When I first sat down in photography 101 as a dedicated nutrition student looking for an easy elective, I filled out the intake questionnaire as such:

What is you favorite thing to photograph? Trees

What is your least favorite thing to photograph? People. People ruin photos  

What a silly thought. [I remember my teacher laughed] When I think back to that moment I remember what I was referring to, I hated when random tourists interrupted my perfectly composed vacation shot. [I was very seriously creating important art #imverybusy]

Traveling is where I first discovered my love for photography. I was in Iceland & the sun was out 24 hours a day & the entire country was literally our playground & I found that I was preferring to stay inside and obsessively cull, edit & post glorious moss covered landscapes than anything else. I should have taken that as a clue to what I would be doing every day for the rest of my life… & now here I am doing it all over the best land in the world!

So back to portraits. Now that I can masterfully avoid background distractions [tourists] & can get rid of anything I want in Photoshop, an environmental portrait is in my option the best kind of memory. Just you simply blended with your land & location. Whether it’s on the most important day of your life or not, it’s significant. Very significant. What memories are you leaving behind for the next generations? Are they ever going to see how amazing your youth was in a photo album? Or will it all be lost when your hard drive crashes.

People [YOU] are the MOST important part of a photo & my favorite thing to shoot.