Monday, May 21, 2012

Learning

Okay, I survived that first blog post. That's a good sign, right?

I've always liked taking pictures and going back and revisiting them later... especially from when I was young and skinny! Ah, the good old days...

When my son, who is now 4, was a baby, I discovered photo editing. I loved the idea of being able to take a photo that was okay and turning it into something that was better. I took that love and paired it with some tricks I knew from scrapbooking, and for a while, I ran a photo card and design business from my home. I've had lots of fun doing that, but I also started to notice that there was a big difference in the quality of the photos I worked with over the years. I wanted to learn why some photos were so much better than others, and I wanted to be able to take those kind of shots, rather than just wait for a few happy accidents. And so, a few years ago, when I wanted to learn more about photography, my husband bought me a DSLR camera. And... I kept it on auto! I tried a few times to switch to other modes and, since I had no idea what anything meant, the pictures did not turn out very well! So, I got frustrated and switched back to auto mode. My camera was basically a fancy, more expensive point and shoot.

I finally gritted my teeth and started trying to understand what things meant. I learned about scary sounding things like aperture and f/stops, shutter speed, iso and started to practice and practice until things started to click. I learned about things like posing and composition and lights and shadows and anything else I could find. And as I have practiced, I've noticed changes in how things are coming together. I'm not where I want to be... and I hope I never am. I hope that I am always seeing room for improvement and finding new things to learn. But, I'm also at the point where I can see a big difference in where I was, and that sure is a good feeling.

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