happy birthday to me ...!

On Friday, the day after Thanksgiving i travelled down to Rothenburg on Der Tauber, a German city south of where we live, & a part of the "Romantic Road". It's a gorgeous, medieval walled city that apart from being incredible pretty has a wonderful Christmas market! It was my birthday & we headed down there with a group of friends for the day, the weather was on our side & of course i took a few photos, making use of my new Nikkor 50mm 1.4f lens (thank you to my wonderful husband).

inspired by another artist

I have talked a lot about inspiration within my blog, & belonging to a group on etsy known as "inspiration ave" it's natural to gain ideas from those around me. Well one of the most "inspiring" photographers for me on Etsy is Tali Schiffer who's photographs are stunning in every way. Recently she shot this gorgeous image of an umbrella, turning something completely normal into a work of art.

This past weekend when visiting the town of Bernkastel Kues in Germany, i used her umbrella idea for my inspiration & came away with my own version. This shows how we are all influenced by those around us, whether it be Ansel Adams or the kid next door, & how differently we all view the world, that two photographers can take the same subject matter & walk away with 2 completely different images.

inspirational images on etsy!

In keeping with the theme of inspiration, & the blog party on Inspiration Avenue, here's a few of those inspirational images i've discovered on etsy, hope they provide you with as much inspiration as they do me!

1. Pierre-Jean Suau

2. Kristi McMurry

3. Mailelani

4. She Hit Pause Studios

5. Studio Lyon

6. Talis

7. Frost Glass

8. Solo Aperture

9. Gabrielle Kai

me & photography

Before i go any further i want to right my disclaimer ... I love photography. & when i say love i mean in the sense that it's part of who i am, it helps me to feel & understand, it lets me see things i would never notice & experience the world in a way i wouldn't otherwise.

One of the girls in my forum, Tali,  wrote her story about her & her relationship to photography , & got me thinking that maybe by writing down mine i could figure out where i go from here.

I was the average kid in school, loving sports & art more than anything but skating through as a B-grade student. I was never in trouble but i never stood out. But i did have all these kinds of dreams & headed off to 6Th form with the idea of working with horses. Well in picking my subjects i wanted to study photography but with horses in mind it was recommended i try something else & ended up with history, biology & psychology. Well pretty early on it became apparent me & biology weren't going to work out together, so at the end of my first year i took up art & photography. 

Photography was the one class i loved, it (& my awesome tutor) helped me to grow (as cliched as it sounds) & there began my love of all things photographic. Here i started to find the detail in things, to get a new perspective on those random objects, & living in Cambridge i started to admire architecture. I was also lucky enough to have a 50mm 1.4 as my first lens on my beloved Olympus OM-1, which is where my signature small focal point comes from.

But the journey was never easy or straight forward or any of the above, & at the end of my a-levels taking photos all but stopped & i disappeared off to do whatever it is you do when you're trying to find your way in the world. & then i ended up living in Cornwall doing an HND in outdoor education. It was here on my summer off, traveling round the states that me & my little point & shoot rediscovered my love for photography. I decided i wanted to go to University & study photography.

So here i up & moved half way across the country (it's England so really it's not that far) to start all over where again i was privileged enough to have some awesome teachers. In the beginning i just wanted to photograph people, not regular portraits but the kind that capture something in the people your photographing. & then it was sports, with a press pass to the British Superbikes. This it seemed was what i wanted to do. & then it was back to people, editorial style stuff, the things you would see in Time, or Life. I wanted to work for newspapers, my images appearing in weekend supplements around the world. But again at the end of my degree, with my return back to my hometown i became lost again. & i would spend hours in a dark room, printing up my images. There's something about watching your picture appear on paper as if like magic, & going through reams of the stuff as you try to get it perfect.

I spent the summer temping for a pharmaceutical research company & discovered if nothing else, the office life was not for me, & at the end of the summer got a job working in a secondary school as a photography technician & teaching assistant. This has to be the hardest, most challenging job I've ever had, & sometimes the most rewarding. I got to share my love with children who were just discovering it for the first time. There was no pressure on me to perform, just a chance to fall in love again. & gradually i started taking photos for me, no one else just myself. 

But ... yes there's always a but ... i fell in love with the most incredible man (don't tell him that his heads big enough all ready) & went & married into the military. Moving to Germany 2 months after our wedding day, & all of a sudden i went from being Laura to "Mrs Evans" or "SGT Evans wife" & again i forgot what it was i loved before. I was starting over, finding myself again & for the first time since i was 16 unemployed. There's only so much sitting around the house a girl can do before she goes nuts. So i needed a job, but the ones i wanted weren't out there. Jobs for spouses on base are limited & frustrating, & there i ended up as a waitress & now bartender at Chilis. The one upside being the tips, allowed me to invest in my Nikon D300, paid for by myself (seriously i was all kinds of proud about that) & my Macbook & now I'm starting over.

I'm back to photographing the little stuff, the random & unique things i see on my travels, & selling my work. I know that this is what i want to do, it's who i am & just as important it will allow me to have a career as a military wife. But how do i go about this? I have my Etsy shop & my friends are helping me to spread the word, & I'm also looking into doing some portrait work but this whole thing is scary & frustrating & i feel like i don't know where I'm going. But I'm going to give it a try, so i can't look back & wonder "what if", so i can be the person I'm meant to be.

So the question i guess i left answering is where do i go from here ... in the words of Blue Peter ... "answers on a postcard please"!!