Why Am I Obsessed with Photography?

If you asked me this six months ago, my answer was easy--to document the important details of my life as they occur.  Even before children this was true and I have many bad pictures of people whose names I now don't recall--mostly candids because that was my "style."  After children I became even more obsessed.  Thank goodness for the introduction of the digital camera.  It has saved me hundreds of dollars on film and duplicates.  This is still one of the main reasons I shoot pictures.  I love to capture that special memory of my child, his/her smile, laugh, eyes, hair, activities...the list goes on.  When I get a great (in my mind) image, I will stare at it for minutes or hours reveling in the beauty that is my child such as in this sweet shot.

But in February I got my first dSLR, and I was determined not to waste it.  I decided I would figure out how to master the camera and go back to documenting the details of my life and each of my three beautiful children.  I don't want to forget any piece of their childhood.  What surprised me was that I love the technical side of digital SLR's.  I love figuring out what manual settings to use to get the right exposure or depth of field or focus that I want--understanding what I should do and executing it properly results in more failure than not, but I LOVE the process.  I enjoy fiddling with the settings and discovering how they change my image.  I always took 5 or 50 pictures of any given scene, but now at least I'm adjusting what will happen with each shot.

Knowing to set my lens to a small aperture (f/16 for this shot) in order to capture the sunbeams as opposed to a big yellow blob gives me immense personal satisfaction and a sense of accomplishment.

But a third reason I love taking pictures is that it has opened my eyes.  I see things I would never have seen before.  Following Kat's Exploring with a Camera Series I have started to see contrasts, find form, and this week notice repeating patterns.  Learning to see beauty in everything around me has brought me closer to God and more appreciative of the world around me.  I feel like entering the world of photography has given me glasses that I never want to take off again.

What to do with a shot of the grating on the stairwell, I don't know--unless it is to show it on my blog, which brings me to the fourth reason I love taking pictures.  I have so much fun taking the beauty that I am now seeing and bringing a little joy to others with it.  I don't know if I will ever get into a style of photography that is dark and broody--not because I don't think photography is a wonderful medium for sharing important messages--it just feels that for me currently the message I want to share is one of joy, peace, love, and beauty.  Uplifting if one wants to go cliche.  If only one person goes away saying that post or that picture, it brought beauty or happiness or light into my life or I learned something useful, I am content.  (Thankfully the photogs I've met tend to be really sweet and encouraging so I am frequently content now days.)

I just get so much joy from a pretty flower or a well executed shot that I love sharing that joy with others and encouraging them to keep going and keep learning.  My photography has come so far in the last six months, I cannot wait to see how much further I can take it.  I don't think of myself as artsy or creative, but my photos make me feel like I am creating something, something worth keeping and sharing.  I do dream that someday when I upload 1000 pictures that more of my shots are keepers and that my quality of capture overall will continue to increase, but in the meantime I love taking what I do know and try to capture that perfect shot.  If I don't succeed, oh well!  I'll keep exploring, learning, and dreaming and in the meantime, editing.  I must admit I kind of love the whole world of editing, too!  Seriously, how fun is photography?

CoffeeShop's Perfect Portrait 3 Action, and Kim Klassen's Silent Night Texture on a Multiply 50% Vignette

Linking with Sweet Shot Tuesday, Exploring with the Camera, Texture Tuesdays...


And my class over at The Kat Eye View of the World called Find Your Eye: Starting the Journey.