This month, I had the privilege of having my first photography showcase at a local cat cafe! They take art from local artists to show in their store, and visitors have the opportunity to purchase the artworks or prints.
One of my goals for 2026 was to move forward in my photography “career” in any way, and having a showcase was definitely a big leap! Even if I don’t sell any, I’ve had my first, and that’s a great leap for me. I’ve also submitted a photograph to an arts contest, so even if nothing comes of it, that’s another leap of faith I took for 2026.
My photographs
I generally take nature and street photography, especially when I’m visiting places on my own (much harder to take photos when you’re with young kids).
My photography portfolio is at: Unsplash.
Before kids, I’ve also dabbled in film photography for a little bit.
Me and photography
I have always loved cameras and photography, but I think I really began to get into taking photographs after my brain surgery while I was a college student. One of the byproducts of the acquired brain injury that resulted from my brain surgery was short term memory issues.
I had what I describe to friends as “ADHD on turbo mode,” as well as extremely limited short term memory. I had to write everything down or I would forget. I couldn’t watch a 3 minute YouTube MV. I would read the same sentence over and over again, not realizing that I’m reading the same sentence over and over again.
Me with my first DSLR camera in 2014, post surgery
In short, I could no longer trust my brain. As a result, I began taking photos of everything and anything, probably as a coping mechanism, to keep something a little more tangible, to make the transient a little more permanent. And along with my memory issues, I had developed aphasia, a language disorder that made conveying my thoughts as words difficult.
This was quite possibly one of the most difficult side effects of having brain surgery, because becoming a writer was my dream since I was a child. I loved reading, I loved writing, and I lived in my different worlds daily… Until all of it disappeared. (I wrote about it in my Japanese blog a few months ago, translated to English by AI.)
Me with my first Mirrorless Camera in 2018
Writing was my preferred mode of expression, and I loved it, and I was good at it. And then I lost my words. I was never able to draw very well, and never found it fun. So I turned to the one thing that was readily available: phone cameras and cameras.
I took photographs of people, selfies, food, drinks, flowers, architecture, anything. That was 15 years ago.
To this day, I take photographs, though most of my camera roll is filled with photographs and videos of my kids and the wild things they get into.
I’ve gone through quite a few high-end cameras, and finally accepted that I can’t be trusted to wield DLSRs or Mirrorless Cameras at the moment (especially with my Rheumatoid Arthritis making it hard to carry heavy things around), so I purchased a Ricoh GR III, and have been snapping photos with this over-rigged “point and shoot” since then.
This is my 2nd year with it, I’m happy I finally made the leap back into point-and-shoots. There were just too many cognitive overheard involved with manual, and I just want to take nice photographs. Maybe once my life calms down a little more, I’ll finally be able to go back to photography classes, and get back into manual photography!
Until then, click, click, click!
