EDITORIAL: THE MEMORY MAKER

Capturing realistic visions that only reveal the smallest of details shows more to the eye than the naked eye can even bear to see. Through the lens of a camera, it’s like you began to see a whole new world underneath your feet.

As a little girl I remember my mom saying things like, “Oh, look at how pretty those flowers are,” or she would also say, “Wow, the sky looks beautiful tonight!” I never truly saw the beauty in those things, until I became more and more fascinated with photography. Whenever you start to notice things from a whole new perspective, you’ll start to see all the various details, color, and light in a new way.  Everywhere I go I can see more than one image, instead I see multiple photo ops, meaning I can go to the park and see a little boy swinging on a swing, and I’ll think of how perfect the light is falling on the boy’s face or how he’s showing so much character in his facial expressions. Before I would only see the obvious: a little boy swinging on a swing; nothing more than that.

I love photography for many reasons. For one, it allows me to open up to several opportunities in my life, as well as being able to express my thoughts in a way that people can see. Believe it or not, before I got into photography, I would see a tree full of fall colors, walk by a beautiful patch of flowers, look at the sunset going down every evening, see someone’s face with tons of character, and honestly, I did not pay attention to those details. Now, I will be eating in a restaurant and see someone sitting by the window, and think “wow, look at the perfect light on their face. That would make a perfect picture.” I feel like a veil was lifted and I see what I was missing for all those years before. This is one of my many passions, and it’s something I that never leaves my mind. Other reasons why I love photography is because of the artistic freedom that it gives me, I am able to tell a story through my pictures, I love that it’s a journey that travels with you, and most of all I love the emotions it stirs up in people when they look at photos. Photography has changed how the world sees me and how I see the world.