My mother has instilled in me to always capture moments with pictures. Whether I am on vacation in the same location my family has always vacationed, or if I am visiting a friend in a different state, I can never leave moments like that without taking pictures. My phone is full of pictures of my friends and my dog and everything in between. I have beautiful flowers and scenery on my phone. I love being able to look back at those pictures and remember the feelings I had during those moments in time.

Let's think about pictures for a moment. Pictures are frozen moments in time that we have captured for as long as we have the picture. It is a freeze frame of life. A moment that no one can change (though nowadays they can be edited) and stands the test of time. Just a moment that becomes a lifetime memory.That is why I love pictures.

Last week, I was visiting one of my best friends in North Carolina. It sometimes blows my mind that someone like her still exists in this world. The thing that makes her so special is that I have only known her for a year, but it feels like we have known each other forever. She just gets me. We grew up in two different states but act like we have grown up as neighbors when we are together. Time stops existing and days feel like weeks because I just love being with her so much; I am never conscious time is. In fact, she is the model in my picture for this blog. She is standing on sand dunes in the Outerbanks.

I love capturing people in pictures. Especially when I can make that person feel beautiful when they look at the picture. I am very critical of myself in pictures and there are very few people that can make me feel beautiful when they take a picture of me. When I am behind the camera, though, I love capturing that perfect moment with that perfect angle and the perfect lighting. I love when I can look at a picture and think "a professional photographer took those pics", but it was actually me.

I enjoy taking pictures. I would like to admit that it is a hobby of mine. I need a smart phone to use solely for my pictures. I like freezing time. I like being able to relive moments through photos. I do not live less in the moment by taking pictures. In some ways, I enjoy the moment more when I take a picture because then I can carry that moment with me forever. Though not every moment can be captured, I will continue to live life behind a camera.