October 5th, 2010

The title of this post is the day a new journey started in my life, what I now call C10 School. This is a journey that took me by absolute surprise, one that I wake up everyday knowing is a gift. Every single day since has felt like a dream, and wonderful, waking dream. It has given me a renewed hope in so many different areas of my life and is a daily reminder that I am where I am supposed to be.

Rewind a few months earlier...to a hot summer afternoon I was lounging on my living room couch in Philadelphia with my lap top propped on my knees. I came across a website posting, carlateneyck.com, from a girl I went to high school with who posted her wedding pictures by Connecticut photographer, Carla Ten Eyck. I clicked on the link and spent the rest of the afternoon paging through scrolls and scrolls of wedding albums. I was hooked. I had never seen wedding photography like this, and I couldn't get enough of it. Looking at these photographs changed the way I saw pictures.

That summer was a pretty stressful one, in that I was preparing myself to move 5 hours away from Philadelphia to Hartford. I had made the decision to go to grad school for social work in Hartford and finally get a "responsible" job. I had lots of packing to do and goodbyes to say and was downright depressed to be leaving. Regardless of my absolute sadness, one morning is early September I packed up my car and cried the whole 5 hour ride to my new home.

Well, pretty much within 24 hours I was ready to move back home. School was hard but leaving my support system in Philadelphia left me feeling isolated and alone which was even harder. Highlights of my study filled evenings were eating Pho soup, going to the gym and applying for jobs. I applied everywhere! Nursing homes, disability aid programs, school systems, I even applied for a job undergoing pelvic exams for resident gynecologists. I had accepted two jobs to compensate for my tuition fees, one of which was...drum role please...GYN exams! It was a swell start. However, there was a glimmer of excitement on the horizon. Previous to moving I had signed up for a photography workshop with Carla Ten Eyck, the photography website I visited over the summer. I had one month until my workshop, the countdown was on!

October 5th was a rainy morning. I woke up full of nervous excitement, grabbed my camera bag and headed to the C10 Studio. I was greeted at the door by the lovely studio manager, Dominique and was introduced to the other workshop attendees. Needless to say I was one nervous girl. I had picked up a camera less than a year ago, in hopes to document a long overdue trip I took to Europe. After that trip I had decided I better learn how to use my camera so I could actually take a picture with some understanding of what I was doing.

At the workshop we spent the next several hours in the rain in Carla's backyard. Carla was an absolutely amazing teacher and speaker. She was a joy to watch and listen to, full of information and insight and excitement for her passion. And I need to mention FUNNY! She had me laughing in no time. You can tell when you're with her, you're with someone doing what they were born to do. My hands were shaking and my heart racing, but I was having the absolute time of my life. Hours passed in moments. Carla and her crew were the friendliest and most welcoming bunch I had met in awhile. I felt completely myself in an environment which initially intimidated me greatly. The workshop put me on a cloud of happiness.

What followed awes me still. Carla told me she was looking for an "in house editor" for which I interviewed two days later. I still remember her saying the words "in house editor" and thinking, well...once she realizes I have no experience, maybe she'll at least hire me as her cleaning lady so I can hang out, laugh some more and hopefully learn a thing or two.

Well, I've learned more than one or two things, try a million. To my absolute surprise, that Thursday I received the position and have spent the last few months either smiling from ear to ear or pinching myself.

This blog is dedicated to what has happened since that October day when I was offered this job. I've had so many revelations and amazing experiences. Since then, I've dropped out of grad school and have committed myself to C10 school and taking this seriously. It is at times incredibly frightening but always completely fulfilling. I have so much to thank Carla for, her mentorship, friendship, insight and  ridiculous sense of humor.

I am by nature, what my friends call, an "undersharer". Depending on who I'm with, I usually open up slowly. But once I trust you, I will tell you everything. So in many ways, this is an act of trust. It goes against what I do naturally. But I've decided to push myself entirely out of my comfort zone, so I can showcase what it is I'm learning. That's how much I treasure the opportunity I've been given. I want to push myself in every way I can.

I hope you'll join me on this journey as it unfolds. I will be showing work I am proud of and not proud of, in hopes to learn and grow in my photography.

The first picture in this blog is a picture that was not taken by me, but of me in a place that stirred something deep inside me, Cinque Terre, Italy. When I was here I spent a lot of time with friends and alone, just me and my camera. My camera became my traveling companion and this picture represents the beginning of that relationship. I also feel it represents this post perfectly... Offering yourself to the gifts that come to you and jumping in...into your passion...your work....your life......head first! So...here goes...3, 2, 1!