Why I got into photography...

lightning strikes... - Images by Dominic Hanna
 
"How did you get into photography?"

That's a question I'm usually asked when I'm at networking events. Normally I just give them the simple story of when I took a photography class taught by Getty photographer Jeff Fusco in 2007. On a whim after class one day, I showed him my film portfolio. After looking at my photos, he simply asked me "Why aren't you doing this now?" Within a week, I went out and got a digital SLR.



But that's not the real reason got into photography... I've been traveling this road for quite sometime now. It actually started a long...long...time ago, so long ago actually it feels almost like a past life now

Back in the day, grade/high school was not a pleasant experience. I don't like talking about those says. Most of it has been shaded in a fog by my mind anyway, with the occasional flash of an image or two. But, to say I was bullied was in understatement. I honestly don't recall one day going by that I didn't feel welcome there. I saw that dark sides of many, many people; classmates, teachers, counsellors, principals, you name it. I consider myself fortunate that I only have a few visible scars from that place.

On many occasions, especially on dark days when I thought things couldn't get any worse, I would lie in my bed and look up to stars. I would always make the same wish...for people to see the world through my eyes, even if it was just for a split second moment. I honestly didn't know how it would happen, but I believed it would.

About two years after I graduated, I took a photography class on a whim. This was the first time I had a Single Lens Reflex camera was placed in my hands. The rest they say is history...

So that's my goal in life, ever striving the show what the world looks like through my eyes. Will I be success at it? Only time can answer that one...

-D