Nicaragua Adventures 2012

My Scholarship entry - A 'place' I have visited

Nicaragua | Thursday, December 27, 2012 | 5 photos

I still remember the first camera I owned. It was a gift, a silver Olympus FE-100, and it sat neglected in my closet for several years. In 2009, while completing my bachelors degree, I moved to the Netherlands for a year to study. The beauty of the country astounded me, and I searched for a way to capture the essence of what I saw. And that's it, really. The moment I discovered the magic of photography, and the power of the camera to tell a story.

I travelled all over Europe with my little silver Canon, and it was a beautiful relationship. We saw the medieval castles of Prague, gazed into Loch Ness searching for the monster, climbed the steps of St. Peter's Basilica and looked out over all of Rome. She taught me how to look at a place and really see it, in her compact and unpretentious way.

Today, I am completing my Masters of Journalism at the University of British Columbia, and photojournalism remains my passion. My little Canon has long since died, but my fascination with photography has not. My dream of dreams is to report in developing countries, giving a voice and an image to those quieted by oppression. I want to take photos that mean something. For the sake of my Canon.