Since I was young, I have loved love. Not just for me. For others.
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Born and raised in a rural British Columbia, This small town girl was always watching family, people as good as family, and friends get married. When I saw someone was engaged my first thought was always “I can’t wait to see the photos.” There was just something about the people I love being happy that made me feel so warm. As years went by I watched more and more of the people close to me fall in love. I saw more and more images of love, heard my friends talk about the rest of their lives and I knew I wanted to be a part of that; I just wasn’t sure how yet.
My last year of high school I was sitting on the floor in my room not knowing what I wanted to do with my life, procrastinating applying for college by doing my favourite thing. I was going through my hope chest, a trunk full of childhood memories including a nasty stuffed pig that I dragged around my house until I was 10, pictures from band camp, soccer medals, old theatre costumes, and at the very bottom a Walmart photo centre envelope. This envelope was full of pictures I took on an old disposable film camera (or several cameras). They were pictures of nothing, but they felt like everything. I remember picking up a photo of a swing set with the swing seat split lengthwise down the middle, each half dangling by its half of the rope. Where anyone else would see something broken, I saw something beautiful. I saw my grandpa building us a swing set. I saw my siblings and I swinging so high our hearts would jump out of our chests. I saw my brother, years later, kicking a seat in half to form a seat and a back rest (or at least thats what he told me to keep me from crying about it.) It was then that I first felt the value of photography. Living away from family while my nephew grows up, while my little sisters and brother were born, and as other loved ones become who they are, I have valued photography even more knowing that it is the best way to keep connected.
Today I am a NAIT Photographic Technology graduate and I am over 5 years into capturing connection, love, memories and moments. I am forever grateful for the clients who choose me for their most valued memories.