Stephanie ~ A Photographer with an Eye for COLOR

"My name is Stephanie Thomas and I love taking photos. Even though I do admire all types and forms of photography, I'm extremely passionate about vintage and toy cameras, particularly Polaroids. I'm pretty simple, really. I love traveling and exploring new things and new places with all my cameras. I also love working with kids...I'm currently in school and am almost done earning my teaching credential. However, my dream job would be to somehow combine my passion for photography and working with kids in need, maybe even internationally. I don't know exactly what my future is going to look like, but I do know that lots of cameras and photography will be involved!

I've been a photographer for about two years now. I actually went backwards in photography terms: my first camera was a digital SLR and I fell in love with taking photos that way. But then one day at a camera store, I saw this cool looking Diana+ camera and decided to buy it. After the Diana, I got into all sorts of old and oddball film cameras, either off eBay or from friends cleaning out their old junk.

My favorite camera would have to be my Land Camera 440 that I bought for five dollars. And, as for film, any expired pack film is amazing! I have some expired type 669 from 1996 that still works and has given me some really interesting and unique results.

I love just going out somewhere with my cameras and exploring and shooting. I love shooting out in the desert a lot. And, I love shooting abandoned things. I feel that color influences my work greatly. With my vintage cameras and old film, I aim to get antiqued and unusual colors. I love it when I peel apart a Polaroid and the image looks like it came straight out of the '60s. I love color and I love the different types of colors I can get from Polaroids. No matter what anyone says, you can't get them digitally! And sure you can play around in Photoshop and create pictures that look really old and vintage, but my photography and my colors are real, straight out of the camera.

All of the above images are from Stephanie Thomas.