When I was really young I remember my mom taking me and my younger sisters to an auction with a friend of hers. I can even remember a couple things we bought including a record player and a very old camera. Although I didn't have many records, I do remember playing one song over and over again. Rain Drops Keep Falling On My Head. When it rains, I think about sitting in my room and playing that over and over. I also remember my first camera even more so fondly.
I was so excited when my mom purchased that very old camera. My first camera! Oh the things I would take pictures of! But first we had to see if it worked. At my mother's suggestion we took it to my Grandpa Detje. At the time I didn't know this, but he was a bit of a photographer himself. At least I thought so after he passed away and found out he had a beautiful Canon with all kinds of colored lenses and attachments.
Grandpa took that old camera, got it cleaned up and working. I don't remember what kind of camera it was, but I do remember it being very old, maybe from the 1940's or 1950's. It had a metal light bulb flash on top and only took black and white photos.
The day my Grandpa brought that camera over so I could try it out is also memorable for me. My two younger sisters and I were in the backyard of our first home playing. Grandpa came out with the camera. He proudly showed it to me and tried to explain how to take a picture. Of course I was only six or seven years old at the time, maybe younger, so I had no understanding of the things he was telling me. He took my two younger sisters and knelt to the ground between them. With my back to the west and the hot summer sun beating down on us, I clicked my first photograph with that old camera.
About a week or so later Grandpa brought me the photos from the camera. I don't remember any of the other pictures, but I remember that particular picture of my Grandpa and my sisters very vividly. What happened to that camera and that photo is a mystery to me. I wish I could find them, as they are very treasured memories for me.
As the years have passed my interests in photography have continued. I belonged to the yearbook staff my senior year of high school. Took photography classes in college while attend Waldorf College and Iowa State University
On Christmas Eve 1999, my father-in-law and I were admiring the moon from the formal living room window. He commented how that moon would make an interesting photograph. I didn't know that he had an interest in photography or that he had an enlarger and dark room equipment sitting in his basement that had been unused for years! It all belonged to his older brother who had past away several years earlier. That next summer Rob and I moved into our first little house. Rob had taken the moving truck to his Dad's house to pick up some furniture and to my surprise Rob and his step-sister unloaded that enlarger and dark room equipment! I was thrilled, yet curious where I was going to set up a dark room.
Sadly ten years have passed and that dark room has never been established. Photography has changed dramatically this past decade with digital cameras becoming the simplest and most cost effective form of photography for everyone. As sad as I am that I've never started up that dark room, I must admit that I’m thrilled for the convenience of my digital camera!
Over the past year and a half I've allowed my creative senses to reintroduce themselves to me. While in Playa del Carmen, 
Once again I was thrilled with what my eyes caught! I was able to catch Emilie being Emilie. My child's timeless childhood memories captured in a few minutes on a warm September afternoon. Emilie’s first visit to the beach, finding her first pet rock, naming it and giving it a home is something I know she won’t forget. Emilie sat quietly in the wet sand trying to make sandcastles and moats all while I took endless photos of her at play. Ruining that beautiful white dress her father and I bought in Mexico by running along the beach, splashing wildly in the water without a care in the world is something I won’t forget thanks to my creative vision.
(Read more of my blog at http://thecreativegal.blog
