My New Toy

For Christmas I got a new toy. It is rare as an adult to actually get something "just for fun" but I did thanks to my wonderful husband. He got me a fancy camera with all the bells and whistles. I even got a couple of different lenses including a high powered zoom lens. It is sweet!!


I have always been interested in photography for as long as I can remember. In 8th grade I was in the yearbook class. We were handed out cameras and instructed to take candid shots of Jr. High life. It was so fun to me and I was always trying to get that "perfect" shot that caught the essence of my subject. Not only did we get to take the photos but we also got to process them in a lab all on our own. It was so exciting every time I did the photo wash to see an image appear as if by magic. I was thrilled each time a photo came to be.

Once I had children, my interest in photography grew once again. Mainly because we were poor college students and couldn't afford to go and have fancy pictures taken at a studio. I didn't want to miss out on my kids milestones and I also wanted to capture their childhood in a more professional way. My mother-in-law gave me my first SLR camera. The kind that you have to set the aperture, film speed and
shutter speed. And of course at that time it also required film. I soon devoured all kinds of photography books and even took a community class to learn more. It was definitely a trial and error hobby and more often than not my pictures turned out terrible. But every now and them I would get a gem that would be worth it all.


Time passed and soon my film SLR was replaced with a point and shoot digital camera. Wow did it amaze me that you could instantly view your work and even delete the ones that you weren't pleased with at that moment. But in a way it was sad to me. I missed the ability to manipulate my photos by adjusting the lighting and focal lengths. I got okay pictures but rarely did I have the one that made me go WOW.



Well, that is over now because my new camera makes that all available to my fingertips once again. I still have the convenience of digital film and even auto features when it is just one of those days. But, I can also allow my creativity to come through once again. I found I am a little rusty. I still get many poor photos. But when I can take 3,000 on one card it doesn't bother me so much. I plan to practice a lot and maybe someday I can call myself a photographer.

Here are a few of my favorite shots that I took while playing around with my new toy.