I want to show you some pictures.
When I was 16 years old I took this photograph of my friend Valerie. We were at her and her twin sister Vickie’s farm in Indiana. This was a great day.
When I was 17 years old…I took this photograph of Kayla. She was born on October 10th of 1999 to a girl I was dating at the time. I got caught up in a relationship and found out later that my girlfriend was 4 months pregnant. I stayed with her and fathered a child that wasn’t mine while I was a child myself. I essentially ran away from my dad’s house and took off to take care of my girlfriend and this baby. One week after this baby was born, her mother went back to Ecstasy, Cocaine, and Marijuana leaving me to fend for myself with her. I did everything I could for this baby girl until she was 6 months old, when her mom dumped me. Never have I been closer to taking my own life than when I was trying to support a “family”, working non-stop, and dealing with a drug-addicted girlfriend while I was 17 years old.
When I was 17 years old I took this photograph of my sweet Dalmatian, Teddie. At the time, we had 5 Dalmatians at my mom’s house. It was an average-sized house, and 5 Dalmatians was crazy to be honest, but Teddie was probably the most mild-mannered dog I’ve ever owned. She died several years back and I really miss that one.
When I was 17 I took this photograph of my dad, who got me into photography. He constantly took me on photo-trips as a teenager and I publicly hated it. In secret, I loved these trips and I am so thankful for them now.
When I was 18 years old I did what I had done many times before // I loaded up my little white Toyota Celica with my photo bag and I set out on my own to seek some sort of adventure. I took a drive deep into Indiana with the intent of getting myself lost somewhere. I found a longhorn steer and I used some sort of strange filter to get a creepy effect.
When I was 18 years old my dad and I went to Spring Grove Cemetery and shot a couple rolls of film. As always, he shot black and white and I shot color slides. I remember specifically that this was the day I purchased my Nikon N90s camera and it was an incredible beast to shoot with at the time. We explored headstones and mausoleums…this one was beautiful, as were the clouds that day.
When I was 18 years old I drove slowly up my grandma and granddad’s street looking for something to photograph. I found an old barn on an odd hill and I shot an entire roll of Fuji Velvia ISO 50 slide film. 36 exposures and this was my favorite one.
When I was 18 years old I started experimenting a lot with long exposures. I took this one outside of a Borders bookstore near Northgate Mall around 9pm at night. It was a minute long exposure and during that minute I slowly zoomed the lens from wide-angle to telephoto.
When I was 19 years old I shot this photograph of my lovely wife Allison. She was my fiancee at the time and she also had some seriously hot red hair.
When I was 20 years old I shot this photograph of my sister-in-law Allayna. She was worn out from a day at the beach.
And now I have showed you the things that I wanted to show you.
Feel free to go back to what you were doing.
