In 2009, I bought my first digital Digital Single-Lens Reflex camera. It was a Nikon D40 and, It came with literature and accessories. I went through the literature that came with it, and I also watch the videos on how to use the equipment. I started taking picture with the camera for the holidays, and I discarded my point and shoot camera. I did not consider myself a national geographic photographer, and I still don’t consider myself one. However, I saw my camera as a mean to tell a story. I have always seen myself as a storyteller above all things. The Nikon helped me find another way to tell a story. I kept the Nikon D40 for a year, then I upgraded to a Nikon D3000 for a couple of years; and the Nikon D3000 served its purpose. In 2014, I purchased a Nikon D3100 which I use now. I traded my Nikon D3000 for a lens. This is in short my history with a camera.
I am wondering whether I have a calling as a photographer or not. I have always enjoyed art as a human being. I used to spent an entire day at any museum in younger years but, I knew that I could not replicate some of the works I saw at the museums. I cannot draw a sketch, or paint like Leonardo Da Vinci. I cannot work with a chisel like Michael Angelo. However, I saw myself as an enthusiast a la Lorenzo de Medici (without the wealth obviously). My camera changed everything however. I can now capture moments in time. I can now use my camera to tell a story. This past summer, I used my camera at an event in Charlotte, North Carolina. I don’t know if photography is my calling, but it is a mean to an end. I am realizing as I am writing that I am a storyteller. We are all storytellers in one way or the other. Some of us tell a story via a keyboard and a computer. Musicians tell stories via tablature and sheet music. Painters tell stories via their paintings. Novelists tell stories via their novels and, so on.
At the end, we are all trying to find our calling in life. Photography gives me a mean to tell stories. Photography is not my calling, but it is a way for me to tell stories. I write and I take pictures. It is how I am making some of my dreams come true. I am no Pulitzer writer, but I am a storyteller. Humans are storytellers with their actions. Our stories are black and white. There are nuances in all our stories. I will leave with some of the stories I have told through the years.
https://photos.app.goo.gl/cEgAXWtg4ZgL6mo62
https://photos.app.goo.gl/YF1WmbCoo232WJLd2
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