It's a crazy feeling when something that has been a major part of your life for a long time is finished. It's natural to look back and think through everything that has happened. The last 4 years of my life have been great and I can't even begin to explain how much has gone on that has been related to photography.
I have a vivid memory of shooting my first rule of thirds assignment and realizing that what I was doing wasn't quite like anything else. I was doing something for a purpose and to accomplish a goal that someone else had set out but at the same time I had complete control to interpret and fulfill the need. Complete control and interpretation for a set task in an otherwise strict and standardized high school environment? It was eye opening to me and from that day in freshman year, photography took a grasp on the creative side of my mind.
It slowly opened up a completely new aspect of my life and without finding that and learning about it I have no idea where I'd be right now. Over the 4 years I found that I'm not an artist. I couldn't create something if blank canvas was set in front of me. Rather than creation from scratch I feel that I combine and interpret different things to create. Obviously this doesn't apply to most photos but I feel it does when I know the single image I want to capture when going out to shoot. With the general idea the elements begin to fill in and the creation comes from combining and displaying the elements in a way to enable the original idea to be apparent.
I'm excited to see what the future holds and I can't wait to head to Vancouver in a few months.
Here are the images from my final project in my last high school photography class:
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6SFaOxcJbUCxymeibF6QcDiJHgdF86-RaMDGRXiKlZJ0OwdYZ04Tw0pVcG_xVs-0hI6Ss6172QtrmX5AyLilBhtq5rQ8dVmwc8boTG8OxRb6xOMmaK_lCrr9d8N7RFToSyhoFvr2iK0U/s400/IMG_1637.jpg)