Evening walk September 28th 2012

Storms over Wisteria Lane...

Water!

Turns out water is probably my favorite thing to photograph. Wait no I also love wildlife...and kids...and pets...and sunsets..I'll just have to get back to you on that :).  Here are a few Water pix from today!

Photo class!

Here is a picture of what the street looks like with no special effects :).

Going from using the "automatic" setting on the camera is much like going from driving an car in automatic and switching to a stick shift.  Now why would we want to doooo that??  Needless to say the pictures are coming out worse than ever and it's a bumpy ride to say the least.  Hopefully the end result will be even better and it definitely opens up a whole new world of options and creative possibilities.  It's part overwhelming, part intriguing.  But most of all it's a lot of fun.

I may have (erhum!!) complained a few times in my life that the CAMERA was taking BAD pictures...yikes!  You'll never hear me say that again...or if I do just b*tch slap me :).  Good equipment is nice but ultimately an expensive camera doesn't take great pictures unless you know how to use it and you have an eye for composition.  I wish I had taken this class a long time ago, oh the pix I could have taken while living in Paris...ah but let's look ahead and imagine all the great photo ops to come! :)

Second photo class!

Here are some pictures from last night's photography class, we're learning about the different settings on the camera and the different effects you can create.  

New pictures!

A number of people have asked me to take their family portrait, but I have declined for now.  I love to take pictures and edit the pictures etc but I'm not ready for the pressure yet.  Maybe some day down the line when I really know what I'm doing I can do it.  For now I'm just having fun with it, snapping a way as much as I can :).  Here are some of my recent "work".

Sunsets!

I love my evening walks around the hood!  Some days the sunsets are especially spectacular! 

Beginning photography!

When I was in highschool I attended a school with focus on languages.  Every student at the school was learning at least 4 languages (Swedish -our native tounge - not included).  So it made a lot of sense when one of the teachers said something that has stuck with me throughout the years.  He said "To truly know a language means being able to say what you WANT to say, not just the things you know how to say".  Sure after a couple of years of studying Italian I could probably go to Italy and ask for the way to the trainstation, and sure that is great up to a certain level, but what if I wanted to tell my new italian friends what happened last week, or what if I wanted to tell them that I would have LOVED to go to Sicily but I ran out of money bla bla.  "Dove si trova la stazione ferroviaria?" doesn't quite cut it now does it?
I am beginning to feel this same way about photography.  I'm getting frustrated when I sit down and download the pictures I take.  Point in case, my daughter just celebrated a birthday and looking at the pictures i took i cringe.  Little heads every where, some out of focus, some are missing bodyparts, and some of the pictures are just plain bo-ring!!  What if I instead could take the pictures I WANT and not just the pictures I CAN. 
I'm so excited to be starting a photography class soon, there is so much to learn and even if it seems daunting at times it still seems like a lot of fun.  I'm also looking forward to not to be limited by my own lack of knowledge.  I want to learn to speak "camera".  Say cheese :)