"Laugh like you mean it," I tell my sister, before kneeling on the ground, holding my digital camera. Carefully angling the camera to where the sunlight hits the lens just right, my sister begins to chuckle at my rather ridiculous demand, and I press the "capture" button before the smile fades from her face. Her dimples show, her eyes squint, and her mouth turns up in a smile that she can now keep forever.

I have always loved the idea of taking a beautiful moment and keeping it forever. Photography allows me to do that. I love taking moments-happy, or sad, but nonetheless moments in life-and documenting them. These photos are not always of the highest quality; sometimes the lighting is not optimal, or I capture a photo on an iPhone instead of a DSLR camera, and the amount of grain in the photo is not ideal, but photography enables me to capture something special under any circumstances.

After taking a photography class in eighth grade and learning simple techniques like the rule of thirds, perspective, and macro and micro focus, I knew I wanted to go on and keep photographing whatever I could to the best of my abilities. Upon completing that class, I decided to digress from taking typical trite photos of flowers and dogs, and ventured on to capture raw emotions on people's faces. I mainly photograph my family in all kinds of environments either outside or inside. While I primarily like to photograph people in planned and posed situations, I also enjoy taking candid photos of people during gatherings or parties where all emotions can be expressed in their rawest forms. While taking these photos, I cannot tell what I enjoy more-making my photography subjects laugh in order to capture a photo of them genuinely smiling, stating something interesting to capture a photo of them either confused or thoughtful, or seeing their reactions to viewing their portraits and seeing that they look beautiful in them.

I believe that a photo is the purest form of a story-one that transcends all languages, cultures, ages, and more. Photos can be up for interpretation and also tell stories no words could accurately tell. I try to tell a story with every photo I take but also leave a bit of mystery in them as well. This way, the viewer of my photographs can wonder what my photography subject was laughing about, crying about, thinking about, or dreaming about.

There are many things I like about photography. I like the fact that mothers can always see their children that are in college by simply pulling up their portrait on their phone. I like that I can always remember what my little sister looked like at 12-years-old. I like that I can compare how similar my brother and father look when they were the same age. I like that I can take photos of moments I do not want to forget and do just that-never forget them.