Having Fun with Photos

I think photography is fun.  Even if I am the only one that likes my pictures, I think it's fun.  Sometimes I think I get caught thinking that it's only worth doing something if I'm good at it or if other people like what comes of what I've done.  I know this isn't true.  It's fun to just do something because I enjoy it.  Taking pictures is one of those things for me.  


In March when we sold my motorcycle, my husband wanted me to get something that I would enjoy "doing".  I wanted to get a DSLR.  My dad gave me a Canon Eos Elan camera when I graduated from high school with a telephoto lens.  I used it a lot during college and the next few years after that.  But with the arrival of our point and shoot digital camera, I set down my film camera and pushed it to the back of the closet.  It was hard for me to justify using it when I had to pay to develop the film and I didn't know which pictures would be good on the roll of film and which ones wouldn't turn out well.  It also involved more work on my part to take the film to the store and pick it up than uploading the pictures to a site on the web and ordering them from home.  


My sister in law got a DSLR about two years ago and I marveled at the wonderful pictures she took with it. The shots she got of her family were awesome!  (I think "awesome" is a permanent word in my vocabulary because of growing up in LA).  Seeing her pictures made me want to take more pictures.  But, point and shoots are the same as SLR cameras.  They're nice, but the pictures aren't of the same quality.


So, when my husband proposed that I could choose a new "hobby" and purchase a new tool, I knew I wanted a DSLR.  I knew the two choices were Canon and Nikon.  When I went to the store, the Canon DSLR was just like my old camera.  It wasn't exactly alike, but it was very similar.  I compared features and knew I wanted to get a Canon.  I asked my sister in law and discovered that she and two of my brother in laws all have Canons.  So, Canon it was.  


For the past two months, I've been taking pictures and enjoying it.  Here's one I took while we were on vacation:

My husband loves to take pictures too and so he's enjoyed it as much as I have.  It's been fun to share my camera with him and enjoy the hobby together.

For about a month, I've been wondering if my old telephoto would work on my new camera.  When we had friends visiting last weekend, it came up in our conversation and they told me that they want to get a Canon DSLR because of the interchangeability of their lenses.  They encouraged me to try out my old telephoto lens.  And it worked!  I was thrilled.  It would save us a lot of money and I didn't feel like I was wasting my old camera.

Yesterday, I went to a friend's house to take pictures of her garden.  It was quite fun.  She took a lot of pictures with my camera too and enjoyed seeing her garden through the camera lens.  Here's a picture I took from her garden yesterday of a dragonfly

Here's a picture I took inside her house

What I love about pictures and cameras is the idea of trying to capture what we see.  It prompts me to look more closely at what is before me.  It also evokes in me a sense of wonder at the composition of our spaces and world.  Essentially, I am marveling at God's creation.