Earlier today someone on formspring asked me “When did the photography bug bite you?” and this got me a little excited because this is something I could turn into a blog post.

Back in the summer between the 7th and 8th grade a friend of mine and I decided to enter a film festival.

It cost $25 bucks to enter, and we got an 8mm camera on loan with a roll of film from the organizer and we went on a camping trip with Scouts that weekend.

We spent the weekend shooting a short movie telling the story of a group of explorers climbing a mountain, and it was terrible.

However, at the time we were completely unaware of this, and thought our 30 minute black and white silent movie was awesome.

The festival happened, and it was an awesome experience, it was at a contemporary art gallery in Downtown El Paso, I forget the name; but there was free pizza and cokes; and like 5 other movies to watch before ours.

Well, this started it in part.

I continued on with carrying a camera on me while camping. I had a little plastic 110 camera that stayed in pack and I would shoot with it whenever we stopped.

In High School I took a few video classes, and shot several short pieces. I always wanted to take a photography class, but my parents always talked me out of it saying it was too expensive.

When I got to college, I did not get my first digital camera until my sophomore year. Before that I had shot with the disposable cameras you get at the grocery store.

My parents came up for my birthday and asked me what I wanted. I said I wanted a digital camera, and we went to the store and got the perfect one.

It was during my Junior year that I took a podcasting course, and had to shoot photos for the podcast. I checked out cameras from the College of MassComm from Rob, and would go shoot the needed material and I really enjoyed it.

I decided that I wanted to learn more, so I enrolled in a photo class at Tech. It was required that we had to shoot film, so I went online and bought a Canon Rebel G. I love that camera, and I have enjoyed shooting with it ever since.

It wasn’t until I started working at The Daily Toreador, and then started interning at The Avalanche-Journal that I really got into photography because I sometimes had to shoot concerts, and I had a ton of fun.

Even though I had no idea what I was doing.

But thanks to Rob and Lauren, I learned a lot and I am still learning how to shoot.