First and foremost, in the unlikely event that I ever become famous, I would like to ensure that my name is not butchered in households across America. So that being said, my last name is pronounced, 'KRES-GEE', or 'KREZ-GEE'-not 'KRESAGE' which is how most people generally pronounce it. Anyway, a little about me....Prior to my husband's retirement in January of 2015, I had spent 15 years as an Air Force wife. All of the years leading up to that I had spent as a military brat mostly in the state of Delaware where I grew up. In January of 2000, I became an orthodontist assistant; it was during that time of taking intraoral photos that I discovered my love of photography. FYI, that's probably the weirdest, 'I discovered my passion for photography...' story you'll ever find. Anyway, eventually I was able to take photography classes which marked the beginning of my endless pursuit to learn more about the art of photography, to continuously improve, and the downward spiral of never having enough photography equipment. I am VERY passionate about my photography- to the point that some people, *mumbles under my breath, 'My husband'* would say that I'm even slightly obsessed...or not so 'slightly'. I love landscape photography and around the time I decided to pursue it professionally, I foresaw myself living in the mountains of Colorado or Alaska or Utah and taking pictures of the immense beauty that surrounded me there. However, life has a funny way of working out (and by 'life' I clearly mean 'the military life') so instead of winding up in the beautiful snow-capped mountains...I wound up in the Chihuahuan Desert in the sleeply, little border town of Del Rio, TX. I won't lie... upon arriving there and seeing the complete lack of anything one could even remotely call 'beautiful landscape', I had my landscape photography dreams crushed. However, not one to allow myself to be defeated (especially in regards to my photography dreams) I picked myself back up and decided to defiantly tackle this tough landscape. I would not be beaten by this dry, desert scrub brush that covers every square inch as far as the eye can see. So, that being said, I had to approach my passion differently, photograph outside of my comfort zone, and really work hard to capture subjects that make interesting and picture-worthy photos. It was a real challenge but to be completely honest, living in Del Rio forced me to become a better photographer. You see, when you live in an area where the landscape is beautiful-the world is your oyster. You can point your camera just about anywhere and you'll wind up with a beautiful landscape scene. But when you live in a region as desolate (and quite frankly-ugly) as West Texas (and not the pretty part like El Paso and Big Bend), you have to go out and LOOK for beauty and you have to be able to find beauty in the every day. I worked very hard to capture the interesting, beautiful, and sometimes tragic sides of my subjects. In 2015 my husband retired from the Air Force and in 2016 we moved to the Cumberland, Maryland area. I hope to explore this region extensively soon and continue to add to my landscape collection of West Virginia and the Allegheny Mountains region.
Amber Kresge
PS.
Please check back occasionally as I will be adding new
photos as often as I am able to.
Disclaimer: The 'fine art America' watermark on my images will not appear when you order a picture, it is only applied to prevent theft of my work online.
Amber Kresge joined Fine Art America on November 10th, 2012.
