THE ROAD SO FAR...

As far back as I can remember I've had a camera in my hands. When my brother and I were kids, along with my cousins, we used to head up to Calgary every summer to spend time with my grandparents. I loved those trips. Especially when we would venture into the mountains. I would come back every year with a full SD card and an even fuller heart. Most of the photos were taken through the window of my grandparent’s van, as I sat there absolutely in awe of what I was seeing. A kid from the prairies never forgets his first time seeing those granite giants. Looking back those are some of my most treasured memories. My Grandma and Grandpa both, without either party realizing, nursed my creativity and awakened a never-ending fascination with our world.  

I was gifted a camera 10 years ago which eventually led to an interest in landscape photography, it was an outlet that allowed me as an angsty teenager to create instead of destroy. As the story goes, I had my first paid shoot about seven years ago. I was a senior in High School and had just bought my first DSLR, a Nikon D5300. I opted to use my old mirrorless Sony as I had never shot with a “real” camera. I was hired to shoot a Church deconsecration. I was uncomfortable and completely out of my element, it turns out photographing train tracks and sunsets didn’t exactly translate. However, in between the tears of attendees and clicks of the shutter something ethereal happened, something I wouldn’t dare try and explain even to this day. All I know is that I fell head over heels, down to the very core fibres of my soul, in love with photography that day. I’d always loved snapping pictures but this was different. My first real experience was visceral. I was smitten.

In the time since that night my entire life has changed. I’ve seen things, beautiful things. Things I never expected to encounter. And I now find myself surrounded by goodness. Each week is something new and beautiful. Capturing the love in the eyes of a first-time Mother, or the smiles of Mom and Dad at your graduation, the first kiss of a newlywed couple, family reunions four generations deep or a newborns laugh. It’s so easy to dismiss until you are right in the middle of it. Love really is everywhere. It surrounds and engulfs every facet it can.