About Susan M. Reynolds
I have had a passion for photography all my life it seems. I remember spending hours poring over the huge collection of National Geographic that my dad had. I think that is how I was drawn into photography.
I began as a teen, trying to take photos myself with a little 110 film camera, but I became even more interested in photography after my two precious children were born.
I was blessed when my husband found a 35mm Minolta camera where he worked at Sierra College (a really nice one that we could have never afforded at the time). He turned it in to the lost and found where it stayed for two months & bulletins were posted in the school newspapers but no one claimed it. The administrators finally contacted my husband and gave him the camera in 1985. My first born, a daughter was only a few months old at the time. That camera changed my world when it came to photography.
I used it so much over the next several years, long after my son was born, until I completely wore it out. I have pictures from my first 35mm film camera that are priceless and that I will treasure forever.
I moved on to a Nikon N65 about in 2004 and in July of 2005, I made the move to digital, a Nikon D70. I am adding to my collection of lenses, filters, flashes and have now moved on to a Nikon D200. I hope to upgrade to a newer model soon.
I have been taking online classes through BetterPhoto.com, which has given me skills I never could have learned on my own.
I love the classes and the ability to learn from professionals in the comfort of my own home, on my own time…the classes are great and the instructors have been over the top!
My family is my first love and I treasure every picture of them. We recently lost our son, William, who had just turned 19 years old… in a very tragic car accident. He was lost for four days while we frantically searched for him with hundreds of family, friends, and help from the police department, detectives and helicopters, before CalTrans found his car under water after finding pieces of it strewn along an embankment way down behind the guard rail (one of the detectives working the case had given the Cal Trans workers one of the Missing Fliers which had two pictures of Will and one of the blue Camaro that is how they knew to search farther down the gully after seeing the pieces of the blue car by an oak tree that it hit)…He worked a long way from home and had fallen asleep while driving to work early on a stormy December morning…it makes me weep every day when I think of losing my precious son. The pain never goes away and we miss him so much…his radiant smile, his craziness, his laughter…no one could ever be sad around Will…He was too full of life, of fun, of happiness…We love you forever Will!
It has been the most awful thing that could have ever happened to our family. There are days it seems it is too hard to even breathe, but with God’s help we are making it through each day, sometimes just a minute at a time.
I am taking the Photoshop classes from Better Photo as well, so I will be able to scan and edit every single picture that I have of my son and make it the best it can possibly be. I always knew how important pictures of family were…but I never knew how precious and priceless they are until I lost my only beloved son in such a horrific accident. Dear God, how we miss him…
My goal is to become a professional photographer. I want to learn everything about photography that I can. “I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.” Philippians 4:13
I would say my specialties are people and nature. I love to work with people in nature on location, especially, on the coast.
Someday, I’d like to be able to travel the United States (to start with) and later on other countries taking photos of all over the world! I have a dream…