today is the day i start my journey

well today is the day that I have decided I am going to start off my year round journey. I am sure it will continue past a year because lets face it...if it only took a year to become a photographer then there would be a whole lot more of us:).

you might be wondering what I am shooting with:). I have a canon rebel xs with a 25-90mm and 18-55mm lenses. that is it....lol. I do have Photoshop and a pathetic attempt at a fake wall setup. as of right now I only shoot with natural light and do my best not to use a flash.

so how did I get into photography?? lets see if I can sum this up with out going on and on:) ever since I can remember my grandpa always had a camera around his neck. he was one of those hard core hobbyists. always taking beautiful pictures of all us kids. he use to take us on these great vacations where I had the opportunity to take pics of the sites. I was always told that hey.... "you can take a good pic". lol meaning it was centered, my thumb was not in the way and I did not cut off peoples heads:). I thought it was fun and all but nothing I HAD to do or really had a ton of interest in.

Grandpa got cancer when I was a sophomore in high school. he was to live a year and died a week later. I lost my grandpa, my dad, my rock.......my BEST FRIEND. after his death I moved on and continued to live my life, only instead of him holding my hand....he was holding my heart. I would often wonder what he would think of my husband and if he would be happy with my choices. THEN I had Skyelar. I knew right away how much he would have loved to meet her and play with her and be apart of her life. soooo what do most parents do after having a baby???? lol yep they take pictures and lots of them!!!! It finally clicked why grandpa had a camera attached to his neck! he did not want to miss a moment in our lives and it is amazing to look through that view finder hear a click and freeze a moment in time. I began to see the beauty in photography that I had not seen before and have developed a deep love for it. even though my grandpa is no longer with me as soon as I pick up that camera I feel linked in a way to him and would like to think one day that when its my turn to go, my daughter and lives I have touched will be left with memories from one click of my camera and a frame frozen in time.