How I Got Started

     A few days ago, when I blogged about my "day in the life" photo shoot, I promised to come back and do a post about how I got into photography. I often get the question "How long have you been doing photography?" My answer is "Not long; only about a year or so." In my head, I quietly remember the story that lies behind that answer, and it often makes me smile. So while it is on my brain, I am sitting down to share it with you.
     Almost two years ago, my family made the desicion to breed our dog. In October, 2010, she gave birth to a litter of nine puppies. Around Christmastime, they were about eight weeks old and all set to go to their new families. All of them had wonderful homes, and much as we loved the pups, we were all ready to see them go and to regain some form of "normal life" around our home. That being said, it was still a little sad to see them go and know that this short season of our life was drawing to a close. One night, the oldest pup was scheduled to go home to his family. I was up in my room when I heard the doors open downstairs. I heard voices that I did not recognize. And I heard whoever was downstairs making an exit from our house. I sat in my room and cried, because this puppy that I had helped raise for eight weeks had left and I had not said goodbye, and I probably would not see him again in the near future. After a few minutes, I went downstairs to the basement, where the pups lived while they were with us. And there, to my astonishment was the very puppy which I thought had left. It turned out that my neighbors, and not the puppy's new family, had been the people that I heard leaving. At any rate, I was still a bit disheartened. My mom saw this, and so she took her camera and put it in my hands. She told me to go take pictures of the puppies, because it would make me feel better. I did.
     I had never had any interest in photography before that night. My mom had gotten a DSLR camera the spring before that, and had pursued some interest in photography. She had handed me her camera on several occasions, but I never had any interest. I didn't picture myself doing anything with photography. Ever.
     Back to that night with the puppies. I went down to my basement and climbed into the puppy pen, as we often did. As they moved about me, I just started catching moments as they happened. It amazed me how much you can catch with a camera. I had been around the pups for nearly eight weeks now, but never noticed some of the things that I saw with that camera. That night, I got some of my favorite puppy pictures from the entire experience.
     There was no magic button. I did not suddenly become passionately in love with photography. But something happened that night that got me started on a learning process. That spring, as the flowers started coming up and everything started changing, I went out several times a week with my mom's camera and went around my yard and my neighborhood and took pictures of every tree, flower, and rock that I came across. It was a way of holding on when everything was changing so quickly around me.
     I continued, that summer, to take pictures of everything around me. I volunteered (actually, my mom volunteered me) to do pictures for a non-for-profit organization that I was involved with. I would go and take pictures every week during their weekly lessons - documentary photography at it's best. After that, I was pretty hooked.
     That fall, my homeschool group offered a photography class. That was my first real intro into how how to actually use a camera (other than automatic settings). At that point I was still using my mom's camera - I put so many pictures on her poor camera, that I really owe her a new one... someday... That fall, I got my own camera, which I fell in love with immediately. To this day, my camera rarely leaves my side.
     This spring, I was having a normal school day, when my mom walked into my room. She said to me, "Kaela, I did something really bad." She showed me her facebook wall. She had asked on her wall if anyone wanted to volunteer for me to practice photos on them or their family. Within minutes, several people had responded already. So began my intro to portrait photography. The rest is pretty much all written on here - on my blog. The past few months have included another photo/design class, many portrait sessions, documentary photo shoots, a couple of art shows, and hours and hours of photo editing (not to mention photo blogging). You get the general idea.
     I know this has been a long post, so if you made it through the whole thing, I sincerely congratulate you. I am not sure at this point if photography is something that I will pursue long term, or if it is just something that I can enjoy now. But this story, this whole experience, has been worth every minute, and I can't wait to see where it goes next.