From Hobby to Passion: Columbia

My connection with cameras and photography started early; as of recently, my Dad has been a commercial photographer for the last twenty years. After his first steady job as a delivery driver, he decided to make a hobby he loved into a full-time career. 

With his retirement coming up, I finally started taking a real interest in taking better photos, and like most of my generation, I started off by using my phone's camera. This seemed to be "enough" at first, but when I really started looking at the pictures I was taking, I realized something strange. My photos looked nothing like the professional photography I had seen from my Dad, often looking strangely flat with no depth of field, or badly lit, even in the middle of the day. 

I knew I needed something more.

Like most people, I decided to get started with a simple digital camera, in a brand I already knew I liked. I tried taking photos of anything and everything, but I realized I needed to find something I cared about enough to photograph it.

The city of Columbia, South Carolina's capital, is not one of America's more famous places. My state is one of the original founding colonies, but the public eye has always passed us over. I wanted to show off the soul of my town, so I decided to start my photography at home. That's how I started a hobby that'll last the rest of my life.