Inspire others? I guess I never thought a lot about me inspiring others – more about who has inspired me. But, if I look back at my life, I would say there are parts of my life that have inspired other people to know that they can do it, too. I am just a regular person with a great desire to always learn and improve. I escaped an abusive first marriage (with 2 girls) about 20 years ago and then met and married my husband of 17 years. Together we raised 5 children. We inspired them to strive to be their best and always be true to themselves. We have a veterinarian, a small business owner (kitchen and bath design), a professional baseball player, a plumber and the youngest is in her third year of college to be an elementary education teacher.
I have friends and acquaintances that have gone through tough divorces and I have been able to encourage them with my story of a successful second marriage and blended family. My husband and I still like each other and love spending time together. We are proof that things can be good and you can get through tough times and be better for it. As I said, we still like each other and that is as important as loving each other.
I am known as the family photographer. I just love taking pictures. Because of my love of photography, several family members have taken an interest in photography. We all had point and shoot cameras and then I got my first digital SLR. My relatives saw what I could do and now they are venturing into that realm. They are looking at how they, too, can ‘capture the moment'. Even my daughter's father-in-law decided to update his Canon SLR to a Canon DSLR and is re-learning what he did back in the 80’s. Now, with grandchildren, there are even more moments to capture.
I work in a busy oral surgery office and when we upgraded to 42” on-the-wall monitors in our 5 surgery rooms, the staff thought it would be a great idea to put my photos in a slide show for our patients to watch while waiting. Two of our staff joined me in the DSLR world and one even took a community education photography class with me. I encouraged them and several other staff members to contribute to the slide show. Our patients comment every day on the slide show – wanting to know who took the photos. We can now say it is a collaboration of our staff's talent. Now, when someone goes on vacation, they are excited to come back and see what I think of their photos and if they will work for the slide show. I even had one gal come back and say ‘See, I framed this one just like you do.’ I love seeing them strive for their best!
I would love to continue to improve my photography and Amy's workshop would be a great inspiration to me! I am trying to stay away from that ‘auto’ button and am encouraging my co-workers to do that, too. One has gone from the ‘auto’ button to the ‘aperture' button and is going to go to ‘manual’ next. I would like to help them more when they come to me and say ‘How do I do this…’ The more I can learn, the more great moments I can capture.
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