When I was a little girl, pictures fascinated me. My mother was an avid scrap booker, and everywhere we went, the camera documented our time together, even if it was only an afternoon spent planting seeds in our garden. I loved accompanying my mom to the store to get the film developed. I couldn’t wait to see the images, and I asked so often if they were ready yet that my mom must have possessed infinite patience to hold back from strangling me. I spent hours poring over the pictures once they were finally ready. Something about the ability to preserve a moment in time that will never happen again fascinated me. My favorite kind of picture showed a person who was unaware that they were being photographed; he or she was laughing or pensive or asleep. It seemed like I was able to see through to a person’s soul, captured miraculously on a four by six inch piece of paper.
As I have gotten older, my fascination with photography has grown. One of my photographer friends taught me to see the world in a completely different way, through the lens of a camera. He taught me that an everyday object like the ground can be a compelling picture if you look at it from another angle. Because of the inspiration from friends like him, I started to consider making photography more than a hobby. This year I signed up for a photography class and it didn’t take more than a few weeks of the course to convince me that I would be satisfied taking pictures for the rest of my life.
People have by far remained my favorite subjects to photograph. I love people, and I want to tell their stories through pictures. My passion for photography and for helping people fuses perfectly into my goal of becoming a photojournalist. I will have to capture moments in time that can never be repeated, moments that will show the most intimate part of people’s souls. And through this exposure, their lives will be immortalized. This is how I am going to change the world, sharing one person’s story at a time.
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
And I can't wait to be the one to see their stories captured on your camera. Someone was not too far off the mark when they said, "A photo is worth a thousand words."
"If imperfections are what make us beautiful, then I must be a total babe!"
http://www.progressiveu.org/blog/missionsminded-maiden