When I was young, probably elementary school age, I had a small red camera with a wrist strap that was more of a toy than anything. The camera roll was full of miscellaneous photos that the majority I probably could not identify. It wasn’t till middle school that I saw cameras as different than a toy.

In sixth grade, I started taking a camera with me, mostly to gardens and greenhouses, and taking photos, mostly of plants or my mom with plants. I loved the control I had on the photos of plants, how predictable and still they were. I loved how I could focus on one petal and blur everything else out. I started taking pictures of my dogs, which added an element of movement (which added a new challenge.) I started exploring and bringing my camera to school where I would take pictures in journalism class. 

Last year, I took a film class and learned to develop my own film, which is something I have wanted to learn since freshman year. This is something I want to continue learning and exploring. 

Recently, my favorite types of photos have been landscapes or close-ups (like the home page photo.) In landscapes, I love capturing the intense shadows and contrast in nature. In close-ups I love the textures. I think my all-time favorite photos are those that include industrial life (people, buildings, vehicles, paths, or something along those lines) and some amount of nature (mountains, the sky and clouds, trees, cliffs, water, flowers, or any other forms of nature.) There is such a large intersection between nature and modern life that I want to represent and I love to explore different balances between the two.