After a week of camp and using my camera extensively and often, I have finally been formally bitten by the photography bug. I adore taking pictures of people. For a while in high school, I was smitten by landscape and nature, and while I still try to take pictures of that, I feel there is so much more to capture and so much more challenge in portraiture photography. You have to try to catch the best and most interesting moments that show a relationship, you have to get close, but not so close that they clam up and it’s just another smiling face. There’s emotion. There’s a story. There’s all the complexity of the human tapestry that you are challenged to capture in an instant.

But, what really ensnared me was printing out a selection of photographs I had taken of Caleb at camp for Mitzi’s (his mother) birthday. There’s something special about seeing your work in print — being able to touch it and look at it close up without the interception of the monitor or LCD. And better still was seeing Wes and Mitzi hold the prints and smile.

I would love to take portraits. Senior. Families. Baby. Couples. Getting a foot in the door though, seems to be the difficult part. But then again, perhaps the key is starting small. If I offer to be around to take pictures for the Wes, Mitzi and Caleb and their friends (Allison, Justin and Wyatt) on occasion and for a reasonable price, I can improve my skill and capitalize on word of mouth.

Better to start small and steady, anyway, than to start big and with tons of momentum that ends up going nowhere but frustration.

I want my love affair with cameras, people and prints to last a life time…so some patience isn’t so bad after all. That said, if you’re in the Seattle area and want some portraits done, we can negotiate a price and a time if you shoot me an email! And, if you’re at all interested, I have some of my favorite photographs available for sale at Red Bubble.