Monday, June 14, 2010

Summerfest 2010



One conversation that has been going on in our house a lot lately is "if I had only known back then what I know now..." What I wouldn't give to have a time machine and go back and talk to the 18-year old me.

I can remember the first occupation I said I wanted when I was a child was to be an author of children's books. Not the toddler kind, but not really the young adult kind, either. The in-between ones. I was infatuated with The Babysitters Club. In fact, I still have all my books from when I was a kid, somewhere in a box in the garage. But as I grew older, I realized I can't really write. So that dream faded.

I don't really remember having any career ambitions in high school. I remember for a short time I wanted to be a marine biologist, but that was only because a boy I had a crush on wanted to be a marine biologist. I graduated and went to college hoping that I would eventually decide. But I never did. I really thought I would go into accounting for awhile. I like it ok, and I've done it for several jobs, but it wasn't exciting or something I was passionate about. I took a photography class in college, but I felt so out of my league. It was fun, but I felt like I just wasn't creative enough.

But then in my 30s, I rediscovered my love of photography. And it hit me hard. Like - this-is-all-I-ever-want-to-try-to-do-for-a-living-ever-again hard. And I'm trying to make a living out of it. I've always been one that lacks patience of any kind, but I am really trying to be patient in building a business. And I love taking people's photos. It makes me excited. It doesn't feel like work at all to me. I'm normally a quite shy person, but for some reason, when I'm taking someone's photo, all that shyness is gone. I hope that one day I have a successful, established portrait business.

But do you want to know my true, secret ambition is? I would love to be a travel photographer. I watch these shows on the Travel Channel, and the whole time, I am thinking of how I would turn this into a photo or how good that would look in print. I would love to travel the world and tell it's stories and history through photographs.

So why this big schpeal with these fair pictures? Well, I love taking pictures. Even if they aren't of me, or even of people I know. Call it practice (because I need it - I really know nothing about travel or journalistic-type photography!) My little obsession. My little way of making my dreams come true - even if it is just down the street and no one is paying me to do it. I love pictures that tell a story. That's why.

This last weekend was Summerfest in Orem. The weather was horrible - rainy and windy pretty much the whole time. We planned on going down on Saturday night, but it had been raining, and I didn't want to take Abbi out in the rain. So we decided not to go, and to just go to Strawberry Days this week. And Josh got a really bad headache, so it was all for the best anyway. But then as I was making dinner, the clouds parted and the sun came out. I couldn't resist. I packed Abbi up and we went over. I wanted to get some pictures of fair food for my Zupas blog post. We walked around for a bit, and I was happy to be able to take some pictures. We stuck around for a bit until the rain started threatening again. Even though it's not a huge fair, there were still tons of people there. Hopefully next year the weather will be better and we can enjoy the whole thing!

Also, just as a side note - I'm not usually into heavily post-processed photos. I usually like to stick with real, clean colors. But I thought I'd have fun with these. Not my usual style, but something a little different!























4 comments:

Cassie said...

I love the treatment on these photos! You are incredibly talented!

Abby said...

I don't have to tell you this, but you're a great photographer! You definitely have the eye. And carnival photos SHOULD be processed. Fairs and festivals and the like are timeless events; changing the color makes the photos feel timeless, too. They're great!

Michelle said...

those are amazing pics! I took some pics of damon and a little friend at the fair a couple of years ago, and did the "antique" look on them and they are some of my favorites! you're amaazing

Unknown said...

LOVE these! You've definitely got an eye for photography! They're beautiful!