This is a response to Chantelle’s post ‘The Story of my Craft’.

I distinctly remember the first camera that I bought, I still have it somewhere upstairs in a drawer. I was in my second year of my BFA at Western, and decided to enroll into an introduction to media class. I never had used photoshop before, or a camera for that matter. The extent of my photography skills was limited to a point and shoot found at Walmart. The first class we were being divided up into 2 sections, 1 to the computer lab, and the other into the photography section. I was put in the photo section, and the first thing my prof says is for everyone to bring their camera’s next class to start to work on the first assignment… which for me meant having to go to the store and actually buy a camera. This turned out to be from one of my best friend’s Colin’s Dad’s store.. but that’s another story.. Anyways, I had no clue of what to look for, and probably ended up basing my decision on the price, which I attribute to my Finley background. So here I was with my brand new-used Vivitar camera, ready to learn this new trade. I learned all sorts of knowledge, the history of the camera, film and the process of developing black and white film. My love for photography took off from that class, and eventually focusing my 4th year at Western specifically in photography!

The next phase in my story would probably stem from my move to college and the multimedia world. My program at Sheridan - Interactive Multimedia, required us to make a website as one of our final projects.. I wanted to have a photography section on my particular site… which lead me to scanning, cropping, editing the multitude of photos that I had up until then, taken with my old Vivitar camera. Needless to say, it was a laborious task, but I finally ended up having them all into my site. It was this process that I realized that photographing something was just half of my craft, and the whole editing and digital processing was a whole other spectrum that I started to love. So I finally broke down and bought my first digital SLR, a Canon Rebel, and now never have to scan anything ever again!

Looking back, I find it funny that my love for photography all started with a class forcing me to buy a camera. Who knew that taking one class could change everything! Today I have a new digital Rebel xTi, and a newer computer to edit my photos, and don’t go anywhere without my camera.!

Filed under: Random on November 18th, 2007