I don’t often recall a lot from my childhood, but one thing I do remember distinctly for some reason is having a camera. I had a camera that used the 110 format film. For those who don’t remember, or weren’t born yet, the style of camera that at least I had was basically a small brick. Especially when compared to what we have available to us now.

The camera itself was a long relatively thin rectangular box. It was essentially just a container for the film cartridge with a viewfinder and a shutter button to control the lens. I don’t remember their being any settings or adjustments that could really be made. But maybe I was just to young to understand that aspect at the time. I do remember their being flash cubes you could buy to use in conjunction with the camera. The camera body itself was about the size of a large TV remote control. If you have never seen these types of camera go do a quick internet search for it.

For some reason I remember having that camera, but I don’t think it really stuck with me and I never became particularly attached to photography as a child.

My real journey into photography didn’t start until much later in life….

I never considered myself an artistic person. My father was and still is an amazing artist. A painter and graphic designer. When I was in college, as part of my degree program I was required to take an art class. I chose to take photography, because I remembered y dad had a camera and photography seemed the easiest choice.

I was wrong. And I am glad that I was. The decision to take one simple photography class in college, the only art class I would ever take, sent me on a lifelong trajectory that has been one of the most rewarding aspects of my life.

My photography class was much more challenging than I had expected. And I failed much more than I succeeded. We shot using black and white film. Something I had never done before and still don’t really put to good use. We also were responsible for developing our own film. Not responsible to send it away and have the film developed and get the prints. We were required to go into the dark room and develop our own film manual. Then were had to take the developed field and created photographic images from it.

Learning this process was challenging. I failed terribly. Ruined so much film. So many images destroyed, never to be seen even as negatives. I did not have the patience for the process of developing film and creating photographs by hand. I wish I had been more patient and learned more back then.

However, this class and the projects we undertook first taught me to look creatively at the world around me. It taught me to appreciate the things in my life more. Take time and enjoy it. Capture the moment.

What were your defining moments that sent you down the path of photography?

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