Student Feature: Victoria’s Journey

VICTORIA’S JOURNEY

Allow me to introduce the incredibly talented photographer, Victoria Richardson Stokes

I have been so impressed with the photography work of Victoria this semester. She is in my section 1 of Comm 300 Digital Imaging at BYU-Idaho. Victoria has such natural, raw talent and a great eye for composition and light. But even more important, she is sincere, kind, humble, happy and hard-working! As you can see from her beautiful work below, she is versatile, which shows her adaptability. Victoria has gone out of her way all semester to learn more, stretch herself and improve her skills each week. One week early on, she spent hours trying out a water drop tutorial on my website that is very difficult. She pulled of an excellent result, yet she would never call attention to herself. So I asked Victoria to write up her photography story and allow me to share it on my blog. She said “yes” so here is her beautiful work. Don’t forget to read her own words about her journey below…Click HERE to find more of Victoria’s work.

VICTORIA’S Conceptual Challenge – Read more HERE about the process in her blog post

Victoria’s Journey, as told by Victoria Richardson Stokes:

I started photography at the young age of twelve when I bought my first $20 camera at a neighbor’s yard sale. I began taking pictures of everything that I found interesting. Years later, my parents bought a camera for family use, but I used it as my own. I began researching photographers and learning knew things about composition and editing techniques. Others began telling me how much they loved my images,  and I started up my own little business. I took engagement, wedding, reception, baptism, baby, senior and family portraits. I was pretty successful for my age, and for not having any kind of class or personal training. In high school, I was head of the yearbook club, where I photographed and designed images and pages. My love for photography forced me to major in Communications with an emphasis in Visual Media, however, during my first couple of semesters, as I found myself drowning in the homework of other classes, I had no time to take pictures and practice my photographic talents.  I took the Comm 130, Visual Imaging, and realized how much I missed designing, and I found myself wanting to become a graphic designer. For that class, we had to submit a photography assignment, but I didn’t have a camera, and so, instead of renting one from the school, I drove to Walmart and bought one.

Two years later, after taking pictures here and there, I found myself registering for the Comm 300 Digital Imaging class. At first, I was very hesitant and within the first week, thought about dropping out of the class because I felt that my skill level was not good enough to meet the standards of my classmates. However, the thought of giving up on something just because I didn’t feel good enough, ate at my thoughts. I stuck with it, and learned from my classmates instead of comparing myself to them. I asked questions and set aside extra time to plan, work and focus. Eventually, I convinced myself that I can do hard things. I learned so much from my amazing professor, Sister Caryn Esplin! She inspired me to try harder every week, with every assignment. Every week’s assignment was a new challenge for me, but I learned macro and portrait photography. Sister Esplin taught me how to use reflectors and auxiliary lighting including, flash, strobe and continuous lighting. I especially loved learning more about the Adobe programs including Lightroom and Photoshop. Overall, I really learned how to push myself to think outside of the box to get creative angels, compositions, lighting and even stories. Thank you, Sister Esplin, for helping me to become a photographer.