Heather: Stories Through a Lens

When we talk about being afraid to try new things, we often mean we're afraid to fail at new things.

"Failure" requires a mindset of living deliberately. It means making choices about the direction you’ll go each day, and what sort of experiences you want to cultivate. As Henry David Thoreau said:

I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.

As a child, I spent hours flipping through old family photo albums, memorizing the horrible hairstyles and wallpaper, the shiny chrome on cars and, further back, the crushing poverty of my immigrant ancestors.

I'm endlessly fascinated by stories and histories and how the things that came before make up the scaffolding of "right now."

I took my first photographs with an old Minolta in college. Then later with the early – and rather horrible quality – digital cameras. A couple of years ago, I finally sprang for a nice DSLR, and justified the purchase by challenging myself to do more with photography: to capture beautiful images, but also to treat the photography as more than a hobby for myself. I needed it to be a gift to others as well. I made the deliberate decision to open myself to failure, to let people see the evolution of my abilities while overcoming my introvert tendencies.

As I showed off my work and as my work improved, people took notice and began asking me to work on special projects. I’ve now photographed conferences, community events, weddings, and family portraits. It is a bit frightening to be responsible for documenting a moment in someone’s life that is profoundly important to them.

People often perceive a photographer as hiding behind the camera, but it actually creates an intimacy between the photographer and the subject.

This connection occurs not only when taking the photo, but when sharing the results. I'm proud to know I’ve captured a bit of their story and have added to my own in the process.