Why photography?

Photography has been a big part of my life since 2016. When I first started, it was just a hobby. I never had the confidence in myself to make it a career. I went on to pursue a nursing degree and I’ve been a bedside nurse since 2018. In January of 2024, I took a temporary work-from-home contract job and fell in love with it. Being at home allowed me to be more present with my son. While I was still working, I got to see him before bed and right after he woke up in the morning. If I timed out my breaks, I could have dinner with him and my husband. It gave me a sense of freedom back. Especially with him being so little when I went back to work, I felt like I was missing out. Halfway through my contract, I started having a lot of anxiety about going back to the bedside and was scrounging up ways I could keep this job or find another job that allowed me to stay home with my son. It was during a yoga class that I had an epiphany. In the beginning of the class, the instructor usually says “set an intention for the day…” and as I was staring at the ceiling, thinking of having to go back to work, I thought…. what if I don’t? I have this hobby that I could potentially make a career, I just never had the guts to actually try to make it a career. I sat there and I told myself, “if you don’t try this, you’re going to be 65 years old regretting your life because you never even tried to pursue your dreams.” And that was it… I set an intention to try to pursue my dream of photography and show my son it’s never too late to chase your dreams. The universe seemed to be on my side because the following week I was offered to change my temporary contract to a permanent position. I accepted without any hesitation and it has given me even more time to focus on my photography career.

I like to credit two people for my love of photography. My mom, and my dad. My mom was an avid “Creative Memories” member when I was younger. She created scrapbooks for myself and my sister. I love looking through my baby book and viewing all the photos from my childhood. Sometimes they spark memories I haven’t remembered in awhile or they’ll be topics of stories I bring up in conversation. Because of this, I’ve created many scrapbooks for myself, my family and friends. I started creating one for my son since the day he was born and hope he will cherish it as much as I do one day. As for my dad, he was in the United States Navy as a Fighter Pilot for the majority of my childhood and early teenage years. He was actually on deployment the day I was born and I have a picture in my scrapbook of my mom holding me and talking on the phone with him after I was born. It’s one of my favorite pictures. While he was in the military, there would be times when we wouldn’t be able to talk or see him for months on end. Photographs were all we, and he, had at times.

Photography is a way of freezing time. It’s a way of helping us remember things that sometimes get surpassed. After my son was born, I fell in love with photography even more. I’m so glad we live in a digital age where we can snap a picture whenever we want because I wanted to remember every little detail of my son. With pictures, I’m able to look back on this and do that.