By.Ewan
How Photography Started for Me…
Photography, for me, reluctantly began in 9th grade. I took Photo 1 in school, though only did so to fulfill credit requirements for the advanced diploma. I wasn’t excited about the class, nor did I have high expectations for it.
And much to my expectations, the class began rather dully—to put it bluntly. A lot of what we did at first wasn’t very fun, and I can’t blame Mr. Shannon because it was a hands on class that he was forced to teach online.
The thing that first peaked my interest was a project we did on the 10 visual elements. We were tasked with making a slideshow of pictures that demonstrated the 10 visual elements (light, rule of thirds, leading lines, etc.), using 2 pictures to show each element.
I biked to my local rec center in hopes of starting the project. Because we were online, we had an hour long lunch block and, on white days only, an advisory period before that, so I had a good 2 hours or so to do whatever I wanted. I walked around the park looking for anything to take pictures of.
My trips to the rec center became a common occurrence over the following month or two. Upon starting the project, I noticed an immediate difference in my pictures. They were still bad, but definitely got better, something I thoroughly enjoyed and something which led me to continue to take pictures on my own time.
Over time and many, many trips to the rec center later, I grew tired of it and began taking pictures in DC. I vividly remember watching YouTubers—North Borders, Peter McKinnon, and 7th Era to name a few—and trying to replicate the way they took pictures with my own photos. Most notably, I would watch their street photography and try to capture people and the city in the same way they did.
I fell in love with taking pictures doing this. I was having some of the most fun I had ever had and the calm that photography provided me was unparalleled in other aspects of my life, something I really treasured.
Street photography gave me a really good and unique understanding of composition and editing from which I branched out into other fields and continued to learn more and more. I took pictures every chance I got and became quite good at it.
Since then, it’s just been more of the same. I bring my camera with me every time there’s hope of getting some decent pictures. Street photography and portraits are my favorite types of photography, though I’m also really eager to take more car pictures.
And, if you’re curious, I use a Sony A7III with the Tamron 70-180mm f/2.8 and 28-75mm f/2.8.
Hopefully this was a cohesive story!