Discovering a New Hobby

I never took that hobby of photography that I claimed I was going to start last year whilst in Spokane very seriously.  Blame it on the fact that we lived in a tiny apartment on the third floor, on my first time in snow, on the fact that I was in a small town that sometimes felt clausterphobic, or the sad truth... I got lazy (and pregnant).

But now.. in our new fantastic home with TONS of natural light... I have begun to experiment. Today, Jordan got in trouble and wasn't allowed to have Family Home Evening with his cousins. Instead, we ventured off to the nearby park and had a quick lesson and some fun on the playground.  While Andy and Jordan played, I lay on a mat and took photos of Bubba and the scenery.  The scenery photos are boring, just a bunch of trees with sunlight poking from behind and me trying to figure out if I got more or less light, more or less focused with each button on my manual setting.  It was fun though!

In my own humble opinion, not bad for a beginner.  HAHAHAHA.  But seriously, so much fun.  That's all I want to do with photography.  Capture photos of my kids... significant family events... etc.  I know a lot of moms end up doing photography on the side to earn cash (so awesome right? and kind of a Mormon thing but really just a mom thing), but that seems like a huge weekend commitment and BlueSky is amazing and my skillset is really more with spreadsheets, operations, and people anyway, but as a hobby?  SO MUCH FUN!  

And, I have a well defined plan that lays out the journey I hope to take with photography.  I will play with the manual settings wherever I go, until I know pretty immediately exactly what aperture, shutter speed and ISO I need for the existing light I have around me.  Then, I will venture into learning how to edit photos.  Meanwhile, I will experiment with my own creativity and shots that I envision in my head or, let's be real, what I've seen and like and want to mimic (isn't imitation the best form of flattery?!).  Next, I will check out some photography books from the library and begin to read more about the mechanics of photography.  Lastly, I will make a goal of purchasing an additional expensive lens that may help me obtain the creative shots I will want at that point.  Let's see how far I get! Oh and somewhere in the middle, I want to ask for a remote control so I can take photos with myself in them!  HEHEHE.  The automatic timer combined with our tri-pod is good for now.