I got my first camera in late elementary school. It was a cheap $10 thing from Walmart that had a single button for taking pictures and you popped a roll of film into a small compartment. It didn’t have any software or a fancy lens. And my parents had to take my roll of film to get it developed. You don’t really see those 1-hour development stores anymore - now it’s more insta-print and you can do it all online. I remember having to take the pictures to show friends so they could see how the pictures turned out. Now we have Instagram.

I guess I get all nostalgic as I get older and have a kid of my own. I wanted to capture her every growing moment and I was pouring too much money into other’s professional photos. My spouse already owned a DSLR and I had never stopped taking photos for fun - the tool just changed from cheap camera to smartphone to smartphones with better cameras. So, I took a few months of photography lessons to learn how to use my spouse’s DSLR - thank you The Art League! I now hoard his DSLR as if it’s my own and our family goes on adventures. I love rising to the challenge of taking pictures in different locations, different lighting, different people, poses. Extra credit if the location is free. It all fascinates me.

But some of you may be wondering why the part-time work if I adore photography so much? I wear many hats: mother, wife/spouse, cook, chauffeur, hiker, and operations analyst (aka numbers cruncher). Nonetheless, my first love was actually math. I’m an unashamed nerd who also likes art. I enjoy the feeling of having accomplished something and every completed math problem ranging from basic addition to Calculus and beyond bring a small rush of endorphins that result in math being a love in my life. So, I get to work with numerical data and solve multi-layered problems. I do what I love and I love what I do. Applied to photography, I have a fine attention to detail, angles/lines/shapes are my bread and butter, and capturing one’s character and spirit behind the lens is like a fun problem.

Then comes the magic of Lightroom and Photoshop. I see these as paintbrushes that make the image come alive - whether to add depth or a sense of how the memory feels. Faded = nostalgic? Bold colors = strong emotions? It’s not an exact science and that’s what makes it so exciting for me! The bounds are limitless in the types of combinations I can make. I’m like a kid in a candy shop. I thought long and hard about my “style” and realized that my feelings change with each setting. It explains why, after many years of fiddling with Lightroom, I can never settle on a consistent style for my wedding JPEGs - my feelings ranged too much that day. Hiking gets me super excited while roasting under the sun not so much. For some photos, I think about how I can make the child feel in the image as beautiful as the mother knows they look. For others, it’s how I can make the couple feel as romantic as I imagine them to be. Is this James Bond? Is it more 1967 Taming of the Shrew? The Notebook? The couple’s input matters! It’s their feelings, not mine, that they’ll be recalling when they look at the images.

I also wish to give a little call-out to the fact that my heritage stems from Guam! I am part Chamorro. The tiny U.S. territory sits in the south Pacific. It’s where America’s day begins. It’s also a culture that prides itself in its warmness. I carry that with me always. I live to serve and I love doing it. And it shows in my firm belief that teamwork makes the dream work. I don’t view photography as a solo act. The photographer and people on the other side of the camera make the image come together. Engineers and builders made the buildings and roads. Mother nature paints the scenery. It’s a beautiful symphony of picture moments.

All that to say: I look forward to working with you!

-Maloupu Aquiningoc