The One That Changed Everything

 

Behind the Photograph

Every photographer has one image that changes the way they see themselves. This was mine.

Every photographer has one photograph.

Not necessarily the best one.

Not the one that wins awards.

Just the one that changes everything.

For me, it happened around 2004.

I'd always enjoyed taking pictures. During my Navy years, I came home from Europe with photographs of the Colosseum, the Trevi Fountain, the Pyramids in Egypt, and plenty of other famous places.

Looking back, they were exactly what they were supposed to be—tourist photographs.

They helped me remember where I'd been.

But they didn't tell me much about the photographer behind the camera.

Then one evening I drove into downtown Jacksonville, Florida.

Standing on the south bank of the St. Johns River, I photographed the skyline as the city lights came alive against the evening sky.

Instead of making a single photograph, I made nine overlapping images and stitched them together into a panoramic print measuring twelve by thirty-six inches.

When it was finished...

I just stared at it.

For the first time, I wasn't looking at a snapshot.

I was looking at something I had created.

Something that felt like more than a record of where I'd been.

It felt like art.

I liked it so much that I spent three hundred dollars to have it professionally framed.

At the time, that wasn't a small purchase.

It wasn't really about buying a frame.

It was about investing in a belief.

That photograph still reminds me of the moment a little voice in the back of my mind whispered,

"Maybe... you can do this."

Looking back now, I realize it wasn't my best photograph.

It wasn't technically perfect.

But it was the first photograph that made me see myself differently.

And every photograph I've made since then...

Every story I've written...

Every adventure I've shared...

Can trace its roots back to that evening on the banks of the St. Johns River.

Photographer's Notes

Jacksonville, Florida
Around 2004 · Sony DSC F-717
Evening, city lights coming alive
Nine-image panorama

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