I took a film camera class in high school and honestly, I may have been one of the worst students in the class and to be honest, my teacher used some of my work to show the class “how not to do it”. I didn’t take it personally at the time but the reason I didn’t excel in that class was because I spent the whole time worrying about messing up prints in the dark room. I also took a film camera class in college, but I just didn’t have the time to focus on it while trying to keep up with all of my marine biology courses. Long story short, I pretty much failed the only two photography classes I took.
In all honesty, I didn’t think anything of my photography and still don’t think I’m very good at it. Mainly because I don’t really know what I’m doing, but I pursue it anyway because I loved the challenge, reward, and endless room for creative growth. All of my favorite memories lie within my photographs: the beautiful places I’d been, the adventures I took on a whim, and more importantly, the challenging days. The days when photography pushed me, frustrated me and days where I found little joy in it, at all. But all of those days allowed me grow, not only as a photographer, but as a person.