Shannon Cummings

Photography – Honolulu

I was born and raised in small towns all over the land locked state of Kansas and never had the opportunity to touch the ocean until I signed a six year contract with the US Navy. It’s one of the best decisions I made in my life. I went all over the world then...not really but I went to the best place on earth, Hawaii. I fell in love with everything here - the people, the food, the hikes, the ocean, and did I say the ocean? Once I decided not to reenlist in the Navy I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do or where I wanted to go. My heart said stay in Hawaii. I didn’t listen. I left Oahu to pursue a degree in photography at the Academy of Art Institute in San Francisco. I was there for one semester. I truly missed the island life and came back within a year with my then boyfriend (now husband) and opened a photography business. It wasn\'t until I saw Sarah Lee\'s work that I knew what I wanted to do and it\'s taken me three years (with lots of tears, trials, and errors) to save up for the equipment and learn from my mistakes to get me to where I am and I am still learning. My goal in life is to travel to the clearest waters on earth to take people\'s photographs.