Linda’s second question was “How did you get started in photography? If you weren’t a photographer what else would you be?”
Here’s a little not-so-brief history of me and photography, as well as couple of my early art photos from my teens. You’ll have to excuse the quality… I haven’t got a proper photo scanner these days!:
• Age 5 or 6 – My Dad was taking some shots with his old TLR camera and I was watching him with fascination. I finally got up the nerve and asked him if I could try it for myself. He put it in my hands, explained the buttons and such and then said “ok.. take a picture”. I remember staring into the camera for a moment and then feeling really distressed. “But WHAT should I photograph?”. He told me to look around until I saw something I liked… to see the trees in the sunshine or the flowers in the grass as separate things and ask myself if I wanted a picture of either. I stood there with a wonderful curtain on life lifted… suddenly the world was full of little moments I had never noticed before. That to me was my true start in photography.
• Age 15-16 – I decided to push forward with my passion and learn how to photograph ‘properly’, so I took on photography at my high school. Aside from the excitement of processing my own film and prints, the course very nearly killed my passion entirely. My teacher at the time had been there since my MOM had attended his class, and was marked with years of sassy teenagers taking the course just to slack off. He was the sort who would make you feel stupid in front of the whole class for asking questions… and I’m the type who always asks questions, so you can guess how well we got along. He never once told me I took a good photo… and furthered my fear that photography was simply too technical to ever feign to understand. I actually hung up my camera ‘for good’ out of frustration… until….
• Age 19 – Bryn (my husband) and I had just started dating after years of being best friends and I had so many thoughts and emotions I wanted to express. Life was inspiring me like never before, and when I came across my old camera one afternoon I realized it was my vehicle to express myself. I spent weeks upon weeks after that day just shooting for the heck of it. It was like a light had just been turned on inside of me… my heart ached with joy every time I took a shot I knew would be amazing. Nothing matched my excitement when I got photos back from the lab. I had found my passion again… but what to do?
• Age 22-24 – A couple years after rediscovering photography it came to me that nothing else made me feel the same way. I started to really seriously think of taking my passion to the next level and began looking at my options. After realizing I wasn’t a good candidate to be formally trained (I can’t stand classroom education!) I decided to teach myself via books, the internet and constant shooting. I shot all my friends, my family and volunteer models on an almost weekly basis. Shoot shoot shoot… that was my life! Around my 24th year, I decided to start my business part time and began accepting money for sessions. It wasn’t long before I realized I had to make the jump to full time if I was going to make this profession everything I wanted it to be. So, I quit my day job and never looked back!
Let’s see… if I wasn’t a photographer, what would I be… uhhmmm…. wow, that’s really tough! My only possible answer is “Sad… and wishing I was a photographer!” 
Hope that short novel answers your questions… stay tuned for more shortly!
- Amber -
