Congratulations. You found my secret page. Here’s a brief history of how I became a photographer.
This photo is the oldest surviving photograph that I ever captured. Not the first that I ever captured, but the first that started the spark of interest in photography.
It was sometime between 1995-97 when my dad purchased a camera for his work. It was taken by a digital camera that used a 3.5″ floppy disk for memory storage. Until then, I would take photos with a webcam. I was in love with the medium, but I didn’t have the connection to it like I do now. I snapped a bunch of photos, and only this one above I kept throughout the years. I never thought about the idea of shooting with a film camera, and digital photography was still very new. My joy was not found for photography was put on the backburner as I continued my interest in video games and computers.
Building computers was something that I was really interested in. It fit well with my awkward younger days. I thought that I would go and study the craft, mistakingly signing up for Software Engineering as a major. It took me four years of college, and failing my programming/math classes to realize that I had made the mistake of choosing Software Engineering rather than IT (Information Technology). During my time in college, there was a group of people who made “funny” skit videos. I tried to join them, but never got the in on the group, but I started experimenting with making videos with my friends with a little Mini-DV camera that, I honestly can’t remember how I got or where it ended up, and found a great appreciation for the craft anyways.
I eventually dropped out of college and moved back to Eugene, Oregon. It wasn’t until 2006 that after a trip to Seattle, and borrowing a friends camera, that I realized that photography had a special place in my heart. I was laid off from my tech support job, and bought a camera with my severance pay and just took photos of my friends, and found a website called “Model Mayhem” that I met people to take photos of.
I finally found my calling.
As of writing this, it has been over 10 years since I bought that silver Canon Rebel XT. I read many blogs on lighting and photography, and my career has taken me many wonderful places and worked with so many amazing businesses and people. I could never have imagined that I would be doing this now that I am 34 years old, uneducated by the system, and working with companies like Microsoft. Which, growing up, I always thought I would program for, and now I am shooting photos and video for the people I once participated in school with.