Throwback Thursday- Tacoma Vintage Wedding and Family Photographer

I'm trying something a little different with this blog.  Yes, it's still about photography, so you'll see a lot of that.  But I'm also going to try incorporating different elements.  You'll see the pattern develop as time goes on.  :)

You've all seen the Throwback Thursday posts on Facebook and Instagram, right?  Now you're seeing it here, too.  I'm going to use it to highlight past work, things people may not have seen before.

This week, we're digging waaaaaaaaay, way back, to when I first started with photography.  If you've read the bio on my website or on my Facebook, then you know I've been shooting for 23 years.  I started when I was 13, and I dropped my dad's rather expensive camera in a stream while he was salmon fishing.  What?  I was bored and cold.  That makes for accidents.

ANYWAY.  He made me learn how to use the camera properly after that (first lesson- HOLD ONTO THE CAMERA).  We lived near the Vanderbilt Mansion in Hyde Park, NY, the place of many a wedding and family session, I'm sure.  They have absolutely gorgeous gardens there.  So I did what most people do when they first pick up a camera- I took pictures of flowers.  One of them even won second place in the teen category that year in the annual contest Vanderbilt Mansion ran.

Sadly, those images seem to have been lost to the ages.  So you don't get to see them.  But they were spectacular.

(I can totally claim that, because there's no evidence to the contrary.)

Instead, you get my first attempts at black and white, from my HS photography class.  I was.... 15?  16?  It was junior year, so 16.

Welcome to Dorothy, circa 1994.  Gotta love it when you set a 16yo loose at the local ren faire.

And my first foray into color printing.  This was when you developed your paper in a tube you had to keep rolling on the table while your chemicals (all 3225235 of them) were kept warm in a crockpot next to you.  Touchy, touchy stuff.  

(Yes, that is, in fact, me at 16.  Short, fake red hair.  I had just gotten my braces off.  Oh, such a fashion nightmare...... )

Why am I posting these?  A lot of photographers would NOT want anyone to see this kind of work.  Well, I'm a firm believer in knowing where you came from.  Past work, no matter how old is part of that.  Yes, even when it's hideously printed, badly exposed tarot booths from the local Ren faire.  Because you know what?  I'll never be that terrible again.  Nope.