It doesn't matter when you bloom, it matters that you do.
I've always enjoyed art in its many forms. My interest has mainly been music, but in middle school and high school, I had classes that allowed me to draw and explore visual art. In college, I studied engineering. While not usually considered an artistic pursuit, you do need spatial visualization to be successful. As a student, I also worked part-time as an artist's model, where I occasionally got to be on the other side of the easel and practice figure drawing. That was the first time I realized the importance of composition. After college, I worked briefly for a residential construction contractor and learned to enjoy carpentry which led to an interest in woodworking.
"What about photography?" you might ask. I didn't start my photographic journey until much later. The seeds were planted when I borrowed a camera from work to take graduation pictures of my daughter. They turned out better than I thought they might. Most importantly, she liked them! Four years later, I wanted to take her college senior pictures, so I bought a camera. The more I looked into how the camera worked and photography in general, the more I realized this was the perfect medium to blend my technical and artistic sides.
