“I’ve always had a camera since I was a kid,” Sherry Brown stated in an interview with The Tribune.
She said her first camera was a 110 pocket film camera at age 10.
“I was always taking pictures of my brothers, cousins and I would get my dad to take me out to St. Bernard to take pictures out there. Of course, they weren’t very good, but I had a good time,” she explained.
Brown said she wasn’t always as professional as she is now. She made a point to say that photography is a continuous learning experience because knowing your way around a camera takes time.
She taught herself how to operate basic settings and even taught herself to use a camera better through videos and materials online.
“I took photography as my electives in college,” Brown noted. “I started seeing all of this beautiful landscape photography and I wanted to learn it. So I reached out to several people who did that and were willing to be mentors and they were so helpful and sweet.”
At this time she progressed to a Canon EOS 6. “It was a crop screen; it wasn’t even a full frame. I used that thing for years, but the one thing it taught me was settings.”
She reminisced that at times her training consisted of placing a teddy bear on a barstool and analyzing the settings. With the camera set to manual this allowed her to see what settings provided the best detail and to take into account how the lighting affected the shot.
Brown most recently photographed the Christina Chambers Twilight 5K, but expressed her love for photographing any and all events.
She also has a deep love for landscape photography and stated that it may be contributed to growing up on a farm in Winston County. She was born in Cullman and still resides here, but was raised on a busy family farm.
Several households lived and grew up on the farm and shared what was produced with each other. The homestead held chicken houses, community gardens and most afternoons would be spent shelling beans and canning fresh-picked-produce.
“We were always busy on the farm,” Brown remarked. “We all worked together. It was a family community of sorts.”
She credited the steady work on the farm for her constant habit of staying busy.
In 1982, she completed Wallace State LPN School, with electives in photography. She worked as a nurse for roughly 15 years, then decided to pursue counseling and attended Athens State for two years. In 1996 she graduated with a psychology and behavioral science degree. She then went to Alabama A&M for her master’s degree in clinical social work.
She now owns and practices at Restoration Counseling Services, and when she isn’t with clients or aiding others, she is traveling or finding the perfect way to photograph landscapes and everyday experiences.
In addition to providing counsel to others, she finds peace with her love of photography and perspective caught through the lens.
“One of the things photography does for me, and I even tell my clients, is that I’ve never felt alone with my camera,” said Brown, who stated she has gotten a few clients into photography as well.
“No matter where I go I just go explore, look around and I have the best time just being in nature. I’ve spent time at Bankhead and finding something off-road like a barn in the distance. I’ve never felt alone with my camera.”
She explained that her practice consists of trauma and grief counseling as well as sessions for depression and anxiety.
“The camera is my exhale. Everything I absorb through the week, when I go out and shoot on the camera – that’s where I breathe and let go of all of that.”
She recently wrote about a mountain landscape shot she took in Tennessee stating, “The heavens open in front of me.”
She recalled a church in Italy she photographed in 2003. A thick mist would travel along the church every so often and Brown intended to capture a photo of it concealing itself. She said the church was enveloped in a thick mist and looked as if it were in the heavens.
Brown was traveling with a group of photographers in Italy for 10 days and went on to Rome for three days as well.
“I couldn’t go all the way there and not go to Rome,” she smiled.
Brown has been with The Cullman Tribune as a photographer since 2020 and continues to showcase unique, unwavering talent.
Publisher and Co-owner Noah Galilee shared, “Sherry has always been a true pleasure to work with as she is willing to learn new ways of showcasing her talents through the lens even if that takes her to the west coast to visit Oregon or standing on the sidelines shooting Friday night football.
“Her willingness to share her talents through The Tribune is an honor and one I do not take lightly. Sherry is helping set the bar for all photographers at The Tribune but the rare aspect is that she is willing to share her knowledge with those same individuals. She is truly one of my most favorite people to have had the pleasure to know.”
