A Budding Photographer

My love for photography goes way back to my younger years when I took part in 4-H. I designed fun outfits for kids my age and “modeled” them, painted ceramic animals, and presented my pet rabbits. My favorite of all the projects I chose was, you’ve probably guessed it, photography.

I took my point-and-shoot camera with me everywhere I went. I’ll never forget the shot I captured at my grandparents’ house over the lake that they had in their backyard. A storm was brewing and every ten minutes or so you’d see lightning light up the sky. As a budding photographer, who hadn’t seen the works of Jason Weingart, one of the leading lightning photographers in the world, I thought; “I’ll be the first to ever get a shot like this”. Bless her young naive heart. I waited patiently, which amounted to perhaps five minutes. Too long in the mind of a nine-year-old. I thought it was hopeless, so out of frustration, I spammed the shutter as fast as it could go as a last resort. Seconds after I made the impatient attempt, a small, yet mighty, lighting strike made itself known as it flashed down toward the rippling lake. It struck me speechless. Filled with adrenaline, I looked back at the last few images I captured, ignoring the millions of previously disappointing shots. With the adrenaline still lingering, I kicked up from my squatting stance into the air, “I got it!”. I took home a purple ribbon that year at the fair, smiling the whole drive home for my newfound love.