Amber Tyler | Photographer: To become something great | Amber Tyler

When I was younger, I can very well remember a conversation I had with my great grandmother right before she passed away. She was my great grandmother from my father's side of the family. I didn't know her very well, but I thought very highly of her because of all the great stories I had heard of the things she had done in her life. She was a wise woman, with a big heart, and was strong willed. The conversation went a lot like this.. She pulled me close to her face to tell me something important. She whispered in my ear that she loved me and told me that I would become something great. I felt like Pocahontas approaching Grandmother Willow in the Disney movie. I had been told that I would become something great. Someone much wiser and older believed in me. But, she didn't tell me how or when I would become something great. From that moment on, I was destined to figure it out. I also grew up with a Father that instilled the belief in me that anything is possible and to always dream and to dream big. So add that on top of someone wise and influential telling me I would be great, well you can see how I would become frustrated when it didn't just automatically happen. I know it sounds silly, but I imagined never failing in life. Boy was I wrong. I have always been into the Arts and was very involved in music and photography. I got to help be an aid for the photography teacher, and taking photos and having them developed was always my favorite part of vacation. I didn't really think photography could be my profession though. I was in choir in middle school as well as high school. Our high school had a reputation of being one of the best, we were always in the top 3 at state competitions. I also taught piano to people of all ages, and just knew it was what I was destined to do. I was going to be a musician. Then we relocated to Clarkston, WA. Let's just say I was no longer at the top of my game. I became a nobody, the new kid. I had no piano, and the choir here didn't feel like my choir family I had back home.

In case you haven't already figured it out, life does not always go as planned. In fact it rarely goes as planned. After I graduated high school I honestly had no clue what I wanted to do or become. I still felt this pressure though of needing to become something great. After some years, getting married, and 3 kids later, I decided going to school for something would be better than nothing. So I started college at Lewis Clark State College to go for Business Management with Accounting emphasis. No one in my immediate family had gone to college, so I was feeling pretty great for at least taking that step. I thought to myself, well accountants make pretty good money and are respected as a profession, why not?! Well I found out why not, it just wasn't for me. I loved learning more about business, but I am just not destined to become an accountant. I craved having art in my life again. Then my husband bought me my own camera. Growing up, my family did not have a lot of money at all, so all the cameras I had used in the past were borrowed from the school, or they were regular cheap film cameras. I remember when my husband got me my first DSLR. It was.. yes you guessed it.. a Cannon Rebel. I was on cloud 9. I took pictures of everything. I finally had something I could do again that was me. Something just for me. I still didn't feel like I was on a path of becoming something great though.

After a year into my photography business, I felt that there must be something more to it. I was happy, I was shooting everything under the sun, but still felt I needed more depth. During the end of summer last year (2012) some incidents happened in our family changing everything. My parents hit a rough patch in finances and lost their home. They were forced to move back to Oregon to stay with my grandparents until their current finance issues allowed them to get back on their feet. In the meantime, my brother was approaching his senior year of high school in the middle of all this. They did not want to make him move right before senior year. He had already lost his home and they did not want to take away everything he had known. We agreed to let him live with me. Something amazing happened during this time. Before this, we didn't really have a close relationship because he was only 11 when I moved out of the house and we just had separate lives. We have been forced to rely on each other. During this time we have been faced with many trials, including hospitalizing our mother for psychosis caused by extreme depression and PTSD.

Through it all I had watched my brother truly grow throughout his senior year and become an amazing person. He had inherited a deep understanding of people in general and became ambitious in making a difference in the lives around him. I got to be involved in many of his senior activities which helped lead me to doing senior portraits. I have been completely blown away by this group of youth. Every senior I have worked with has had dreams and goals and has wanted to make an impact in this world. And through all of this, and through working with these amazing teens, I figured it out. I figured out that what my great grandmother meant by me becoming something great had nothing to do with my profession, and everything to do with my influence. I also found what it was that I was missing so much in my business and in my passion. I have had the answers in front of me for years now. I am passionate about my family, life change, about making a difference. Whether it is just making someone smile, or if it is something bigger. I want to pass this on and show the youth that being great is all about our actions towards others and by our every day attempts to be the best possible version of ourselves. This is why I have chosen to specialize in Senior Portraits.

Here are some photos from the year. No they are not all my best high quality photos, most are iphone pics. But they were in the moment.

I got to help with DECA. A program available to help the youth with business skills.