Photography Helped Me Battle Post-Divorce Depression, Here Are 10 Pictures Of My Kids

When my daughter was born, I had to move to Misawa AB in Japan, which is far away from my family. I was OK being away from my family, but Misawa has lots of snow in winter, which makes me feel depressed. All I enjoyed was taking pictures of my baby with my cell phone since I was stuck in a house with her due to snow almost every day.

Maybe my ex-husband was worried about me then, so he bought me a digital camera as a Christmas present. He said I need to have some hobby. Since then I started to practice photography by myself. I wasn't serious at first, but when I saw some child fine artist's work on FB, they inspired me a lot.

I was a stay-at-home mom so didn't have money to use for my hobby. So I decided to learn Photoshop by myself at first. What I did was watch YouTube and learn new things every day for a year. Also, I started posting my work on some photography groups on FB, which chose 10 images for a photo of the day.

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10 PHOTOS

#1

It was hard though. I got lots of comments like "Your image sucks" or even just "LOL." Of course, it made me sad but it also made me think that I will be better than you one day! Since then, my dream has been to get an award in an international photography competition and to make a photo album for my daughter to give on her wedding day. Life was good in that I could take lots of photos and memories with my daughter and I could improve myself day by day too. 6 years later I got pregnant again and had a baby boy. Of course, I started to take photos of him too. I also started to work as a photographer on a military base. I enjoyed it a lot but then my life changed suddenly.

#2

#3

I got divorced back in 2020, which was a really hard time. Back then COVID was around and I had to sell my camera and all my gear to make money to rent an apartment for me and my kids in my hometown. I cried so hard that I had to give up my dream. I still remember the day I sold my camera etc. I cried all night. I was lost and depressed for a while. But when I was cleaning up my photography album, it made me want to take up photography again for my kids. So I bought a camera and a lens with a loan. I even decided to start a photography job in my hometown too and tried but things didn't work well. Due to COVID-19 and since I didn't have money for marketing etc., I couldn't get many customers.

#4

#5

I had to give up again. Now I am working at my sister's company, which isn't a photography job, to live. To work to only make money keeps me away from photography now. Since I am busy with work and taking care of kids, it's hard to even think about what kind of image I want to take. I hope that my passion for photography will be back one day...

I will post some old work to keep it as a memory.

#6

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#9

#10