two years of photography

My life had been headed towards some major change for quite a long time, but in April of 2012, it finally got there. I finally got my hands on a dSLR camera – rather, I should say, my husband knew how much I wanted one and made it happen. I’d been wanting one for so long I cannot remember when urge to frame a shot first happened. That one small thing has shaped my life ever since.

The past two years have been such an adventure. At first I was content to simply use my new expensive (starter) dSLR to point and shoot. Sure, I changed the settings from auto to, well, flower once in a while. Pretty much, though, I saw a picture I liked, framed it, and took the picture. Since I took the picture in .jpg, it was easy to upload and off to Facebook and flikr it went.

Even after I got Photoshop CS6 and started using it to play with my pictures, it took a long time for me to switch to shooting in RAW. “It’s too technical” I would tell my friends who were encouraging me to switch. In the end, it was a combination of my friends’ confidence in me and the PS course I was taking that was going into great detail about shooting RAW and how many possibilities it has that finally changed my mind. I’m not sure how long I shot in RAW + .jpg, but when I switched I didn't go back. (Still have to remember to switch back when I’m doing quick shoots for work, etc. though). Not all photographers shoot RAW, even professional ones, but personally, I love the flexibility of it.

For a year and I half I went all out with trying to learn photography (as well as move states, take care of dogs, and a husband who worked full time and went to school). I started PS courses, photography courses, rented lenses (enjoyed playing with telephoto, LOVED the macro), bought a lens that’s not a kit lens, printed my photos to canvas and on metallic paper, even gave some of those prints as gifts and sold a couple others. Somehow, I think I actually burned myself out. Workflow, or good workflow, was something I lacked. Too often I was all over the place, a chapter of a class here, editing there, taking pictures another day, but it never flowed well.

We moved states and my photography, well, it didn't disappear, but it fell to the way side, especially my study of it. Then, as time slowed down again – or was it life that slowed down – I felt there was something else I needed to do first. And that was to establish a habit, a pattern of exercise. Certainly I need to lose weight, but my goal before I could settle back into photography was create a pattern of some kind of activity that I couldn't do without, so I wouldn't ignore that in favor of photography or reading or, basically anything else. Since January that has been my one and only goal, but that’s a story told in another post. Suffice to say, I write with confidence that the habit has been created and is actually awfully hard to break – even when I don’t feel well, migraine or simply tired, I find myself out the door on my bike before I realize it.

Two years after I first picked up my very own dSLR, I look back at some of my first pictures and laugh. I didn't know the definition of composition and the “rule of thirds” or anything else for that matter, but I still had a good eye. Still, I knew when something looked right and when it looked “off” but if I was taking that picture now I could frame the pictures even better. Early on I learned not to cut limbs off, but despite my best efforts it still happens from time to time. I knew nothing about ISO – a whole day’s worth of Europe pictures are shot with an ISO of ~3200. I still don’t know much about ISO (still over my head a little no matter how hard I try) but I know pretty much lower is better. I still haven’t played with the manual settings too much on my camera, but I have effectively used manual focus multiple times (though I’m still scared every time that focusing using my own eyesight is going to screw it up more).

Two years ago I would have just said I love taking pictures. Today I know I love portraits, but mostly candid shots – I love working around people, not posing them, unless it’s babies. I love shooting my dogs, capturing Da’shain just as he’s in mid-air capturing the ball or Dred as he’s stretched out in full run and even Dare as he stares up at me going “another shot?” I can tell you I love shooting with a macro lens, I LOVE the details that can be captured – I had a blast taking pictures of (yes) flowers, but some of my favorites with the macro – a couple are on my wall – are ones that I took of Dan’s motorcycle. Heck, my picture of his gas cap  is one of my all-time favorites. I can tell you that I love looking at landscape pictures, but I enjoy architecture more, and instead of the entire building, I’d rather shoot a small detail on it, window, door, lamp post, something, but not the entire thing.

Many, many varied adventures have led me to this place, from shooting in Europe, to shooting in my own home, to shooting in Sedona, shooting my own dogs, random dogs at dog parks, friends and family and perfect strangers. From 2012 to now, I've had a roller coaster of a ride and enjoyed the heck out of myself and photography and learned so much, but never enough. The future, my future is before me and I’m excited to see what I make of it, what more photography has to teach me.