photography

I love taking pictures. It is no secret that one of my favorite gifts was the DSLR camera husband bought shortly after little C arrived. It arrived just a day after his birth. If he had waited until his due date, we would of had it for the big day.

When we first bought the camera we had no idea how to use it. We shot in the automatic modes, most often with a flash. The pictures were better with the higher quality camera, but still not great.

In February of this year, I took a class recommended by a friend, through a local public school. A cheap 40 dollar class that met for 4 sessions. Nothing major, and I was able to attend as it was a week night after work and for a short period of a couple hours at a time. This class taught me the basics of photography and how to shoot in manual modes. It also taught me how to have an eye for the composition in a photograph, and how to best use my camera and what lens to use to get the desired effects when I am taking pictures.

Now, by no means am I a professional. But I love taking pictures of our ornery little one and seeing just what shots I can capture. I mostly shoot in the manual modes anymore, and I am continually kept on my toes, as photographing a toddler that doesn't. hold. still. Can be quite challenging.

I have PLENTY of blurry-toddler-moving shots as I am still learning shutter speeds and apertures and what works best in certain situations. My photos are nowhere near the caliber of other mom-photog-hobby-ers, but I am proud of the photos I can achieve now. Looking back and comparing Camden's newborn pictures to ones I take today is a world of difference. I at least know enough of what I am doing to have some decent looking shots.

To keep myself challenged I like to enter little photography contests here and there, as I have time to take pictures and submit. Last week I entered a photo challenge on The Paper Mama, and the challenge was 'colorful'. Husband had dressed little C one day last week in a bright green onesie with bright plaid overalls. While we were outside playing after work I snapped a few shots. I was presently surprised to see this greet me one morning... FIFTH PLACE!!

You can click that link and look at the top five pictures, and see what I was up against. (Really, really good photographers!) And I actually MADE THE LIST!! Whooooo!! I looked back to see how many entries - there were about 40! It just feels good to have a photo I took be picked out of that many to make someones top five favorites. It's good for the self esteem. :)