Artist's Statement
I discovered my passion for photography almost randomly, a spontaneous decision leading to ridiculous amounts of research, leading to me falling in love with something I had never considered trying before.
My wife and I had been working towards our dream vacation, a two week trip around Japan, for over 6 years. As we were planning our trip, I just kept thinking that I wanted to be able to capture the memories we would make while traveling and keep them forever. This trip was important, possibly a once in a lifetime opportunity, and I wanted to be able to photograph it. A few weeks later, after almost constant research, I bought my first camera and started taking pictures of everything. I became obsessed. It blindsided me how much I loved it.
Our trip to Japan was fantastic, I learned so much in those two weeks, and I fell even more in love with photography. What started as a one time thing for a vacation, became what I wanted to do with my life. Photography is, and will always be, my passion.
© 2016 Michael R Riehl, All Rights Reserved.