Photography has been a part of my life since 1967 when my first daughter was born.
That was when I got my first 35mm camera, a Mamiya, and took a basic photography course in adult ed with the desire to take photos of my family and also a rose with a soft blurred background.
I still have the photograph of the fella who taught the course. I took a photo of him sitting on the steps in the stairwell of our high school.
He has since died but his instructions are still a part of who I am today as a photographer.

But those were the days of film.
I shot in 24 or 36 exposures and sent the film off to be developed and quite frankly, the photos weren't very good but I was excited to see what I got back.
Photos were kept in albums or boxes and rarely were seen except by family.
There was no reason to shoot food or butterflies or abstract back then.
It was mostly about family and places that you vacationed.

My first "aha" moment came when I shot an antique fire truck in a parade.
It had a large chrome ball on the top and I saw the street in Lambertville, New Jersey, my husband's hometown, distorted in the ball like a fish eye lens.
I took the photo and entered it in a Kodak contest and won a prize.
It was then that I started to see a little differently.

Fast forward to many years later when I got my first digital camera in 2005.
No longer was I limited to 24 or 36 exposures and I started shooting things I would never have shot before.
Now I could shoot butterflies and if they weren't keepers... delete, delete, delete!

Photography became a stress reliever for me.
Working in critical care and dealing with life and death on a daily basis, I needed that release, so I would pick up my camera
and just go out to shoot whatever I might find of interest at the moment.

Fast forward again to 2011 when I retired after 45 years of critical care nursing.
Now photography has become a part of my everyday life.
Seldom a day goes by that I don't shoot something, or look at other people's photos or read about photography.
It brings me such joy and takes me to a better place.
I have met so many wonderful photogs along the way and I have seen the world through their eyes, have learned from them and have laughed with them.
And yes, maybe even shed a few tears with them.

It is a great part of who I am today. I cannot imagine a better hobby than this to take me through the rest of my life.