This is my first ever real blog post. I guess I’ll start with me. I am a working mother of two; 12 year old Andy and 11 month old Linda. I’m a manufacturing engineer in a world wide company. I have been married to my wonderful husband for over 12 years. He is a watch enthusiast, a Lego maniac, a handyman, a fantastic father and my closest friend! I’m currently trying several new hobbies; photography, crochet & being crafty. I’m best at being crafty, still learning to crochet, but I’m mostly interested in photography.
I have always been interested in photography. I took a class in college, but really couldn’t pursue it too much as it was the most expensive class & hobby I’ve ever explored. That was back in the 90’s, when you had to use a dark room to develop the perfect picture, with chemicals and photo paper, little tools fashioned of paper and wire for dodging and burning images, hanging your wet photos on a clothes line to inspect as they dried. That was before 15 megapixel cameras were affordable and Photoshop made editing a breeze. Am I dating myself yet? It really wasn’t that long ago.
I started that class with a borrowed camera, a roll of film and one pack of photo paper. I couldn’t afford the book and went without. One pack of paper was more than $50, a steep price for the minimum wage earning college student I was. I assumed I would need more than 1 roll of film so I saved my dollars for more. I did all the assignments, read what I could from classmates books when I could. I spent my money on film and my time in the dark room. Then, I found out I really wasn’t that good at it. My teacher told me so. I tried to step up my game a little bit. She told me to focus on portraits as my best photos were of people. That was positive, at least. I passed the class with a resounding C. Crushed, disheartened were my dreams of becoming a world renowned photographer for National Geographic, People or Rolling Stone. I moved on.
Shortly after, digital photography began to boom and I got my first digital camera. Knowing I really wasn’t that good of a photographer, my teacher told me so, I just took lots of pictures of my baby boy growing up, upgrading my digital point and shoot camera as technology improved.
Now in 2011, a new baby girl on my hip, that photography itch has returned, especially with a little girl to dress up. I put her in numerous hats and headbands to get those cutsie pictures that are so popular. When I tried to blow some of those pictures up for large framed prints I realized I’m limited by my cameras capabilities. I’ve grown tired of my point and shoot, and the picture quality isn’t that great anymore. Time for a new camera!
I got my first and probably last bonus from my job. I can afford just about any camera I want. I started looking into DSLR cameras. After researching, reading every review I can find on an entry level professional DSLR camera, I settled on the Canon Rebel 2Ti. I found a great deal online that ultimately turned out to be one of those bait and switch deals. After that, my hubby got involved. Then he wanted a great camera that also takes good video. So he was bound and determined to find a better camera than the one I picked out. After all, I am not a photographer and I’m probably wasting my money on a passing fad. He needs a use for it when I give up my on photography craze. We got the Sony SLTR-A55, not my first pick or even second or third, but I settled because it took over a month of convincing that I should spend my bonus on an expensive camera. He got to pick it out. It was a compromise and it worked out well.
Now I’ve got my camera, a few books to get back up to speed on the art of photography and a subject; my new baby girl Linda! So, I’m off on my challenge to become a great photographer! My daughter isn’t so keen on that idea, but she’ll come around, right?
