What makes a photographer is usually their beginnings. Here's mine. When I was younger I always had a interest in taking photos, yes I may have been not the best but I had a visions of what I wanted to take whenever there was a subject in front of me.
I even remember when I was younger there was even a time where my uncle asked me what I wanted to do and shockingly enough I said photography and when I mean by "shockingly" is I changed my path lots of times when growing up but when I reached my high school years I had this career pathway set in my mind. I thought for years I was meant to be a film director given how passionate I was about it, how I constantly had creative visions about it , and how excited I'd get over seeing this behind the scenes footage for the Amazing Spiderman.
As the time grew closer to really take that path, I felt as if I couldn't do it because for some reason I let the idea that most directors in Hollywood were men which began to make me doubt my chances of being a film director. So I eventually resorted to wanting to be some kind of helping hand on a movie set when I no longer felt the confidence to reach that point. I thought all this up while I was in my Media Foundation course in Humber College because that course consists of so many different paths that you're basically testing them out in that one course. Eventually when the time came to reach that film set path it ended up not being meant for me.
For 3 continuous years I attempted to get into the Humber College film program while I was finishing my Media Foundation course and well, I never got accepted. I think it was for the best though as I heard from so many sources you never get time for family or yourself so maybe it was for the best. When that opportunity wasn't working for me I thought how on film sets there isn't just directors or actors etc. There's also film set photographers. So I applied to the Humber College Photography course with the little photography skills I gained from the Media Foundation program and lucky me, I got in. Here's the portrait photo that I applied with !
One of my first assignments during my first year first semester in the photography college course. September 2020.
It's as if almost life was bringing me to my original said destination. I never expected to get here. I never expected to choosing a path to be so complicated and so hard but that's what you need to face at the start in order to really reach your definition of success. Eventually when I got my hands on my first professional camera is when I did start the program and well that's a whole other story. It definitely made me grow as a photographer but only now did I realize somewhat what I want to do / what I'm good at.
When I started out the different types of photography that was a real rollercoaster I honestly thought I was just destined in portraits because that's all I ever did when I was younger. All I knew back then was oh a portrait with a blurry background makes the photo look professional. Throughout my time in this program I realized my skills weren't in portraits but much rather the editing aspect of photography. I realized this when it came to editing commercial photos. I found a love for editing commercial photos. That's when my passion finally began. 2nd year last semester.
-Marcela Torres