Who I have always been is the story teller, the photography is the medium, instead of my voice or written words, I tell stories with pictures. My enjoyment of story telling existed long before my love for photography. I wrote letters and journals and poems... My appreciation of photography was limited to the collected postcards from beautiful places we'd visit but it never occurred to me to become a photographer until about 20 years ago. But then again, the point and shoot camera I used in my adolescence told me I was the most horrible photographer anyway.
I do remember the moment I knew that photography was for me, it was sincerely a love at first sight moment, I entered a room and it was there and for the next several hours I was lost in time... Summer of 1999 and already enrolled in college majoring in Communications. I was focused on a career in writing and journalism when a class in Editorial Photography led me to a visit to The Southeast Museum for Photography. And that was when I knew that photography was The How. My course quickly altered and I enrolled in the commercial photography program at what was known then as The Center for Photographic Studies; now the Bachelors of Science in Photography Technology at Daytona State College.
How to manage The How was a whole other journey, learning the science of light, time and chemistry then and relearning the photographic process in a digital darkroom has been challenging and exciting. I've been lucky to have the training and background of film and traditional darkroom technique as well as being present during the digital revolution. I've developed a classic and consistent style that identifies my work over the last 15 years.
Choosing the stories to tell has also been challenging, stories of personal interest vs paying jobs and staying afloat in a competitive industry has all been part of the #workingphotographer gig.
My career path has taken me through a number of industries and for many years I developed niches in several areas of photography. I don't define myself as a Wedding Photographer, Family Photographer, Commercial Photographer etc... I am simply a Storyteller, Lifestyle Photographer.
There is much more to taking the picture than releasing the shutter. There are the tools, understanding the capabilities of my equipment and internalizing their mechanisms so that the camera body, lenses and lights are merely an extension of the process in my head. I'm in control of the image, what is in focus, what is soft, light or dark, what is where in the frame, every aspect considered to tell the story. I'm not casting models in these pictorials and there are no set designers, I'm in real places with real people, not everything is in my control. Life is happening and the style in which I photograph the event is why I categorize myself definitively as a lifestyle photographer.
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Read: On Photo #1
Love&Lifestyle Photographer Heather Ransley lives on Kauai and owns Kauai Bliss Photography, based in Koloa Hawaii, on the south shore of Kauai. Kauai photographer Heather Ransley specializes in Kauai portrait and Kauai family photography, Kauai wedding photography, Kauai Fine Art Photography and Kauai lifestyle photography. Please visit kauaiblissphoto.com to see more Kauai photography, Aloha!
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