I am so excited about getting this up and running!
I received my first camera when I was in the the 5th grade. It went with me everywhere - especially on school trips! I had albums of my work even back then. Waiting for film to be developed was absolute torture back in the mid '80s.
By Intermediate school I had a newer camera and an outlet for my hobby. I developed photographs in the "darkroom" (converted storage closet) of I.S. 119 with my best friend Carolyn Specker Cerrito . Back in the day we pryed film out of its' canister with a can opener in a glorified black garbage bag (with sleeves) in the teacher's cafeteria with Mr. Flannery. The darkroom was located 1/2 way between the 3rd and 4th floor gymnasiums and was incredibly hot during May & June. How hot you ask? So hot that we had to put ice cubes in the chemicals to make them work properly! As we were typical silly teenagers we goofed off by having ice fights and the like but we never sabotaged anyone's work. Our photographs were sacred - well at least to Ca and I they were.
In High School I borrowed an old and very manual camera of my Dad's (a Voiglaender) to use in a photography course. I wasn't allowed to use my Canon point & shoot & we didn't have the money to buy a modern SLR so I made due & took some pretty cool shots with it. Dealing with old chemicals that ruined our pictures was typical for us but still we loved every minute of being in that Franklin K. Lane darkroom. I longed for the day I could convert a basement room/closet into a darkroom of my own.
Fast forward a decade or so and this amateur finally received her longed for SLR in addition to a digital Canon point and shoot and even later a treasured DSLR! A camera was still a regular accessory to my everyday "look". My elementary students quickly learned to ignore the ever present memory keeper and their parents soon gushed over the immense online albums of our class' website. At that point the idea of a photography business was way back in the recess' of my mind, hidden under masses of lesson plans and learning assessments.
Fast forward yet again a handful of years and I'm trying to catch all of the every day miracles of my beautiful sons. Soon my "Mommy friends" compliment me on the shots I've taken and ask me to take pictures of their children as well. With the new fangled thing called Facebook even more friends are commenting on my "work". My Sister-in-law asks me to be the "official" photographer of her wedding, my friend Gretchen asks me to take maternity & newborn pics of her & her son, and her I am.
