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2010A Dream Paused: Part I {Greenville, SC Photographer}
I remember my first camera. It was 3rd grade and I had a broken arm. I took pictures of my sister taking pictures of me. The rest of that roll of film contains creative images of tissue paper flowers that my parents bought us in Carowinds.
A few years later, I received a Kodak Advantix camera. I remember taking black and white pictures of an opossum caught in our trash can and a street flooded to the bottom of a mailbox after a hurricane.
I couldn’t stop pressing down the shutter.
Around my Sophomore year in high school, I received the best present yet: a fully manual film camera. I was giddy with excitement! I took tons of photos and checked out every book in the library on cameras.
Winter of my junior year, the camera was stolen from my driveway. I can still see images recorded on that lost roll of film: Seth Thomas at 14 months playing with the stuffed football and Olivia, Sam, and Hannah bouncing on a trampoline. I was devastated. More for the lost film than the camera. My sweet sweet sister replaced my camera for my 17th birthday. I could have cried with joy.
That spring I blundered into the darkroom at my high school. I spilled chemicals everywhere, but I learned to process film. I even managed to learn oil hand-coloring of my images. Senior year I spent an entire 90 minutes every day alone in the darkroom listening to Jars of Clay. It was a small piece of heaven. I looked at two schools for photography: one in Atlanta and one in Chicago. I wanted to capture images for the rest of my life.
But God intervened.
A full scholarship to a school in state prompted me to stay. I knew God was calling me to attend North Greenville, but they only had two courses in Photography. Photo I and Photo II. I gave up the dream in obedience. I entered NGU as an Early Education Major; I left with a Degree in Outdoor Leadership and a sweet husband named Derek.
Four years of marriage and twin babies later, I had almost forgotten the dream.
But God had not.
Andrew Aldrich
I just read this for the first time to Carol and had never heard you life story. Very nice how God contorls and leads us. In addition to taking and processing photos you very good at writing. Great combo. We noticed that you think highly of our son.
quietgracesphotography
Thanks Andrew 😉 This is only a small part of the story. And I’ll keep that sweet son of yours as long as the Lord allows!