anything that caught my eye. I assembled a rough portfolio and somehow used it to get hired by a local newspaper. Back in those days, my portfolio was saved on a CD that I burned and carried with me. Some photographers had websites, but they were still hard to develop and most people at least had a physical portfolio or CDs they’d use for show.

Working for a newspaper at a young age was really cool. I found myself in situations and photographing things I never thought I’d experience at 18 years old. Through the next two decades, photography would continue to take me places and give me access that most never achieve. The excitement of getting to photograph these unique experiences was enough in itself to keep me going.

Burning Out

Something every photographer should be aware of and keep a careful eye on is burnout. Should you choose to make your passion into your career, you must constantly keep in perspective the stress that comes along with relying on an income from that passion. When the days come where the income dries up and you find yourself shooting things you’re less passionate about, how will you feel? Will you photograph those things with a smile on your face? Or will you find yourself in the same place I did, regretting your decision to be a career photographer?

When those moments came, I feel fortunate that I was able to persist and carry on. I was able to take into consideration the things I was thankful for and remind myself that an assignment is and assignment, and it still beats a desk job.

Still Shooting

These days I am still shooting, and I am better than I have ever been before. I have more technical skill, more confidence, more abilities, and I know how to make a living. Those days still come once in a while where I question why I am shooting a particular project, but I remind myself why I started shooting in the first place.

It’s because there’s nothing on earth as fun as taking a picture.

And I’ll continue to do it for as long as I can.