My name is Kabe Termes. I'm a photographer. I remember the exact moment I decided to become a photographer. I was 10-years-old shooting a disposable camera at my grandparents' 50th wedding anniversary on the Oregon Coast. I took a photo of the sun disappearing into the pacific and went back to being a fun loving kid unaware that that moment had permanently altered the course of my life.

It wasn't until I was back home in the Black Hills of South Dakota some weeks later that I got a look at the developed photos from my disposable. About half way through the photos I found my sunset. Photographers talk about "capturing the moment". My sunset shot captured that moment. Even today I can look at that photo and be transplanted back in time and hundreds of miles away. At 10-years-old it was nothing but luck, but the feeling of pride and satisfaction I got from being the person behind the camera was a feeling unlike any other. It became an addiction.

Not long after, I received my first 35 millimeter camera as a birthday present. I became photo editor of my high school yearbook and before I knew it, I was traveling across South Dakota working as a photographer for an advertising firm based in Rapid City. From there, it was on to college at the University of Wyoming, and five semesters as a staff photog for the school paper, freelance work back in South Dakota and an internship with the Wyoming Tribune Eagle in Cheyenne. My education instilled in me the genuine belief in the goodness of journalism. Journalists show the world what it cannot see. By working as a photojournalist one can be allowed to forgo all language gaps and misunderstandings by speaking with images. A good photo does more than tell 10,000 words, it doesn't use words. We work in emotion, a universal language.

Photojournalism is my field. It's hard work and long hours. It's the unending search for perfection when perfection is unattainable. It's the way we look at a scene and see undeveloped photos and it's the undeniable joy we feel when hearing that shutter open at just the right moment.

My name is Kabe Termes, and I'm a photojournalist.