When It All Began

It’s important to reflect on your journey as a photographer, and as such I’d like to show you the first portrait I ever shot. This photo was taken eight years ago in my high school art class. My equipment was a (fancy) Fuji Finepix point and shoot camera with 2 megapixels and a lamp, in a storage closet my teacher let me use. The subject was one of my classmates, Isabelle, who was kind enough to pose for me despite my completely novice skills.

Looking back on the photographs I took then, I miss the lack of boundaries I placed on myself. Technical skills and the training therein has a way of teaching you all of the bad habits that are considered ‘technically poor.’ These included aspects such as dutch angles, harsh lighting, composition rules, and other nuances that now I feel may restrict me more than they used to.

I was very interested in portraits after taking this image, and practices with more classmates, experimenting with all manner of things. I thought myself quite clever for using colored notebook dividers as gels, managing to experiment with different colors and lighting.

Whenever I feel a bout of gearlust sneaking up on me, I look back on these images and remember what I was able to create with the bare essentials. All it takes is a vision, a connection with your subject, and an understanding of the tools you do have available, regardless of how basic they may be.

We all begin somewhere. I’d love to hear some of the humble beginnings you have had, be it in an art media or a hobby - please do share!