My name is Kayla; I live in the Leeds and Grenville area of Ontario and I'm 16 years old. I've heard about flickr many times before, but never thought to put up any of my work - until now.

Most of my pictures have been taken for my grade 11 photography class; but others were taken between assignments out of sheer passion.

Although I'm limited to a Canon Powershot at the moment; I plan to invest in a Nikon DSLR when I have the money. Until then, I'll make small manipulations using Photoshop elements to fix the lighting and contrast of my photos. I hope this doesn't offend anyone; after all those small changes are insignificant compared to what else can be done in the digital age.

If you live in the area, like my work or are interested in simply chatting, let me know! I love seeing the work of others; it inspires me to challenge my own creativity and communicating with other artists is what keeps the right-brained community alive.

Lastly, I want to leave you with a few thoughts I have about photography.

Photography is my favorite artistic medium. It is keeper of memories, teller of stories and expressionist of humanity. It brings the magic in an often dull and forgotten world to the surface from every level, so that we are all reminded of the wonders and hardships of life. Photography captures what is often unseen or easily forgotten, and prompts a personal connection. Despite my young age, I've grown incredibly fond of art, especially photographs. I believe this is due to a personal connection I made with photographs when I was even younger. Although times were never the happiest; the photographs kept around our house always depicted smiling faces and fun events - this surreal happiness was the first bit of true magic I'd ever been exposed to, and rather than a photograph prompting me to connect with an unfavorable emotion, those pictures brought to me the best and brightest times of my childhood. Since then I've always adored searching for the unreal in real photographs, not just searching to capture it with my own camera. I adore work that pressures the barrier of human thought, should there be a barrier at all. This is the work I am most fond of; but the appreciation I have is also for passion. Passionate artists always create more mind-boggling, heart-wrenching and thought-provoking art.

And so I hope that by putting these pictures up, I may be able to inspire even one person to pick up a camera, familiar or unfamiliar, and challenge their creativity

... because passion in unguarded waters

is cause for a miraculous experience.