I suppose I should begin with a bit of an introduction. I am Heather. I am a photographer. I am also a wife, a daughter, a sister, a friend, and perhaps one day I'll be a mother. I have always had an appreciation for the visual arts. My love and inclination for aesthetics began when I was a child. Perhaps it is genetic; my grandfather was quite talented. What I can remember about him is that he was a man who could draw or paint anything he'd seen. As I remember, he had incredible penmanship as well which, I suppose, was a huge benefit during his time as a sign painter.
For years I poured myself into learning how to recreate what I saw; on paper, on canvas, on clay, etc. While I managed to generate some interesting abstract art (that's what we'll call it), there was always a certain amount (usually a pretty large amount) of disconnect between what my mind visualized and what my hands produced.
Until I picked up a camera.
It was then that I discovered where my talents were hiding. An ability that I searched for and tried so hard to produce in other media just came to me. I discovered my true media; the way I am able to capture the beauty, the tenderness, the sorrow, the raw emotion of a moment and preserve that feeling.
Of course, my first photographs probably will not end up in fine art galleries around the world, maybe none of them will, and I am comfortable with that. My goals in life center around finding and doing something that I love to do, something that I can do well. As I continue to shoot I am always aware that photography is a life-long learning process. No photographer, I don't care how many years have been devoted to school, study, or practical application, will ever come to a point where they can not possibly learn anything new about the art. We rely on our roots to push us forward. I believe that is one of the many beauties of the arts; things are constantly changing, yet there will always be an appreciation for the past. I say this, fully aware that there are old-school photographers who will look down their noses as this digital camera-wielding, non-professionally trained woman-with-a-passion-that-is-rooted-too-deep-to-be-just-a-hobby continues the trend of taking the details out of the craft (OK, OK, I know that a great deal of appreciation and knowledge is gained from spending hours in the darkroom developing one's own pictures from actual film rather than taking my memory card to the drugstore photo lab down the street, but I didn't know I wanted to be a photographer when I took the digital class instead of the one involving darkroom printi- what's that? oh, yeah, I said it. drugstore. photo. lab.).
So now, after years of taking shots of plants, beaches, rock formations, random objects, architecture, and animals I am breaking into the world of people. Not the way I photographed people when I worked as a studio photographer in college, but in real life situations that bear real life emotion.
See you soon,
Heather
Oh, and for what it's worth, I don't take my memory card to the drugstore photo lab. That would involve me actually leaving the house.
