When I was home over Christmas break, I cherished every story my grandparents shared with me over morning coffee. Some of the favorite hours of my lifetime have been spent pondering the little window into history, humanity, love, faith, and goodness that fate has afforded me through the hearing of these tales. One such story this winter was about a hunting trip to the end of the parkway to an area my grandfather knew well. He described looking over at the branches in the tree he was sitting in, feeling a wind chill so cold it was almost unbearable, and seeing formations of snow and ice (that were originally atop the branches) jutting out in the direction of the wind, displaced and reformed by the speed and chill. He had his Nikon on hand, and told me that he still had the developed photo somewhere around their house from that day. Once, it rained and he put on a rain slick and continued the day, returning to the tent that evening talking about how unusually warm it was. When he began removing his rain slick, he realized the that condensation from his body heat had frozen into a thin layer of ice on the inside of the rain coat and that had insulated his body heat from the wind and exterior cold, apparently giving him the impression that it had been warmer outdoors.

I love to look at the photos that my family members have taken over the years. My grandfather is gifted in his eye for things of nature that appear only once- I remember my mother turning to me one afternoon after I'd gotten my Instax Polaroid camera and saying "Papaw said to take a picture of the sky outside right now, because you'll never see anything like it again." I walked outdoors to find a straight line across the entire horizon among the clouds. One perfect, thin, straight line of blue sky surrounded by clouds on both sides. My mother is a beautiful photographer and I cherish the photos she has taken with my camera, she gave me her film camera last summer. My grandmother is a professional photographer, and her photos capture people's personalities in a way that I'm still trying to master.

This all leads me to my purpose in this article- I persist with my photography, scooping up every chance I get to photograph people, because of the chance to create art that I feel reflects my human condition. I've been working with my camera (a trusty canon, which is about 10 years old) for nearly two years, and I've had my fair share of discouragements. My goal as of late is to capture warmth, laughter, and reflection in my photographs.

This Valentine's Day, I have been reflecting on all of the people I love and the stories about them that my photographs represent. Remember to document the experiences in life that make up your identity, and to express the love that you feel for others as life moves on.