For almost as long as I can remember I’ve had at least some interest in photography. Granted, for most of my childhood I was only interested in creating snapshots of life, of friends and family, and of places we visited. I don’t think I looked at photography as anything more during those years.

At some point I started taking photography a little more seriously. Neither of my parents were photographers but my father did have a Pentax SLR and he taught me to use it. My interest was strong enough that I saved up my allowance until I could afford my first SLR, a Nikon N2000. That’s when I began looking through photography magazines, reading how-to photography books, experimenting, trying to create artwork, and keeping notebooks of what settings I’d used with which images. This was the days of film so if you wanted to know your settings you needed to keep track of them yourself.

But as sometimes happens with youthful pursuits, I eventually lost interest. Well, I’m not so sure I actually lost interest. But developing all that film was getting expensive for me and I needed to focus elsewhere, like school. So I went through a long dry spell as far as photography was concerned, and that lasted well into adulthood.

Then came 2007 - 2008. A couple folks at work began talking about cameras, and about these great new DSLRs they’d just purchased or were considering. And this began reawakening that interest from my youth. But these new DSLRs were expensive. Was it really worth spending that kind of money if I didn’t know if I was serious enough to warrant the expense? Well, I was fortunate in that regard. One of my friends at work gave me their old digital camera, a Nikon Coolpix E5700. This camera had a raw image format, providing me the opportunity to learn the power of working with these formats versus the more common JPEG format. So I started looking for subjects. Given my interest in nature that’s where I started. But I also visited museums and other locations. I was having a great time, but how would I know if all this was leading anywhere? Was it worth spending the big bucks on a DSLR?

April 20th of 2008 answered my question for me. That’s when I made the photo above, of a single tulip blossom after a recent rain. I was over at my folks and saw this tulip out front of their house. Something drew me to it. I composed the image and snapped the shutter. From the first time I saw that image on the camera’s LCD panel I knew I was hooked, that there was no turning back. Something about this photo captured my attention and stoked the flames, leading me back to the photographic path on a journey I hope to continue for many years to come.

That’s how I returned to photography. And I’m so glad I did.

Do you have any similar stories, either related to photography or any other art form you pursue? Let me know in the comments below.

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