I think I was born with creativity running through my veins…  but for over 3 decades, I was an artist without a medium.  I tried many things over the years, from art and craft, to drawing and painting, and even writing.  But nothing seemed to gel.  I always loved photography, from the very first instamatic I took away on 4th grade camp, to the High Schools 35mm SLR, I borrowed and played official school reporter, recording all the most important scholastic events.  At one point in my early 20′s, I even imaged that I might be able to be a photographer.  I went to the Photography Institute to inquire about enrolment, but backed out at the last minute, for fear of not being able to make the grade.

In the years to come I still loved to snap things on holidays.  I never really understood the point of going somewhere different and exciting unless you were going to photograph it.  I thought I was just recording the events of my life… I still didn’t see that this is what I was born to do.  Any time I saw a person without a camera, I just didn’t get it.  I still don’t.

Finally at age 45.  My youngest son bought himself a digital SLR.  I was excited for him, and secretly envious of his new purchase. I borrowed it every chance I could, just to experiment and take pictures in my garden.  Finally my son decided that he was never going to get the same enjoyment out of the camera that I was, and he allowed me to have it.  I was so excited.

A few months later my husband and I went on a trip to the USA.  I was snapping everything in sight, naturally.  We stopped at several of those Tourist Information Centres and took brochures away with us.  Whilst riffling through the pages of the glossy tourist magazines,  a thought occurred to me…. someone is taking those pictures!  Why couldn’t that someone be me?

I came back home to Australia and started Tracie Louise Photography.

That was 15 months ago.  In that time, I have eaten, slept, breathed, and absorbed all things photographic.  My style has developed into something hopefully a little unique and definitely much more artistic than it once was.  It’s still early days for me yet.  But to say that I have found my passion would be an understatement of epic proportions.  I spent literally decades trying to figure out what I was “meant” to be doing with my life, when it was under my nose the entire time.  Finally a clarity that only comes with hindsight.

And this experience of not discovering my passion until relatively later in life, pushes me to inspire others to find theirs, much sooner.  I have never had a dream before, a goal, a mission.  And so I am driven by the idea of influencing others to reach for their own stars, whatever they may be.  Whether you are a teenager or you are in your 80′s, it is never to late to peruse a dream, to be all that you were meant to be.  My hope is that my images inspire others to seek beauty where they might not otherwise see it.  And to share a little of myself and the way that I look at things along the way.”


I currently sell my work through RedBubble.  If you would like to make a purchase, please take a look at my portfolio and visit visit my RedBubble page.

 

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