What Photography Means to Me

   Photography has also been a significant part of my life as I have gotten older. As a child I always liked taking pictures. Whether that was photoshoots with friends, taking pictures at family events or parties, or simply capturing the beauty in the world around me. I was always taking pictures. That being said, as I have gotten older, my methods for capturing photos have taken on different forms, but the importance of photography in my life has remained immense and only gained deeper meaning with time.
    To me, photography has always been a way to capture the important moments in life as they happen to be enjoyed for years to come. From big life milestones, to the most minuscule moments of joy, pictures have allowed me to document some of my favorite memories as they happen, so I can then look back on them years later. Capturing these moments also allows me to display them for myself and others to see, whether that be framing them in my room, hanging them in my car, or simply having them as the wallpaper on my phone. My ways of taking pictures, however, have evolved with age. 
   As a child, my photography was limited to point and shoot using only a phone or even a disposable camera at times. While I still use my phone camera and a digital camera to casually capture many moments as they occur, I also utilize my Canon camera, which has enhanced the quality of my photography and allowed me to capture the world and moments around me in the highest resolutions, top-tier lighting, and peak focus. Despite the evolution of the methods I use to take photos, the importance of photography in my life has remained significant and gained greater depth with age. As I have moved into more advanced methods of photography, I have also developed a secondary value for photography in my life. While it has always been something I enjoy as a way for me to capture and document my happiest memories, it has also become a way for me to challenge my own creativity and find ways to tell an entire story through one shot. 
    In Photography Changes Everything, author Marvin Heifeman states, "Photographs don't only show us things, they do things. They engage us optically, neurologically, intellectually, emotionally, viscerally, physically. They demand our scrutiny and interpretation." This has become crucial for me to consider as my methods of photographing have advanced, and I have begun taking photos not just to capture my own memories, but to depict entire scenes. This has forced me to pay closer attention to the scenery in my photographs, the positioning of my subject, or the expression of my model, in order to capture the best shot I can to tell a story and evoke an emotional, or even physical, response from the viewer.
    Photography will always be something I enjoy. The way in which I take pictures varies now more than ever, ranging from casual photos with friends on my phone to posed shoots with clients on my camera. As my photo-taking methods have changed, I have developed a dual meaning for photography in my life. Photography is inevitably something I will always find joy in and love to do in order to have physical documentation of my fondest memories. On a more professional-oriented side, however, photography has also become an art form for me to create entire stories through one image, which I can then share with the world.  

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