The Journey

I’ve been expressing interest in photography since around 2015. It started in high school photography class when I first really picked up a camera and learned about how intricate it actually is. We would just go around taking photos of anything and everything that triggered any emotion at all. It was a lot of fun envisioning a photograph and then pursuing that photograph. While this was just the introduction to my journey as a photographer, I learned so much. Then around 2019 I picked up my first film camera (Minolta SRT-101) and that ended up being my all time favorite camera… In my opinion film photography is such a good way to really learn how those little light-collection boxes work, in and out. It was exhilarating making these images you were excited about and then waiting a few weeks for them to get developed and sent back. This method of photography does get pretty expensive depending on how many photos you take. Photos are memories to look back on so of course i was taking quite a lot. The fix for this expense? Learn how to develop film and scan it yourself, while this is a lot of time and dedication, it will absolutely save money in the long run. In 2020, I purchased my first DSLR camera (Canon 90D). When i purchased this camera, I was still using my film camera as much as I was before, it didn’t quite compare to the joy of truly making your photos from start to finish. The main use of the 90D for me was Astrophotography, I took one photo of the stars on a late night and fell in love, you can’t take photos of the stars midday so i used it to photograph anything I could find that was abandoned and fell in love with that as well. Weirdly, there’s some peace in finding something that nobody has shown interest in for ages and making art out of it. In late 2023 I sold the 90D because I wasn’t using it at all and Madeline and I were preparing to move from Virginia to Michigan. April of 2025, I decided to pick up an old camera again (Canon 5D classic) and took a few photos and began to feel a little bit more complete. I took a photo of a Red-Winged Blackbird and I then started seeing more and more wildlife photography on my feed and thought “This looks like a lot of fun”, and after a long Michigan winter, I was looking for any reason to get outside. I then purchased a Canon 5Ds and a Tamron 150-600mm lens and I could not recommend that setup enough to be completely honest, since then I’ve invested in a used Canon R5 and the 200-800mm lens. This is just another journey for me to appreciate the art of photography but it is so beautiful being out there with the wild animals and birds, there’s something about it that makes you appreciate the earth a little bit more. Photography is one of the more beautiful things in life, you find small things that tick a certain emotion and freeze the moment in time. It really is beautiful.