A lot of people ask me how I got into photography. I’m not one who could say that I was born
with a camera in my hand, but the truth is I didn’t seriously start shooting until I was on my way
towards a career in the world of accounting.
I am creative, and was in great need of a creative outlet. I had my hands on a couple of projects
and picked up a camera too. I loved my transition from compact camera to my first SLR, which
quickly became one of my favourite companions (along with tons of film in those days). I was
awed by the idea of capturing something that seems so intangible, a moment, a feeling, a face that
says it all. But this “intangible” is really life. Images are so precious, a visual record of an irretrievable
second. It is an absolute joy to capture glimpses of the awesome intangible.
It took a tough choice, but I’ve heard it said, “some people make things happen, some watch things
happen, while others wonder what has happened.” So I spent a few years in photography college,
spent a lot of time in darkrooms, and refined my knowledge and skills in all things photography, or
"drawing with light".
During the recent Queensland floods, many people have shared with me about what was first on
their mind when it came to saving their possessions - it wasn't expensive clothes or electronic
gadgets, it was the photo albums, photo frames, DVD's of photographs. Photos are indeed priceless.
I recall words by the late not so minor photographer, Minor White – "Often while travelling with
a camera we arrive just as the sun slips over the horizon of a moment, too late to expose film,
only time enough to expose our hearts." Life will always be too great to be captured in images,
but I am privileged to be travelling with a camera to momentous places in the hearts and lives of
the people I meet, and record some of it.
Julie
Photographer
