It's in so many photographer bios: why we do what we do, why we love it. It's been a hobby since sometime in childhood/teenhood, or you kept getting asked to take photos of someone's family/kids/weddings/etc., and decided to make a business out of it.
I'm no different. When I was a kid, it was photographing the stuff around me, whether that was plants and flowers, rocks, the sky, whatever. As I got into high school, it began to be documenting my friends and me, and our adventures (much to many of my friends' chagrins. Not many of them liked cameras stuck in their face all the time!)
I didn't do much with it while in grade school. Facebook wasn't around then, smartphones weren't around then, and MySpace and Enternexus/Nexopia were the socials I used at the time (Did I just age myself?). Those photos mostly lived on my hard drive, and I'd share some through group emails (yep, before Facebook group chats, Hangouts, group texts, and Whatsapp messages, we did group emails). Some I printed because I could.
When I was just about out of my teens, I got into the Journalism program, which required me to get a DSLR camera. BOOM!!
My world changed. I got depth of field, I got to change my own focus, I got better zoom. It was amazing. I started trying to capture ALL of the things, playing with what was in focus, etc.
I left Journalism after a year (it just wasn't for me) and took my camera out. By this time, I had a smartphone, too, so a camera just became a part of my daily life. With the ever-changing landscape of life, and my friends groups, photos were quickly becoming a way to remember things. I had photos of the friends I hung out with in high school, many whom I've not seen since. I had photos of those I went to Journalism with, again, many whom I've not seen since. Photos of events, photos of people I only get to see once in a while, but the adventures together are larger than life. When I started dating my husband, I took tons of photos, both on DSLR and on my phone. When our kid was born, again, tons of photos. Going back years later, there's photos I forgot I even took, but am glad to have. Memories from the first year or so are so scattered and fragmented that having these photos helps piece them together.
When I was almost 18, I lost an incredibly important person in my life. Just before he passed, we took lots of photos together. I wished I had more photos of us from when I was younger, but, alas. It's one reason I love to take photos now, is to help others capture those memories. Whether it's a parent and child, or a relative, families together, it's a moment in time. It's a moment you never know if you'll get again.
Especially now, with Covid being a thing, your next day is never guaranteed. I want to be able to take as many photos as possible, get as many memories as possible, for you and me.
Memories of that first birthday, the first smiles after losing a tooth, adopting a child or a furbaby, kid's first day of school, dad's retirement, etc. So many firsts, so many memories to capture.
I always joke that, if I ever got Alzheimer's, that photos would be my memories.