That's How It Starts. (We go back to your house)

That's how it starts.

Here I am sharing with you my thoughts and perceptions.

My reality. (Or at least some snippets) 

Let's start somewhere consequential...

Maybe not the beginning but way back in the day when my camera was still a novelty.

Back when I realized 'Shit, this is what I want to do with my LIFE.'

Yeah. Back to that moment.

I'd say that's consequential wouldn't you?

Thinking back on it, it's funny how far away that feels... When really it was a measly three years ago. Not even. I feel both incredibly old and so ridiculously green at the same time... It's a bit embarrassing actually.

Anyways, these are some shots from my trip to Peru back in 2009. I remember so well standing awkwardly in the Miami International Airport waiting to meet a bunch of random strangers from all over the country who would become my family--my support group and my best friends (if only for a little while).

Together we experienced Peru through every sensory organ. We hiked the Andes, got Typhoid and played ten fingers in a hot springs together. We ate a fucking Guinea Pig together. We worked through our insecurities, our homesickness--our discomfort of being in an entirely new country where nothing was familiar. We shared our perspectives and were challenged to look at life from new angles--through a different lens.

"What can I put in this little box?" Michael said waving his camera around as he lectured us on what makes a good photograph. "How can you tell a story in just 1/100th of a second?"

He told us we weren't allowed to take pictures of little kids. Or dogs. Or cats. Anything expected or generic. "If I have to look at another picture of a cute little kid posing in the street I swear..." He trailed off shaking his head, a cautionary look on his face. 'Mark my words,' it seemed to say threateningly.

Not that we listened.

In the end of course he was right: our best shots weren't of the cute stray dogs or the toddlers with sad, pleading eyes. They were of men and women working in the fields--they were of Macchu Picchu just as the sun came peaking up through the mountain tops.

They were of moments shared.

They were the pictures you could talk about for hours even if there weren't any particular stories that went along with them.

They were the shots you knew were absolutely perfect the second you hit the release button, or the ones you had no idea you had until you pulled them up on the computer later that night.

None of us were prepared for what we experienced in Peru, and none of us were ready to leave when it came time to part ways. We took away so much more than just a fresh body of work. We left Peru with a new understanding--a new appreciation, of a culture completely different from our own. We left with 15 new friends. We left with a new outlook on life. We left knowing what Guinea Pig tastes like.

So there you have it. A little taste of Peruvian life to chew on... My consequential moment.

Kawsay ima Khuyay.

-Lo