The Story of Lost Art / Melissa Mae Photography

My Dad was the first person to teach me to compose a photograph. I'll never forget being in Mammoth at Crater Lake, looking out over something seemingly uninteresting to me at the time but vividly remember him showing me how to make my photo tell a story. He showed me how to incorporate different parts of the landscape to frame what I wanted to highlight. Pointed out lines on the ground and on rocks, telling me they can be used to direct the eye to certain parts of what I wanted the viewer to really focus on. That moment always comes up when I'm taking photographs now. My Dad was showing me the "Art" in photography, that I could make anything my own and tell stories while doing it. I want my photographs to tell stories, to draw you in. I want them to paint a picture and to make you feel places and things maybe you've once been or want to remember again. Photography isn't a job to me, its my passion. My Dad owned his own company for a very long time. It was called Lost Art and although it was in an entirely different field, I found Lost Art to be such a beautiful sentiment. To find "Art" in everything, to make the regular day to day, "Art". To turn something simple into something beautiful and to take pride in the whole process. Sometimes we overlook and lose sight of the beauty that's right in front of us. Photography may be a Lost Art to some, since everyone has amazing cameras literally at their fingertips all the time but in my opinion it's still an Art that can hopefully be found during one of our sessions. I love to tell stories with my images. I love to capture the small details and the big details. My goal is for the images to bring you back to a moment in time and make you feel something.