I wish I had a cool story to tell you about my photography journey, like how my Grandpa died and left me his beloved Leica when I was just a babe in arms and by the time I was in kindergarten I was developing my own rolls of film. Um no, nothing as inspiring as that.
Here’s the real story. I’m in my late 40’s and preparing for a trip to Ireland, I buy my very first digital camera – a Sony Cybershot point and shoot. I use it during the holiday but pack it away in a drawer on my return and forget about photography for years.
Fast forward 6 years, my love and I are living in Mauritius for a while, I’m bored out of my skull because I don’t know anybody, my French is très horrible and I don’t have a permit to work.
To keep me sane, Mr T buys me a basic Canon DSLR with kit lens for my birthday. Soon after, we’re wandering around Port Louis , I take this image and BOOM! That’s when it happened, this is the photograph that made me want to become a photographer.
It felt like more than just a snapshot for me. It triggered an emotion.
It’s a very cliché image and hardly a Cartier-Bresson but the first time I saw it on the computer screen my heart gave a little hoppity-skip which is exactly the same method I use now for culling my fave images from a photo session. Yep, the very technical Hoppity Skip Method.
Years later, I’m totally in love with beautiful light and completely hooked on Lifestyle Photography because it gives me the best of 2 genres by combining the authentic nature of photojournalism with the beauty of portraiture. That together with the hoppity skip of my heart when editing the digital files and the joy on my clients faces when I deliver their gallery of images is what keeps me coming back for more.
“Don’t do it for applause. Do it because it ignites a fire inside you.”
― Hiral Nagda”
moi du toi photography 