Hey y’all! Ever since starting The Pink Chickadee, I have LOVED getting to interview strong women and men about their life experiences in some way or another, whether it be running a business, sharing their talents, or personal experiences. Each and every one of us has something pretty extraordinary to bring to the table. Today, I am interviewing a classmate and friend of mine – Destiny. Along with running her small business Stickers By Destiny, Destiny is an extremely talented photographer who photographs some magnificent images and shares them with others. I have had the pleasure of getting to work with Destiny a bit while being a Staff Writer for Meredith’s Oak Leaves yearbook and seeing her around campus photographing students on Meredith’s campus. I hope y’all enjoy getting to know Destiny just as much as I have!
So, tell me a little bit about yourself!
Hello, I’m Destiny Eudy, and I’m a junior in the class of 2022 at Meredith College studying Mass Communications.
Where are you attending college and what is some of your involvement on campus?
I am attending Meredith College. This is my second year as the co-Editor for the Oak Leaves yearbook, and this semester will be my first semester as a section leader for the Meredith College Choir.
You’re the co-Editor in Chief of the Meredith College Oak Leaves yearbook, what has been a highlight of that role for you?
My favorite part of being an Editor for the yearbook is knowing that I have a hand in collecting and keeping the memories of each year alive.
Beyond life at Meredith and your photography work (feel free to drop your Instagram handles!), I know that you have a sticker business called Stickers By Destiny, tell me a little bit about it!
My sticker business started this past summer during quarantine as a fun way to make a little extra money. I started off by just making monograms and other vinyl decals with my cricut machine. I then began designing and making stickers as a way of learning how to use Adobe Illustrator for my new job. I have designed 32 different stickers since August including everything from everyday designs to holiday specific ones. My instagram handles are @stickers_by_destiny and @destiny_eudy_photography.
Now, tell me a bit about your photography work! What made you choose to get into photography?
I began falling in love with photography back in highschool. I also volunteered to take pictures for my nephews birthday parties, but it wasn’t until I joined yearbook in 11th grade that I realized how much I love photography. My school had a few cameras that we were allowed to check out to take pictures at games and events, and so every Friday I checked out a camera to take pictures at the football games. I loved the thrill of taking action shots of the players and the crowd, being out on the field where only having a camera in your hands would allow you to go, and capturing the moments that would forever be memorialized in the yearbook. In highschool it was the games that I loved to photograph, but after graduating that wasn’t much of an option anymore. It wasn’t until a trip to Black Mountain, NC during the summer of 2019 that I found my love for nature photography. On this trip I brought my camera and while my parents went into a store I followed a little bee around with my camera trying to get the perfect shot.
What made you want to share your photography work with others?
I have always considered my instagram as a place to document my life. I started posting some of my photographs there, but realized that I had so many that it would just be easier to create a separate photography account to document and keep track of all my pictures. Sharing them with others is just a plus.
What are some of the inspirations behind your photography works?
It’s hard for me to actually pinpoint a specific inspiration. One of my favorite things to do is to go on a photography walk. I’ll go out walking around and let everything around me become the inspiration. Every season and place has its own unique beauty and I just try my best to capture it.
With your experience as the Oak Leaves Editor in Chief, what has been your favorite event(s) to photograph?
My favorite event that I have photographed as the Oak Leaves co-Editor is Alice in Wonderland. I loved getting to capture such a special and unique event.
One of my favorite projects that you did was photographing and sharing stories of women with PCOS. Tell me a little bit about that!
This project was for a class here at Meredith called Photography and Social Change. For my final project I wanted to tell people about PCOS, what it is, how it affects people, and share the stories of women that I know with the condition. The goal was to educate others through the stories and photographs of the women. In the pictures I wanted to highlight the beauty of these women with PCOS and not just the condition. If anyone wants to read the stories you can find them at https://cysterstories.blogspot.com/.
Beyond your roles at Meredith, what have been some of your favorite subject matters/areas of photography?
I love to photograph nature the most of all, and especially animals. I love taking pictures of squirrels, birds, bugs, and any other animal I come across. However with the abundance of squirrels on campus, I have found a real love in trying to take as many pictures of the squirrels as possible.
I see on your photography account that you love to photograph nature and towns, etc. What has been one of your favorite place/thing to shoot?
My favorite place to shoot has to be Black Mountain, NC. My family has always called it a Hallmark town because of the adorable small town vibes that give you the feeling that you are stepping into a Hallmark movie. This town is also down in a valley so every direction you look there are beautiful mountain scenes.
My favorite image that you have shared is of two grey cats snuggling with one another. Share the story behind that image!
So the two cats in question are my cats that adopted me. I say that because they started out as feral cats that chose my backyard as their new home. They have been sleeping on the back porch for about three years now and I doubt they will ever leave. Their names are Socks and Pete and one day when I was outside taking pictures of the flowers around my house I saw them hanging around and thought why not give them their own little photoshoot. Snuggling and nuzzling their heads together is something that both of them are always doing, and every picture I took of them explains their personalities so well.
What do you envision that some of your future photography projects will look like?
I’m not really sure what types of projects I’ll do in the future. Majority of the pictures I take aren’t planned until I see the thing I am photographing. I’ve learned that it’s just easier for me to carry my camera around when I am going out and to just capture whatever is happening in the moment. I have however started paying attention to the moon and movement of the planets more and have been attempting lunar and planetary photography.
For someone that wants to get into photography what would be one piece of advice that you would give them?
Some advice that I would give to somebody starting out is to take at least one photography class or watch tutorials, and don’t worry if you don’t have a digital camera because a smartphone works just as well.
Lastly, what is something that you wish you could tell yourself before starting to share your photography with others?
I wish I could go back and tell myself to post pictures in the order they were taken. I made the mistake of just posting whichever ones I came across first and now they are out of order on my instagram.
As stated up above, each of us has something amazing to bring to the table! Destiny’s gift and eye for photography has taken her places both on Meredith College’s campus and beyond and she will continue to do just that!
XOXO – Katie <3