"Seeing the World, Through the Eyes of My Lens"

I’m a photographer based in Maple Ridge, a suburb of Vancouver, British Columbia. I’ve been passionate about photography since my teenage years, and it remains one of the greatest joys in my life. There’s something deeply meaningful about capturing a moment, adding the descriptive details that give it life, and sharing those stories with family and friends.

Travel photography is where I feel most inspired. I’m especially drawn to landscapes, seascapes, waterscapes, boats, old cars, flowers, macro work, and sunsets. At the same time, I love photographing the incredible beauty we’re fortunate to have right here in Metro Vancouver and the Lower Mainland — from coastal light to quiet marinas, forests, and the changing seasons.

I joined Flickr in June 2011, originally just to follow a friend’s photostream. Everything changed in April 2014 when I bought my first DSLR and began posting my own images. Flickr continues to amaze me — the talent here, from amateurs to professionals around the world, inspires me every single day.

To all my Flickr friends: thank you for visiting my photostream, for your comments, faves, compliments, and feedback. Your support and encouragement mean more than you will ever know, and I’m grateful for every connection this community has brought into my life.

With Kindest Regards,

♥ Sonja Peterson

They say a picture is worth a thousand words — but I often wonder, what else do they say?

To find out, I’ve gathered some of the most inspiring quotes about photography. I hope they speak to you as deeply as they’ve spoken to me. ♥

“No, you don't shoot things. You capture them. Photography means painting with light. And that's what you do. You paint a picture only by adding light to the things you see.”

― Katja Michael

"A good photographer must love life more than he does photography."

—Joel Strasser

"You don't TAKE a photograph, you ask, quietly, to BORROW it."

—Unknown

"It's not what you look at that matters. It's what you see."

—Henry David Thoreau

"Which of my photographs is my favorite? The one I'm going to take tomorrow."

—Imogen Cunningham

"You don't make a photograph just with a camera. You bring to the act of photography all the pictures you have seen, the books you have read, the music you have heard, and the people you have loved."

—Ansel Adams

“To me, photography is an art of observation. It’s about finding something interesting an ordinary place… I’ve found it has little to do with the things you see and everything to do with the way you see them.”

— Elliott Erwitt

“Photography for me is not looking, it’s feeling. If you can’t feel what you’re looking at, then you’re never going to get others to feel anything when they look at your pictures.”

— Don McCullin

“Photography is a way of feeling, of touching, of loving. What you have caught on film is captured forever… It remembers little things, long after you have forgotten everything.”

— Aaron Siskind

“The picture that you took with your camera is the imagination you want to create with reality.”

— Scott Lorenzo

“If the photographer is interested in the people in front of his lens, and if he is compassionate, it’s already a lot. The instrument is not the camera but the photographer.”

— Eve Arnold

“I really believe there are things nobody would see if I didn’t photograph them.”

— Diane Arbus

“The whole point of taking pictures is so that you don’t have to explain things with words.”

— Elliott Erwitt

“What I like about photographs is that they capture a moment that’s gone forever, impossible to reproduce.”

— Karl Lagerfeld

“A good photograph is one that communicates a fact, touches the heart and leaves the viewer a changed person for having seen it. It is, in a word, effective.”

— Irving Penn

“Beauty can be seen in all things, seeing and composing the beauty is what separates the snapshot from the photograph.”

— Matt Hardy

“Life is like a camera. Just focus on what’s important and capture the good times, develop from the negatives and if things don’t work out, just take another shot.”

— Unknown

“Only photograph what you love.”

— Tim Walker

"Wherever there is light, one can photograph"

— Alfred Stieglitz

"When I have a camera in my hand, I know no fear"

—Alfred Eisenstaedt

"My life is shaped by the urgent need to wander and observe, and my camera is my passport"

—Steve McCurry

“Photography saved my life by opening my eyes to the beauty that surrounds me each and everyday. Life looks much richer from behind the lens.”

― Donna Kasubeck

♥

If you like my images, you can follow me on:

ArtistWebsites:

www.peterson-photography.artistwebsites.com

FineArt America:

fineartamerica.com/profiles/peterson-photography

Pinterest:

www.pinterest.ca/speterson58/peterson-phtography

Instagram:

www.instagram.com/sonjapetersonphotography