02/25/2017
Greetings from Yours Truly!
To Give Thanks and Insight on my journey, here is this:
I would like to start this post by extending a thank you to all who support me and encourage my ventures! It's inspiring, because as some of you closer to me know I've ventured off and done some crazy, out-of-this-world things that I either never finished or failed EPICLY, but this particular niche, I have a passion for burning in my soul! I am humbled by the level of support, and the encouragement has been overwhelming. I am truly grateful and am also very truly blessed.
To cover a few bases here - I'd like to say that as I continue to digitally develop my work, keep in mind that every single time I press the shutter button on my camera, my creativity is sparked and I begin to search within my soul how I plan to make that image capture the attention of others. Having always been one who absolutely loves attention, I thought to myself a while back after having fallen flat on my ass, that I don't want people to look at ME and give ME attention. I want people to ask, WHO CREATED THAT? WHO DID THAT? HOW DID THEY DO THAT? That, along with my desire to pursue an outlet that would keep me grounded as well as allow me to integrate my love for technology, has been the foundation of my success into the art of digital photography. I also attribute my inspiration to do this to my past life experiences, my travels, and a few key people that told me I could do anything I put my mind too. They told me this all my life growing up, and now, here I am all these years later ... And I finally understand what they mean. I am achieving success in every direction I turn, and for that, I am truly proud.
Inspired by two world renowned photographers, namely, Ansel Adams and Annie Leibovitz, I began contemplating the idea to venture into photography a few years ago when I was gifted a point and shoot digital camera. I snapped some "selfies" and started toying with pictures of random objects and scenes. I lost that camera, and remember beating myself up for losing it because at the time they were hard to come by and even more difficult to replace. I remember the first time I saw some photographs of someone I idolize, Mr. RuPaul Andre Charles, Drag Queen Supermodel and Entertainer, and noted the name copyrighted in the lower corner, Annie Leibovitz. I remember thinking, "God, I want to do that... I want to take the photos of RuPaul..." I recall when I was first exposed to the landscape photographs shot by Ansel Adams, and remember feeling overwhelmed with gratitude and tranquility while marveling at the detail in the photographs. It was at that point, I promised myself that someday, when the opportunity came, I would take it and start my very own venture into the world of photographic art.
Going back further, I would have to say that my "creative" inspiration comes from my grandmother. My father and mother purchased her a Scrapbooking kit that came with all of these neat tools like scissors that had edges unlike traditional scissors, colored poster board, paperboard frame pages, and about a thousand other things inside this fairly large box. I was maybe seven or eight years old, and from that day forward, I remember going to my grandmothers house every Sunday after church with my sister and cousins, and my grandmother would have the dining room table spread out with all of her creative work. Computers were beginning to become very popular for creative works at the consumer level, and so month after month, year after year, my grandmother scrapbooked maybe thousands of old family photos she had put in old shoe boxes and such. She made borders, wrote titles and places, added stickers here, drew designs there. She made books of all my ancestors, family members passed, and special moments and had them duplicated o'er and o'er, giving them to the living relatives each year for Christmas. I'll always attribute my "creative" element to my Grandmother, Jeanne. She truly has an eye for creative elements, much like myself.
I would also like to thank and attribute a big part of my success to my dear friend Jennifer Terpstra for her influence and use of equipment during my first experience in exploring digital photography. You mean a lot to me, lady.
That's just a little blurb of how this all got started, just to give you an idea.
My style, vision and creativity is continuing every single day to evolve. EVERYWHERE I look, I see something and start contemplating ways to make it stand out. While studying my computer sciences, I find myself subconsciously thinking of places to go and see to snap a photograph. These days, I'll go to a place two or three times, just because each time I see something I wanted to shoot differently. Sometimes, I'll come home and scrap my photos from that day, by hiding them or deleting them from sight and mind, only to revisit them and think of ways I could manipulate them to make them truly unique.
In conclusion to this social media post on my dedicated showcase here on Facebook, I would like to say that for now, I do this because I can't get enough. As I continue to grow, learn, and develop my sense of creativity and most importantly my vision, I must say that whatever the outcome, I care only that my soul is being set free and healed in my pursuits. It's truly an experience I treasure, and will not let anyone or anything get in the way of my vision, or hide from the lense of my camera.
Once again, I am humbled, thankful and truly moved in the support I have received thus far! I hope that what I deliver during this journey leaves a lasting and burning impression in your mind, making you ask questions, think critically, and look within yourself and discover your own creative being.
With Love,
Travis R.
