Perhaps you may be wondering why my first blog is just an ordinary picture. Why not a photo of a beautiful landscape? a unique shot of something? or anything that is just impressive. So many whys.. but here is why.
This is a photo of me and Michelle; my bestfriend of 23 years. I lost her from Ovarian Cancer which she battled for four years. I lost her recently, exactly a month ago (we laid her to rest) as I published this first ever blog I created- and she was my inspiration. She was and still is, in so many things- including photography.
I have never taken photography seriously a great deal since high school (Photography was my elective in junior high). Yes, I owned cameras in the past- mostly the isometric ones when I was growing up. The ones you put films in them and develop in a photo lab later, hoping you captured great pictures. When digital cameras came into play in early 2000's the first person to own one that I knew was Michelle. She had the Sony digital camera; and we both loved how easy to take images with it without being worried of how much films we wasted. Then I got mine. From then on, we took many pictures together of almost everything. Photos of our loved ones and places we go together.
I would like to think that I take good images, but I never considered to take it seriously. Photography has been placed in the back burner- as my life like many of you, is also busy juggling between work and domestic chores. In other words- I have no time. But not until recently, I found the passion again. Having to go through with a lot of personal experiences and challenges in my life (my Mom and our cat Hank passing and two friends diagnosed with terminal disease one of whom was Michelle) in the last few years changed my overall life's perspective. It also bring the old time passion which I always like to do but never had the time- Photography. It has become my catharsis. My scapegoat to forget the sad experiences and at the same time heal my broken heart from the pain of losing my love ones. In one of the birthday wishes Michelle gave me, she wrote me that she is encapsulating all our good memories in our hearts so that we will always have something we could turn to when we need respite from the outside world. That is exactly what photography does for me. It has become my respite.
I also feel I am more inspired now because I have a purpose- to capture the beauty of everything, that later I can rekindle even without being in the physical presence of the images- whether it's a person, a place or a thing. Just like this photo in this first blog. In a typical photography critique class, this photo is an over exposed shot. But to every picture it has its story. This by far, is one of my favorite photos that was taken of me and Michelle- our very first trip to Miami, Florida in 2012. There were lots of fond memories it entailed in how exactly we ended there. But what I like most with this photo is the way it captured both our smile while looking at another camera (and not really the one that took the shot). The face of happiness is as genuine as our friendship. Truly an inspiration.
Michelle and I. First trip to Miami. February 2012.