I remember the first time I picked up a camera.

I mean, we all used those disposable cameras and Polaroids when we were kids. We used to run around and just randomly press the shutter whenever we felt like it. There was no purpose behind it.

In high school, I signed up to take a photography class. My brother took the same class a few years earlier and I enjoyed looking at some of the prints he made, so I figured, “why not give it a try?”

The first day of class, I walked in with my dad’s old Canon A-1 and felt a nervous excitement. I’d never really done anything creative before. I wasn’t good or interested in drawing or painting, and, up to that point, I thought of photography as documentary rather than artistic.

Throughout that school year, I learned how wrong I was.

I loved it.

There was something about finding a unique perspective, or, at the very least, my perspective, that I found fascinating. I could express myself without ever having to pick up a pen or pencil, I could just see something and, “click”.

I loved the class so much, I took it again the following year.

Then, college came around.

I went to West Point where creativity wasn’t necessarily quashed but it wasn’t exactly encouraged either. I mean, we had Glee Clubs and Band Clubs but we didn’t have an option to take Arts degree and most of our focus was academics, physical fitness, and military training.

So I stepped away from photography for a few years.

Then on a random Tuesday in 2014, I saw a Facebook post from one of my college friends. He’d hiked up Rainier with a few of his friends and took some of the most beautiful shots from the trip. It made me remember how much I enjoyed photography, sparked that fire to go out and capture the world around me.

Naturally, I spent $400 that I couldn’t really afford on a Canon Rebel T3i and fell in love with photography again.

Since then, I’ve drifted from one job to the next, eventually getting bored with them for one reason or another. Bills and responsibilities kept me employed but they didn’t keep my focus.

I’m still working at jobs I don’t really care about.

But I always have my camera.

All photos and writings are created by Matt Condon unless otherwise noted and are copyrighted by him. All images and logos are trademarks of Matt Condon