National Geographic. I was in high school when instagram started to be a thing. Back then I had a simple digital camera and i liked taking pictures with my phone. photography wasn't something I considered as a profession; I had no idea what I was doing, and if you looked at the photos I took you'd think my grandma took 'em (nothing but love to my gran 😊).

if you'd ask him, that 18 year old kid would have dreamed of working for NatGeo as a photographer.

 

Fast forward to present day, in my mid-twenties, Instagram now is the new dream for both the old and new generation of photographers, and mine's too, but that National Geographic dream still exists, though my relationship with photography has changed, deeply.

You see I recently came back from a year of solo traveling where i got to hone my skills using just my phone and got photos i couldn't believe i'd take, but i wouldn't have been able to do it if it weren't for a hobby I had before traveling called virtual photography - a niche art created by gamers taking pictures in their favorite games. i'd spend hours taking pictures of digital characters, scenery, and objects. practicing colors, compositions and lighting, training my eye to capture visually interesting imagery. Now after getting a glimpse at the world, I want to bring that to real life :) not the common photographer origin story 😆