Hi, My name is Dayna

And I’ve always felt like a square peg trying to fit into a round hole.

The good news is, I’m the the type of person that can move with the ever changing tides of life. And life really is ever changing. Especially my own. I have good roots, but I can tell you right now the list of things that have been consistent in my life is short. A very strong list, but short nonetheless. 

1. My faith
2. My family
3. Cameras

Cameras? No not photography itself, Cameras. I don’t know why but I was fascinated with them. I had a collection of broken ones that I had gotten from family members over the years and I just liked to pretend to take pictures and imagine what they would look like if the camera actually worked. But then, I got one that worked. A Polaroid i733 7.0 Megapixel digital camera. And it was pink. It was a gift from my parents and I actually still have it and it works! I loved taking pictures, but I never ever ever ever thought that I would be a photographer. I loved it as a dream but I rejected the thought from my reality. But I always had a camera, and I always used it. It slowly became a part of my life, every year becoming gradually more important to me. No matter how challenging the job of a photographer might be at times, the out come is always worth the effort. When I finally get to sit down and process the photographs, when I get to go back through and see all the small moments captured, I know it was all worth it. Knowing that I helped a couple keep memories alive fuels me to keep capturing these moments.

You're thinking "what does that have to do with the square peg, round hole thing"?

I don’t really know how to explain it, but, I’ve always just kind of been awkward in my place in this world. Slightly out of place in every crowd, at every job, in most situations. It’s an inner feeling that something just doesn't fit. Not at all like an outcast, in fact I'm quite good at blending in. It's just that feeling that doesn't sit right with me. That I'm fitting in, rather than belonging. Why is that important? Because the one thing that has always felt like it belonged was a camera in my hands.

I’m not going to sit here and tell you I spend every waking moment thinking about it and trying to improve my craft, because I do have a life outside of Photography. But I see things in photographs. I always have. I walk into a room and my brain says “If you (insert strange position in room but great angle) and everyone else did (oddly specific motion or prompt) this would be such a great image.” And it is my hope that those images, they’ll tell a story. 

And what do we really want pictures for anyway? Because our lives change daily and we barely notice it when its happening. But we can never get yesterday back. So we need pictures to fill in the road map of our lives. Either so we can find our way home, or to make sense of the journey. Pictures not only help us remember what happened and who It happened with, but they remind us how we felt in a particular moment. And the good ones? They can bring back that feeling like it never left. When we’ve forgotten who we are, or we miss our loved ones, or we’re just in need of a good laugh. Well, I guess a picture really is worth a thousand words.