1997, I was a Senior in high school and I needed more elective credits. Not wanting to take a shop class I elected for a basic photography class. I loved it, I spent the rest of the year in a dark room, and outside taking photos, seeing the world a different way, through a lens.
I went on to community college planning to take child development classes but I also couldn't shake the photography bug. I soon was taking more credits in the arts than in anything else. I spent my days off from school and work in the dark room and doing extra projects. Friends and family loved my work, they all agreeded I was a talented photographer with a natural eye for it, but they also had there concerns and I heard many times "Its a hard career", or "its so hit or miss".
A year later my life had moved on and turned different paths job wise, I started in the Property Management business and succeeded climbing the cooperate ladder in this field to management right away. My then fiance, I did it together managing large property's as a team for firms in Seattle. This sent us to Everett were he Managed the maintenance side of things and I the office. Until the fall of 2001, when had been married 3 short months, 9/11 happened and we knew we wanted to come back down to Kent to be closer to family and start a family of our own. We moved to a much smaller community and we took a pay cut and I went part time. But we did it for family. We wanted the quieter slower paced life that comes with part time work and a smaller property.
In the fall of 2005 we welcomed our first child Wyatt into the world and I think he only recognized me behind a camera. Seriously I had found the most exciting subject I had ever seen. My own son! I could photograph him for hours. Every toe and laugh and crawl. My photography spirit had been renewed. We were blessed with a "surprise" again in the fall, this time 2007, almost 2 years after we had Wyatt. Our second Son Nash was born. Again I could witness the joys of photography and capturing there first moments. Unfortunately I had succumbed to the 2 kids in 2 years and could never capture as much as I needed or wanted the second time around. I also had a fight on my hands as I took on Thyroid Cancer in the spring of 2008. While I couldn't muster the strength to shoot as much as I wanted. I secretly needed to do it, having witnessed first hand that I am not invincible. That I like everyone can not live forever, I want to leave not only love, and life lessons in the minds of my children but photographs of our family, friends and so much more for them. While I have MANY MANY more years ahead of me, hopefully healthy and cancer free. I look at every day with a more honest and happy approach so that I can see things maybe I wouldn't have seen before. Not only through a lens but life in general.
So as you can see my passion for photography is strong, but my passion for my family is stronger. Luckily it doesn't have to be a choice, and I can combine both my loves and capture some amazing things to share with everyone. So I plan on sharing this more with everyone and some day this will be a dream job for me.....some day. ;)
With Love,
Kristen Jordan
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