Your Photographer and her Voice Part 2

Today, I was challenged to write the story about my passion. I thought about it, and I am still thinking about how to tell you my story of passion in an extravagant way. Here is the thing; “Passion” is a word too often used- it is like the word “Love”. I watched a movie the other day where Tina Fey starred in- and she said this: “Isn’t it funny when you say a word too many times quickly it becomes meaningless- like fork fork fork….”. (Giggles)

Here is my boring story- but don’t stop reading because my amazing story comes after that:

It all started in Grade 6 (Or 6th Grade for the awesome non-South Africans) I had the absolute privilege of enjoying an aptitude test for the second time- Heaven only knows why we do these tests in Primary School with another 6 years of school to go. “Photographer” was on my definitely list (you know the one that says these are the jobs you should look at doing). In Grade 7, our teachers decided they were going to give scrap-booking classes (give a whoop whoop if you are a scrap-booker!). I was hooked from the first moment- and during my years of highschool / scrapbooking I realised that “memories” were so important, so precious and I wanted to capture them for people (this was a simple thought process- after my initial choice to study to be and become a photographer, I had no idea what lay ahead).

There were moments where I doubted every move, doubted every cell in my body, had difficulty meeting new people or making friends in an industry where I knew how important these things were. During 2011, I had a sudden blast of reality, best friend breakups and family deaths. In 2012 I made the leap to finally leave South Africa and venture into the unknown (or really all over the news known, because I decided to go to Israel). This was a place that made me want to come home so badly in the first week, and it was a place that would change my perspective on life and photography forever. The story of Israel is long, but I want to tell you about my AVIDITY (I am not using the word Passion right now). I discovered that although my camera bag was huge and lugging it around was a massive pain in the back, I could not help but take it with me on every trip, to every walk, picnic or volunteer event! I wanted to have my camera with me because I could , not because I had to. I also had freedom to edit my images exactly the way I wanted to because no one was judging me or cared- and that is how I came across my colourful style 🙂

It is so difficult to be a photographer, but it is so rewarding! Just because I am passionate about it, doesn’t mean I am happy all the time, doing what I love all the time. Some days, I just want to give up, but, I uncontrollably pick up my camera and continue to shoot- because that is what PASSION and AVIDITY is!

I hope that you just loved this story. If you would like to read more about Israel, I have a few old articles on this link <3 

With Adoration

Tammy