Hello.
Amanda here... This is my first ever blog post and I want to take this time to introduce myself.
In simplest terms - I am a photographer. I have been carrying around a camera for as long as I can remember. It all began in the 90's when people would bring along disposable cameras to parties and their friend's houses. Remember the anticipation of ripping open an awkwardly stuffed envelope filled with mostly cringe worthy photographs!? You knew you were fancy if you went ahead and opted to have doubles printed so you could share with your pals.
THE ANTICIPATION! THE GLORY! THE REALLY BAD FLASH!
I loved it all and had a disposable camera nearly every where I went. And of COURSE - no terrible preteen photo collection would be complete without several ridiculous photo frames - with glitter, with feathers, with dangley bits that would inevitably fall off and get lodged in your vacuum. My bedroom was cluttered with a hideous bubble chair reminiscent of Pepto Bismol (oh, the foreshadowing), beanie babies, and a nearly shameful amount of photos - in frames, stuck to the wall, stuck to a cork board, on the floor... any visible surface possible, much to my mother's enjoyment.
Thankfully someone had the idea to purchase me an Olympus digital camera & a Polaroid i-Zone camera...then things really took off for me. Now I could photograph to my heart's content and blind people with an even brighter flash! Ah, the satisfaction of capturing those precious moments filled braces, cystic acne, and my friends and I trying on every possible bad combination of outfits at the mall. (My fashion sense never did improve.)
I snagged this beautiful relic from Wikipedia. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polaroid_i-Zone)
In high school a black and white film photography course was offered and I excitedly signed up, having no decent film camera at my disposal and no idea what I was doing. Most people change direction in life several times over, stumbling about and seeing what works. There has never been a singular moment in my life when I thought to myself, "photography isn't for me." The day the lights went out in the dark room and I fumbled getting the film on the plastic reel was the day I fell in love with the magic that is photography. It's a dance that I can do in my sleep, having perfected it over hours upon hours spent in dark rooms. Perhaps tales from the dark room crypts should be a different post...
So, what do I photograph?
I was going on and on explaining what I photograph and why until my cats pestered me for their dinner. When I returned to my desk and reread what I wrote I wanted to light myself on fire - so I erased that and started fresh. I'm telling you this because the creative process is the farthest thing from linear imaginable, unless you're way deep in the ocean, in which case you're probably even more all over the place because 'up' could be anywhere.
And that's kind of how being an artist is.
So... other things about me...
Traveling is one of my favorite things to do. I would live off rice and bologna if it meant I could continuously travel. Where are some of your favorite spots to travel and why?
Coffee - I have been slinging coffee for half my life and love the industry. It's another passion of mine and should you stick around you'll definitely be able to see that.
Books - Reading is like traveling for your brain when your body can't follow. A lot of inspiration for my creative projects has and will continue to stem from things I have read. Feel free to drop me a comment with your favorite books or authors - I would absolutely love that!
Alpacas. Enough said.