Building my portfolio

Having a website all to myself and being able to share my work with the world is a little overwhelming and exciting at the same time.  I hope to grow and learn as much as I can in the process.  Photography has been my passion for a long time.  It started in my teenage years when my parents purchased their first film camera.  Every picture had to turn out great or else it was wasted money.  There was one click and then you had to move on.  The anticipation built up to when the photos were developed and everyone could see what had been captured in that one click of the camera.  The pictures I took were usually good enough to pass my dad’s strict criteria of what a good picture should look like.  The most important criteria were that everyone was facing the sun and smiling for the most part.  I loved being the family photographer and even videographer later on when we had saved up enough for a video camera.  

I only have a handful of pictures of my childhood as there was hardly anything we were allowed to take with us when our family had to flee our home country.  My parents on the other hand have no documentation of their childhood and upbringing.  Sometimes when people post a side by side comparison of their parents’ childhood pictures with theirs, I wonder what my parents looked like when they were children.  

The picture below is one of those precious childhood memories.  It was captured by my dad on a hot summer day when my sister and I were playing in a tent.  That day, my sister and I had switched clothes.  She wore my orange/yellow outfit and I wore her pink flowery dress.