I know it may seem obvious and a bit silly to say, but I am so thankful for light, and not just as a photographer. The other evening, we had the most glorious sunset. I was driving and couldn’t stop and grab a picture of it. Sometimes it’s nice to just enjoy the beauty and not worry about angles and f-stops and aperture. C.S. Lewis once wrote “I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen: not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else.”
I love taking pictures. I love taking pictures of people. I love taking pictures of places. I love taking pictures of abstract things. I just love taking pictures. My love of photography started with I was very young. Starting from about age 7, if you had asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up, I would have told you, “A free-lance photojournalist for the National Geographic Society.” And I knew what that meant. My parents had a subscription to the NGS, and each month I would pour over the photos from around the world of amazing places and cultures. I got my first camera when I was about 10. I took a photography class in 9th Grade where we learned all about light, f-stops, aperture, and how to develop your own black and white film (yes, film). I got my first really good camera when I was 23, and I loved taking black and white slides. My first trip to Europe (when I was 26), all of my photos were slides. Crazy, I know. But now, with everything digital, most photos are shared online and shown in a new form of slide show. I was just ahead of my time.
Recently, I’ve delved in portrait photography, and it’s been a blast. Weddings can still give me some anxiety, but it is so much fun to capture moments and memories for people.
I had a hard time deciding what photo I would include on this post. I decided to use the first photos I posted when I started this blog seven years ago. I still can’t believe it’s been that long. What an amazing adventure!
For the beauty of the earth, For the beauty of the skies, For the love which from our birth Over and around us lies, Lord of all, to Thee we raise This our hymn of grateful praise. Folliott S. Pierpoint, 1835-1917
I have been lucky enough to do a bit of traveling around this amazing planet on which we live (that sentence structure is a nod to all of my English professors at the University of Utah). I’ve been to Asia, Europe, Mexico, Great Britain, and most of the United States of America. Everywhere I go, I find beautiful things to photograph and wonderful people who fill my heart with happiness.
This photo is from our trip along the PCH last October (2012). We spent about 40 minutes on this beach capturing the waves crashing on the rocks along the shoreline.
nancy merrill photography 