my photography journey

I love taking pictures.  I'm from the city where George Eastman of Eastman Kodak fame lived and started the company.  A ton of my relatives worked for Kodak in its heyday.  Growing up, I loved getting to take snapshots using my parents' cameras.  As I got older, getting ready for school dances always meant picking up a disposable camera to take with you.

I've had a digital point and shoot for a while, but when I was pregnant I started thinking about getting a dSLR.  I knew that even if I used it as a point and shoot, the snaps I took would look so much better.  I figured it'd be fairly easy to figure out how to use it in manual, and managed to convince S that, in the long run, getting a dSLR would be cheaper for our family rather than hiring a professional photographer to take pictures of E every 6 months or so.  Yeah.  So that was before I got a dSLR and actually learned how to use it.  I'm quickly realizing photography is an expensive little hobby!

S got me a Sony a290 dSLR--a pretty basic, starter camera in the world of dSLRs--when E was born in January.  I was terrified to use it at first, and when I did, it was always in Auto mode and usually with the flash.  I attempted to decipher the crazy manual, and figured out that shooting in Aperture-priority would get the pretty blurry backgrounds the professionals always managed to get.  But, that was pretty much the end of my progress in terms of self-study.

I'm pretty much obsessed with being a student and love learning, so the obvious way for me to get more out of my camera was to start taking some courses.  But, we had a newborn at home so taking a class at a local college or basically anywhere but my living room was out of the question.  I had a couple of books, but they weren't cutting it.  I needed a teacher to push me and tell me what I was doing wrong and assignments to hold me accountable.

I started out with snagging a great deal I saw on Doodle Deals for a 10-week workshop called Photosanity.  The course was all online, and once I started it, I was hooked.  Based on the recommendation of the workshop instructor, I got my first "good" lens (aka stopped using the silly kit lens), a 50mm f/1.8.  When we wrapped up in June, I wanted more and stumbled onto Clickin' Moms.  I've taken Shooting 101, 201 and Lightroom 101, and am about to start Natural Light 101.  I have to say, I've learned more from CM than I ever thought possible!  Seriously, what great classes!

So that's my photography journey, so far.  I know that I am by no means a professional, but I do consider myself a pretty proficient hobbyist.  I'm declaring October to be Photography month around here, and am going to be sharing with you what I consider the best tips and tricks I've picked up over the last 9 months (most of which are super easy to implement and made such a dramatic improvement in my pictures)!

And, just for hilarity's sake and to prove my point, here's a picture taken back in January:

yikes!  the angle, the color.  what was i thinking?!

And a more recent one taken in August:

still by no means perfect, but come on.  much better.

See!  Improvement.  Now, if only I could convince S that I need that 30mm f/1.4....

Are you into photography?  What inspires you to improve?

xoxo