It has been ONE year of In My Visions and I can't believe it! It still feels like yesterday when I was figuring out what I should or could or would be doing with my photography. I mean I still am figuring it out, but one year later, I feel nothing but pride, gratitude and excitement. Most of all, I feel happiness. I had to start somewhere and I am glad I did that a year ago. A year ago I told myself that "eventually" I would do it, but eventually is now. There's no better time like now to start doing what I love to do.
There is never a "right" time to start anything. As cliché as this sounds, you really do find love when you follow your passion. It's not that I went blindly down this path, but rather I didn't know where to start and where it would lead to. This website has changed me more than I could have ever expected. I wanted a place to call my own and I wanted a place that I could post whatever I wanted to post. I just wanted to share my world to whomever came across it. I was shy. I was afraid. I didn't want criticism and I didn't want praise. I just wanted to start something-- do something-- for myself.
A year ago, I dreamt of traveling the world (which I still am dreaming of because clearly I did not see the entire world in just one year). I also dreamt of sharing my visions, one photo at a time. I didn't have a specific identity, and I didn't know what my niche was. There are photographers who only photograph people, or only photograph landscape or only photograph in black and white. What am I? I didn't know what I was at the time and it doesn't matter what I am now. What changed was that I stopped trying to figure whatever "it" was and I just started doing it.
Before I began this website, I had tons of photos and no where to showcase them. My intentions were never to declare myself a professional by having my own website, but really to start a timeline of my journey in life through my photography. Having something visually laid out helped me understand my strengths and weaknesses, what I need to work on and what my fortes are. But above it all, I archived what my photographic style looked like then and what it will eventually look like when I'm older. It isn't about posting and updating every week, but it's about seeing something collectively at my own pace.
This is my personal album. You see it for what it is and it doesn't matter if i've impressed you. What matters is that you took your time to see what I see. And maybe I got to take your mind off the negative, the misery or the sadness you might be going through because in that flicker of a second, my photograph showed you love, joy, passion, color and the beauty that exists in this world.
And there lies an understanding-- a mark on a day in a year when I realized the meaning of my work. All this is, is my happiness filled up on a website, spaced evenly, and readily available just clicks away.
Thank you to my family, friends, inspirations and to all who read and take time to see what are in my visions.
Eventually,
<3 Laura