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How does a girl who doesn’t really pay attention to details get interested in photography?  She has a bunch of kids!  7 of them to be exact.  I am one who absolutely hates taking the kids to a photo studio to get their pictures taken.  We used to do it regularly when I had less kids, but as my family grew, I decided we’d have to take pictures of them at home and use those.  Only one problem… my photos weren’t that great.

 

I had seen pictures that I loved that I thought looked really good, where the main subject was in focus and the rest had a blurred background.  I studied and studied how exactly to get that affect and discovered I had to get an SLR camera.  It’s funny to me now looking back that my measure of a good photo was the blurred background.  I now know that there are plenty of great photos without that affect as well.  But, I was a novice, nonetheless, and decided I must have the camera that could help me do that.  Of course, having the blurred background is still pretty cool……

 

 

We were on vacation when the urge hit.  It was time to upgrade that camera so we could get some great vacation shots.  My birthday was that week and my husband decided that we could buy the camera for both of our birthdays and Christmas and our anniversary, too, in order to justify paying for it.  Although I think we may have overpaid (being the ultimate deal shopper that I am), I’m so very glad to have my little Canon t1i DSLR camera.  While I can still take pretty normal, not so great pictures when it’s set on “auto” or when the lighting isn’t so great, I have the capability to take much better pictures when I want to or need to.  I’m learning as I go and it’s been a lot of fun!

 

Since we bought the camera, I do use it a lot for taking pictures of the kids, but I actually use it more for blogging.  I’ve been learning about using light and how to change the settings of the camera and how to shoot photos in manual mode.  I sometimes feel like it’s a huge learning curve and don’t want to mess with it, but when I do, I get some pretty great photos!  I’ve also learned a lot about how to edit my photos to enhance them, making them even better than they were, or to cover up any mistakes I made.

 

Because of my budding fascination with photography, my oldest daughter also developed the urge to learn photography.  In fact, we just bought her a new DSLR camera for Christmas.  She’s been practicing like crazy and has taken some beautiful shots.  She took this beautiful sunset photograph with her new camera and won 2nd place in a local kids photography contest.

 

 

Last year I bought a digital photography course for my daughter so that she can enhance what she’s learning.  We were going to use it as a course in school, because she is hoping to eventually start a photography business.  But….I learned about something even better than that course that we started with.  It’s called The Ultimate Photography Bundle and I’m going to use this as a thorough education in photography for both of us!  There’s 3 different levels to it, Beginner, Intermediate and Advanced.  We’ll have to start in the Beginner section, but there’s some things in the Advanced section I’d like her to learn as well, so I think I’m going to buy all 3.  The 3 things in the bundle that I think will help us the most in the Beginner’s section are:

 

• Photography Masterclass: Your Complete Guide to Photography ($199 value)
• Seeing the Light: Making the Most of Available Light and Minimal Equipment ($12.00 value)
• iPhone Only Photography ($29.00 value – because sometimes I don’t want to lug my big camera)

 

If you’re interested in learning more about photography or just improving your photography skills, let me suggest you start with this free gift:  Free Guide to Photo Composition and perhaps join me in buying the Beginner’s Photography bundle.

 

What about you?  What’s your photography story?