Which commenced when I was 8 years old using my parents (film) camera(s).
I was fortunate that my parents liked gadgets, and cameras were one of the gadgets they were happy to have around the house, and let me use.
My grandfather on my Dad's side was very much into the "technical side" of photography but my Parents were memory makers - point and shoot - memory captured.
Initially I too just wanted to capture images, photos of our 4 cats, photos of our dog, my friends, even photos of my sister and her friends at play. I once organised our dress-ups play time into a wedding, just so I could take photos.
I even talked my younger sister and a little friend into doing a wedding kiss. This was of course so I could take a photo and boy was my Mum a little surprised when she got the film developed for that one.
Way back then the films were all in black and white, not to mention expensive for our struggling household budget. But with a raised eyebrow my parents continued to let me shoot away.
Fast forward to 2005 when my then husband got the shock of his life as I reported to him on the phone that I'd just spent $2000 on my first Nikon D70 digital SLR Camera. Not surprisingly he was lost for words. But what could he really say his Golf Clubs were worth more than that!
(By the way he is now an ex-husband and it has nothing to do with the D90 I now have!)
I suppose you could say I started to get serious about my photography with my D70 and although I shot in Automatic for a year or so I was capturing some great images.
Knowing I could only go so far self-taught I enrolled myself into a 6 week TAFE course.
Learning to shoot with a Digital SLR Camera was something I looked forward to attending on a weekly basis. It was fascinating for me, and the groove I was wearing on the AUTOMATIC setting finally got a break as I starting shooting in M - MANUAL. The below image is of my Friend's beautiful daughter .. using the window light and Manual settings. My friend still has this image up on her wall at home.
I was capturing images with more depth, more color, more "WOW" on a regular basis. I looked at my shots differently. I considered the light, I avoided the in-built flash, I cared where the sun was, and I knew how to change my camera settings to suit the situation. For several years I honed my eye in using my kit lens (18-70mm) and my newly acquired knowledge of the Manual settings.
I even captured some lightning shots, here is one of the two that are my favorites.
Of course there is still a lot more I'd love to share but I'll save that for my next blog.
