Hey, I’m Adam and I am a 18-year-old photographer that loves to explore the outdoors and capture nature’s most precious and untouched moments. Photography has been a huge hobby/turned business of mine for just over 3 years.
Looking back at it now, I can see art was almost always apart of my childhood. Starting in elementary school and leading up to middle school I loved to draw anything that came to mind. I would spend hours going through different art books trying to copy all the steps and create something for myself.
My Initial Spark
Although I was given my first camera for my 7th birthday, it wasn’t until I was 13, that photography clicked inside of me. It was during the September 2015 Lunar Eclipse. My family and I had gathered outside of a hotel and stared in wonder as the moon slowly transformed into a red ball of light.
I grabbed my mom’s point and shoot camera and began taking pictures. Every time I heard the click I anxiously looked at the back of the screen to see something magical.
One of the first shots I took of the Lunar Eclipse.
It became an addiction that night as I kept taking photo after photo, just to obtain that feeling of accomplishment, as I truly felt proud of the images that were appearing on the back of the screen.
But even after that night, photography slipped away from me. From time to time I took some pictures, but never really stuck with it. It wasn’t until a few months later when my family and I took a trip to Thailand.
At this point I was in eighth grade and was being homeschooled for the first time, allowing my family and I to travel more. While in Thailand my phone was constantly out, snapping picture after picture. By the end of the trip, I had accumulated well over 1,000 images.
Besides using my phone I also took hours of video from my GoPro Hero 2, which heightened my curiosity even more.
I had also started downloading certain editing apps, which made taking images even more exciting, as I got to tweak them to make them even better. After I was done with each photo I would rush over to my parents to show them and they started to become genuinely surprised at some of them. Their interest began to boost my confidence and by the time we got home, photography was buzzing through me.
At the time, my dream was to become an astronaut, which similarly got me extremely interested in the cosmos and everything related to it.
I would spend a lot of my time online looking up photos of stars and different galaxies. My photography interests and space interests finally collided and I went on a mission to learn everything there was to know on how to take the same kinds of pictures I was seeing on the web.
YouTube became my go-to as I constantly started researching the type of gear I needed, where I wanted to go, and what time of the year I needed to go.
Finally, in April of 2016, I found a 4-hour beginner photography class to go to. I eagerly wrote down all of my questions in a notebook and took my mom’s point and shoot camera to the class. After the class was over and with most of my questions answered, my next step was to buy a DSLR and a tripod.
After researching for hours on end and reading all types of reviews, I bought a Nikon D5300 with an 18-55mm f/3.5 kit lens off of eBay for a final price of $482. (I chose eBay because after comparing the prices from all other online stores, it looked to be the cheapest and was also in perfect condition). Right after my new camera arrived, my tripod came and for a small moment, my life felt complete.
I spent hours at my house trying out different techniques that had not been possible to achieve with my mom’s point and shoot camera. My fascination peaked continuously as my images began to somewhat resemble those on the internet. I tried out any DIY idea possible from photographing water being poured out of a bucket to light painting in my bathroom.
I Became Obsessed
I continued watching tutorials to understand why this certain setting did that or why my image was missing this and after experimenting for weeks, I was finally ready to face the ultimate challenge.
My family had planned a trip to Zion and Bryce Canyon National Park that June, and it was going to be my first chance to photograph the night sky and more specifically, our galaxy The Milky Way. The Milky Way had been one of the sole subjects I had been researching from the get-go.
While watching tutorials over and over again on what settings to use and how to focus, I would excitedly show my parents a possibility of what I might capture. Of course, I always half-heartedly believed that thinking that it required years and years of experience to obtain the amazing results I was seeing on my computer screen.
But my determination to try my best to capture a similar image motivated me to keep researching so I knew every detail of what I was supposed to do. Once we got to Utah, we stayed in a town called Panguitch, which was approximately a 30-minute drive to Bryce Canyon National Park.
Since all of the tutorials and articles had stated to always scout your location out during the day before shooting it at night, we decided to just drive around Panguitch during sunset to get an idea of where the Milky Way was going to be.
That night I anxiously kept checking my batteries to make sure they were fully charged and also kept checking different articles to make sure I was absolutely ready to take pictures of the night sky. My mom and I’s plan was to wake up around 1 am, as that was when the Milky Way seemed to be in the best position.
Trying to go to sleep was nearly impossible as it felt like Christmas morning was about to occur.
Finally, I urged myself to get some rest, as I would need it if I were to function properly in just a few hours. The alarm sounded and as I walked over to the bathroom mirror to splash water on my face, I just kept thinking over and over, “This is it, this is it. The moment you have been waiting for is here!” As my mom and I drove out to the first location, I think she could sense the excitement radiating from me.
As we got out of the car, I set up my camera and tripod and started dialing in all of the settings that I had rehearsed in my mind a million times.
After changing my settings, I took a moment to look up at the stars and was mesmerized. I started slowly looking off into every direction and slowly began to see the Milky Way with my own two eyes! It was one of the most calming and fulfilling moments of my life.
It seemed to blend perfectly with the stars, yet pop out extravagantly. I quickly returned my attention toward my camera, knowing that what I was witnessing was not on a screen but in real life. And with that thought, I double-checked my focus as best I could, and pressed the shutter button.
Those fifteen seconds seemed like a lifetime as I anxiously waited to see something, anything, appear on my screen. I heard the click and saw it. My jaw dropped, and I believe, no I know, that that was the moment photography became a part of me. That was the moment I knew I had found something I truly loved. What I saw on the camera screen was something very special because I knew it was my own. It was my picture that I had taken right there and then. One of the things that surprised me the most was how closely it resembled some of the images from the countless tutorials I had watched.
My heart pumping, I yelled at my mom to come over and check out what I had just captured. It was one of the proudest moments of my life as I had taken an image of something I had only thought professionals had the ability to capture.
Now looking back on the image, I can immediately critique it in about a thousand different ways. But you have to start somewhere right?
Here it is! My first ever picture of the Milky Way!
As you can see it’s not great. But this dark, unfocused, image sparked an incredible amount of determination in me that has led me to where I am now. So I will forever be grateful!
