I feel that over the past year, people have done a lot of growth and reflection. 2020, with all of its struggles and hardships, allowed so much room for growth, and coming into 2021, I feel that people have been reflecting on where they’ve been and where they’re going in the future. In that same spirit, I’ve decided to take a look at my photography journey over the past several years. I think it’s so important to see how you’ve grown and how you’ve changed, and that’s what I want to share with you guys today when it comes to photography.
Let’s start in 2015, the end of 8th grade for me, when I had and really started using my first ever camera. It was a tiny point-and-shoot Fujifilm digital camera, and I really thought I was the coolest person ever. I remember I tried really hard to be “aesthetic”– it was very much my Tumblr phase, and my photography definitely reflects that.
Moving into later in the year, I received my first DSLR camera, a Canon Rebel T5 (still the same camera I shoot with today). I really started going out of my way to take pictures and practice photography, and started doing a bit of photography of other people. Around this era is when I also started my photography Instagram. It has since been rebranded and many of the original photos I posted have been archived, but it pushed me to get a little more serious about photography. I also started using and posting to VSCO with more regularity around this time.
The end of my freshman year you can start to see hints of my main interests of photography now. I grew more comfortable with my camera, and while I was still shooting pretty much without intention, you can see the beginnings of my interest in portraiture mixed with those random shots. As I was looking through my past photos, I also realized this was actually when I first started doing self-portraits with makeshift sets made from bed sheets.
Processed with VSCO with b5 preset
The beginning of my sophomore year of high school (end of 2016) saw much of the same type of photography, with the exception that this is when I first started photographing “events”. I started with taking pictures of theater practices as I was a part of tech and was simply there, so figured why not. I brought my camera to other events, too, like birthday parties, and would take pictures. These still were on the candid side, but that was very much my style and area of interest at the time. I continued this for the rest of the year, taking pictures whenever the opportunity presented itself.
The next notable leg of my photography journey is when I started shooting open mics local high schools hosted. Taking performance pictures of bands, solo artists, and poets brought me so much joy; not only did I consider myself a poet at the time, but it was such a raw way to capture emotion. For the rest of my high school career, if there was an open mic or performance that I could attend, I would bring my camera with me to take pictures.
The summer after my sophomore year of high school I believe really shows a turning point in my photography. While I still loved the candid shots moreso than planned photoshoots, I began planning hangouts with friends where taking pictures was a set item on our agenda. That year I also visited family on the west coast, which inspired me in my landscape photography as well as recruiting Kate as a go to model when I wanted to take pictures. The pictures from that trip are still some of my favorite to this day.
My junior and senior years saw more of the same type of photography. I started planning lowkey photoshoots with my friends (really more just hangouts with photos), brought my camera along on class retreats, took photos at minor high school events, and recruited Kate to model for me when we went on family vacations. During these years I also planned actual photoshoots with friends, and became a lot more comfortable with directing a photoshoot. I would say that the first time I really took photos with intention and theme happened during this time, when I was in AP Art my senior year. I included several photos in my final portfolio, which I took with my theme in mind and actually took time to set up the shots in order to take them. Included below are some of the photos I included in my final portfolio as well as some of the photoshoot portraits I took over those two final years of high school.
I would consider this time period to be a part of my current time period, in some sense. Many of the photos I took near the end of high school are still quite similar to my current standard of photography, with only a few differences in style and method.
My freshman year of college, while I brought my camera to school, I actually did very little photography. I was busy with a lot of other stuff, and it wasn’t until I expressed interest to my lacrosse captain of taking game photos that I started taking pictures again. This marks my true entrance into sports photography. Whenever we had a home game I wasn’t playing in, I would photograph the game. This was one of the most fulfilling photography experiences I have had to date. Team members were posting my photos to their Instagrams, and even the team account and club sports account used some of my pictures in their posts. I also found that I really loved sports photography; it had an element of candidness because of the action going on in the photos, but it was planned in the sense that it was an ongoing game with a set goal. I am so incredibly proud of these pictures, and I can’t wait to return to campus and be able to photograph more sports games.
After my freshman year of college, it was 2020 and COVID hit. While this was disappointing and hard for a lot of reasons for a lot of different people, it allowed me to grow a lot as a photographer. I planned out photoshoots more, and Kate was almost always at my disposable for photography opportunities. Still, many of the photoshoots stayed where they were prior to the pandemic, where the main purpose was for Instagram of VSCO pictures.
That all changed for me at the beginning of 2021. I made it a resolution of mine with all the extra time I still had in quarantine to shoot with more purpose, and made a whole list of photography resolutions. I’ve kept good on most of them, collaborating with new people and planning out photoshoots more. Since January, I have had so many photoshoots and took so many pictures that my 2021 section of photos is already almost as long as both my 2019 and 2020 photo sections. As you know, I started this blog in 2021, and began doing more self-portraits and themed shoots. Here are some of the recent pictures I’ve taken:
Looking back and reflecting on my photography journey, I can see the growth and that in and of itself is so rewarding. I’ve developed my own style, grown as a photographer and editor, and am more confident in my photography skills. I can’t wait to continue to grow and reflect again on my work later down the road. Until next time!
*Note: Some of these photos are the edited versions. I did my best to get the originals, but there’s only so much I could find after going back years!
EAC Photos 