When I think back to the moment when my interest in photography started. I was 8 years old when my cousin gave me her Vivitar TELE 603 camera. We were at Yellowstone National Park for a Family reunion and I still remember how exciting it was to capture those moments with a camera. My fascination with all things mechanical made it easy to become obsessed with cameras. Fifteen years later I was an engineering major at Southern Illinois University in Carbondale, Illinois and had a dilemma that my future in mechanical engineering would inevitably leave me stuck in front of a computer for the rest of my life. It was then that I made the only decision that made sense and felt right. I decided to pursue a passion that I had never before considered at the college level. Two years later I received my degree in Cinema and Photography which would connect my interest of the outdoors, travel, adventure, with all things mechanical and creative. My love of film photography is equal to my intrigue in the ever changing digital age of photography we now live in. Undoubtedly time changed me, what once started out as an interest in the mechanics has now turned into a love of creatively captivating a story through a simple photograph.