Finding Me

Lately I have been discovering a lot about myself. Who I am, what I want to do, what I like, what makes me happy or upset, what I exceed in and what I need to work on. I haven’t necessarily sought out these things, they show up as delightful surprises every now and then. Like a lot of kids fresh out of high school I didn’t know much of who I was or who I wanted to be. For a few reasons I felt that it was most comfortable to act, talk, and dress like whoever I was with, which made it hard to find out who I was when I was by myself. Now I could go on about how Jesse gave me the confidence and encouragement that I needed to be my own person and made me believe that I’m worth something and that just maybe I  could do more than I ever believed I could, but I will save that for another day.

As an awkward tween, photography was my love. I inherited my dad’s old cameras and shadowed him when he went on photo shoots. My dream career was to work for National Geographic and live in Alaska (Alaska? No thanks, 13 year old Chantel). That dream faded as I realized that everyone and their dog was a photographer. I didn’t feel like there was anything special about my pictures and so I let it go and set my sights on a more realistic career path. Due to BYU-I lacking a dietetics program, I had to quickly decide what the heck I was going to do. I knew I wanted to be able to stay home with our kids, but I also wanted to do something as a hobby that would make us a little extra money. After deeply researching and not falling in love with beauty school, dental assisting, and many other various options, I was lost.

I owe Jesse for helping me get into photography again. He originally bought the Canon 6D and all the equipment for his business, but it didn’t take long for him to realize that I was very interested in the camera and taking photos (I was kind of a camera hog). I was scared to go into photography for the very same reasons that I stopped doing it in the first place. I’m still trying to find my style and that special quality that makes a photo great, but now that I’m majoring in photography and getting practice I realize that I can be great if I work at it. By no means do I think that my photo’s should be framed and put in a museum. There are so many better photographers than I am, but they had to start somewhere as well, right? I have a lot to learn still–about photography, myself, and being confident. Everybody and their cousin, mom, dad, dog, and hamster are still photographers. However, this is me. This is what I love and I will make it my own.

Yours Sincerely,

Me.

P.S. Jess has challenged me to find something inspiring everyday and to take and edit a photo based on that inspiration. Maybe I will let you in on some of my “inspired photo’s” every now and then. In the meantime here are some photo’s I’ve done for family as practice.