Pause! Play! Rewind! Play Again!

There was a temporary pause in posts because I had some family business to attend to but don't dismay I have returned!  I say this teasingly, of course, but sometimes life really is more important than business, especially when it has to do with family and the ones you love and care about.  (They or we will not be in this world for long, and I choose to make the best of that time with them.)  In reaching for my dreams, I will not allow myself to forget about those I care for, yet there is a balance there also and we must all strive to strike that balance as we go out in the world to follow our hearts' desires. This is where I discover myself now, rebalancing and ready to begin again.

In the interim of researching about self-promoting and marketing my Etsy store and my photography, I thought I would share a bit more about little 'ole me and my interest in this area of the creative arts.

When I was a toddler, I was told I had an unusual fascination with cameras and pictures.  Since my great Uncle Frank was an avid photographer, I paid close attention when he would share his equipment and memories with me during our visits together throughout my childhood. His love of animals and photography made him very special in my eyes.

As I got a little older, I began to notice my immediate family photo albums seemed to be lacking as I seemed to be "missing" from most of them, with the exception of a snapshot here and there scattered throughout my formative and school years, but "baby" photos were nearly nonexistent.  I enquired about this and was given many reasons, but I felt very put off by this.  From then on, I made it my personal mission to become the self-designated family photographer, which ironically still left me out of the family albums but I made sure no one else was.

Here's a glimpse of me in my childhood as portrayed by the few moments captured (not taken by me).

I felt a need to document our lives and perhaps, more importantly...our story,  I can't tell you why that was so important to a 5-year-old, but most of my family would tell you, I was far from a "normal" child at any age.  Now that I think of it, it is probably why journaling was also as equally important to me.  Document, document, document...and I did, every dream, every poem, most every event that I considered journal worthy.  If I couldn't take a photo of it, I wrote about it.

Over the years my love of photography and writing built.  It became a dear part of me and evolved as I evolved and still continues to grow with me.  When my boys were born, my photography increased as their every move, smile, tear was of utmost importance and only took a back seat to finances.  Film and the developing of film got a bit expensive so you can only imagine how happy I was to transition to digital.

 (Random shots taken of my boys over the years with non-professional film cameras to pro cameras.)


By the time digital came into play, my children were mostly grown but coming from a big family there was never a shortage of family members or events to photograph and so I stayed busy.

Later in my adult life, I would get a formal education in Photojournalism at The Art Institute of Philadelphia in Pennsylvania, but, this, too, would be interrupted by finances and the increasing burden of student financial "aid."  It was here that my photography would take a transition from mostly documenting people and events to include much more and where my love of landscape and travel photography would become more prominent.

More about this later.