I am a supporter. I love helping others show up in the best way possible and using my solution finding skills to achieve results with relative ease. It was not always obvious to me that I could achieve this with photography. I watched my own mother grow a small photography business alongside her demanding corporate job at the time. I even remember one Christmas where it put presents under the tree. I never  fully understood it back then. Work was supposed to be a necessary and seldom enjoyed activity. But when my mother started doing photography for the Princeton Ballet Studio, I saw passion. Don't get me wrong, she was definitely working! However there was still joy in it. I would join her back then and watch even more from the sidelines. Typically printing pictures of the patrons with that years Clara and Nutcracker. It was a tense job that required clockwork-level cooperation. Thinking back on it, I'm not sure if I'm more impressed with myself for my grit or my mom for somehow making happen.

Fast forward a few years and the iPhone would finally come out. This was not the beginning of my photo bug, but it got the juices flowing. It wasn't until one winter when my family was going through a tough time that I began my journey into photography. Money was not good, people were stressed. I could tell that it hurt her that all she could give me for my birthday was a used Nikon D3100.

She had no idea how grand a gift she was giving me.

I excitedly received the gift, and let her know how long I'd wanted a camera of my own. I still think that was one of my most precious gifts. I immediately started taking pictures of almost everything I saw. I had no idea what I was doing, and leaned so, so heavily on the automatic shooting mode to avoid having ruined images. I was out of the house at this point trying to figure out life with a quarter million dollars of student debt. It was tough, but my photos and a few good friends were able to make a world of difference.
  A few years later, she would gift me a Canon Rebel T7. This is when I got pumped - my mom was a Canon fan and I could finally follow in her footsteps! I continued shooting, but as I gained more experience, I started to become disillusioned. I'd gotten to this point where I could see the image I wanted in my minds' eye, but I couldn't produce it with the camera. I began to try macro shots and, what would become my number one love in photography, low-light shots. But I had horrible dynamic range, and, if I'm being real, my friends never liked my photos. At least not the ones I wanted to. I started taking less photos.

Fast forward to December of 2022: I've partnered my tutoring company up with a non-profit education company to film math instructional videos. I already had the camera equipment and the passion in education, so it seemed like a great opportunity. Unfortunately, I would soon learn that my cameras were stolen amidst a tumultuous time post Covid-lockdowns. It broke my heart; but I had already agreed to the task.

I bought a new camera. It wasn't the most expensive but it was a full-frame that would have enough dynamic range to capture my low-light photos! I started filming and was using my camera or editing every day. I was voracious. I consumed hours and hours of educational videos. I took hundreds of shots a day. I edited more and more all while I edited. I bought more lenses. I started shooting portraits and events for free. I learned and got better.

Here I am now. I don't know enough, and I'm still hungry.I'm slowly learning who I am becoming as a photographer, but I have a much better idea. And, hey, my friends like my photos now!

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