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Okay – let’s face it, I love photography.

Back in high school I always wanted to be on yearbook and I wanted to be in photography club, I just really didn’t know how to do it. Maybe I was lazy, maybe I was nervous that people would look at me funny but I liked photography and didn’t know how to start. My parents never had a fancy camera and I felt that I would be laughed out with the most basic point and shoot camera.

All that changed in Grade 12 when my school brought in a brand new English credit for Journalism. Everyone that knew me back then knew that I loved English and I loved to write. (I still do!) and taking journalism sounded like a great opportunity. In this class we were responsible for putting together a school newspaper and producing the entire yearbook from concept to design, layout, photography and writing.

I learned that I loved going out and taking photos of different people and things and putting them all together into the yearbook. I was able to showcase a talent that was hidden inside me.

Let’s face it – the photos were pretty basic, but through that course I learned that I had talents above and beyond just a student. I had an opportunity to do something fun – and possibly get paid for it!

I took journalism in college and had more fun putting together layouts and the college magazine than I did with anything else. The writing was just writing and the style they expected was very basic, followed rules and was not allowing me to shine.

Somehow – I got a job out of it – I started working as a reporter/photographer/editor for the Cambridge Reporter. It’s now defunct – but I worked there during an interesting time. I brought some fresh work into an old blood newspaper. I was a local girl and loved covering sports and just general fluff stories to highlight good times. Unfortunately, the things that they wanted me to do weren’t always where my strengths lie. When it went against my comfort zone and I started to feel disgusted by some of what they wanted me to do – I had to move on.

This was when I brought my photography to the forefront of my career. I started working at a Portrait studio where we focused on children and families. I was able to highlight the precious moments in peoples lives and was able to see the good every day. Every day I created a memory for a family – capturing it forever on film. Photos I had taken hung in homes all over Canada and the world. I was really good at what I did.

After some time (5 years!) I needed some more challenges. I wanted to branch out and help others learn. I was offered an opportunity to train and build teams in the Toronto area, and I helped them raise the quality of their work and now their photography hangs in livingrooms across Canada. I like to think that I was able to help people build on a career and turn it into something great.

Some people that I have trained have now moved onto open their own studios – and I am so proud of them for sticking with it and persevering.

My career has changed since I worked in the photography field – but it’s allowed me to take some time away and to realize that I do like taking pictures. I do like capturing moments and feelings and moods through a lens.

For the past several years my husband and I have been known to just take off on a Sunday with nothing in mind other than taking some photos. We’ve made treks all over southern Ontario capturing the mood of the day or a special moment. He’s a really good photographer too and it’s awesome that I’ve met someone that encourages my capabilities and likes when I pick up the camera only to say “Let’s go – the lights good.”

This is why I’m going to be starting a photography site for my own work. I’m going to try and showcase my work from here forward. Keep your eyes peeled for a new site coming soon!

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Photo credits:
All portraits were taken by me at the PCA Portrait Studio in Cambridge, Ontario

#1 – My dimply niece Saige Hill on her first birthday
#2 – My blonde angel of a neice Victoria (Tori) Schmitz on her first birthday – this outfit came all the way from Hawaii and was a gift from her grandparents
#3 – My nephew Brayden Hill on his first Communion
#4 – My parents Marlene and Howard Hill on their 25th wedding anniversary

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