Photography

Everyone should have a hobby. It doesn’t matter what it is. Mine is photography. I love taking photos. I always have. It’s an expensive hobby though and I am not ashamed to say I have asked for camera equipment as combined birthday and christmas presents from my parents so I don’t have to pay for it.

I love that photography has gone digital. I know the traditionalists will hang me out to dry but it saves carrying around rolls of film and I am never limited in how many photos I can take. I can also edit them how I want. Oh, no! Did I say edit? Editing is awesome. I can remove that speck of dust that I didn’t notice at the time which has ruined a perfectly good photo. I can take out the red-eye. I can colour correct when I forget to change my settings.

I am not one of those photographers who only takes photos of certain things. I will and have photographed anything. Sports? Not a problem. Scenic? Sure. Weddings and Parties? As long as you don’t expect perfection. Really the only thing I don’t do is Portraits. It’s mainly because I’m not very good at it. I prefer to catch people naturally, rather than a set shot.

There’s a lot of luck involved in photgraphy. Anyone can go to a scenic part of the world and take a nice photo. The chances of that nice photo being more than just nice are pretty slim but when it is it’s truly spectacular. I don’t know that any of my photos are spectacular. I don’t even know that any of them are better than nice. I just know that I like taking photos.

I know why I prefer to be behind the lens, rather than in front of it. I am not happy with how I look. The sad thing is that there was a time when I did look good in photos but I didn’t see it.

I am beginning to think that my son is a junior shutterbug. He hasn’t developed an eye for what he wants to cature yet, he just wants to take photos of anything and everything. He can used up 400 shots on his camera in a few hours, and that’s just at home. He takes photos of chairs and the floor and his train set and the cat and food and all sorts of random things. It’s not a bad thing but it makes a lot of work for me when he asks me to process them. Thank goodness it isn’t too often, mostly they just sit on the computer gathering virtual dust.

My son also loves being in front of the camera and he’s a good subject. He hasn’t learnt how to smile naturally for the camera yet, but that’ll come. When I catch him just being himself, it’s the best. That’s probably just the parent coming out in me.

I really like to see other people’s photos. It’s like looking into their heart. You see what they are passionate about, where they’ve been and how they see the world. It can be heart-warming or heart-wrenching but both are beautiful. I also really like how the same photo can mean such different things to different people.

I don’t really think it’s important to be good at your hobby, as long as you like doing it. If you like it and are proud of it that’s what’s going to make it worthwhile.

By the way, if you’d like to see some of my photos then go to my other blog: Nona's Photgraphic Odyssey