The Maine I Love - Emily McDevitt

#happyplace: Long before hashtags, filters, digital cameras, and social media, I embraced my love and eye for photography on a six-week float plane adventure from Maine to Alaska with my dad. It was the summer of 1988, I had a borrowed Nikon, a lens and a bag of slide film. Deep in the Northwest Territories of Canada, a litter of pure white husky pups resulted in a laughable number of images, received many weeks later in the mail. It became legend in our family, but also birthed a hobby that would become one of my greatest passions. I loved sending off film, and waiting for the developed images to arrive. And then, digital photography. I was slow to adapt and still prefer to place my eye to the tiny box, quickly scan the soon-to-be-captured image, and then, SNAP! I take multiple images, but nine times out of ten, it’s my first click that is THE one. I photograph to tell stories and my photography took on a whole new meaning once I became a mom. Moments in time. I am never without my Nikon at our family cabin on Shin Pond. This moment on the dock at sunset was just one of many that I now hashtag “happy place.” I’m just a mom with a camera, and it’s hard to take a bad picture when you are surrounded by love and the beauty of a summer lake in Maine.