2006
Some stories begin with a spark of inspiration, others with a bit of boredom. Mine started somewhere between the two—on long summer trips with my dad, a truck driver who hauled loads across Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, and California. The open road stretched endlessly ahead, the hum of the engine filling the cab, and the desert sun painting everything in gold. For a kid, those miles could feel like forever.
My mom, ever the problem-solver, noticed how restless I was getting on those trips. One summer, she handed me a small surprise before we hit the road: a few disposable cameras. It was her way of giving me something to do, something to see the world differently. I didn’t realize it then, but that simple gesture would change everything.
Within a week, I had burned through all three cameras. Every mountain, every sunset, every roadside diner sign felt like something worth capturing. My dad, less thrilled about the constant truck stops buys of more film, grumbled his way through the trip. My mom got an earful about it from him —but she just laughed. She knew something had clicked.
When report cards came out later that summer, my parents decided to reward my good grades. My mom handed me a small box wrapped in shiny zebra print paper. Inside was a neon lime green Nikon Coolpix camera—the kind that defined the early 2000s. Loudly colored, compact, and absolutely perfect in my tween eyes. It became my constant companion, tucked into my pocket or hanging from my wrist, ready to capture anything that caught my eye.
Looking back, I can only imagine how much my mom spent printing all those photos. Stacks of glossy 4x6 prints filled my desk drawers and old shoe boxes, each one a snapshot of the world as I saw it from the passenger seat of my dad’s Peterbilt truck. Those early photos were anything BUT perfect, but they were mine—tiny pieces of memory, framed through the lens of curiosity.
That’s how it all began. A few disposable cameras, a long stretch of highway, and a neon green Nikon that turned boredom into a lifelong love for photography.
