I have always loved to take pictures. As a little girl I watched my Dad develop his photos in his home darkroom, and I was fascinated. Then followed many years of snapping shots of my school friends or my family on our sailing trips to the 1000 Islands near Kingston, Ontario. Back in the era of film, however, the 24 snapshots taken usually came back from the drugstore as 14 duds and maybe 10 keepers if I was lucky.
I therefore embraced the advent of digital photography with open arms because I could “play” to my heart’s content without the worry of expense. I started with various point and shoots and graduated to a Canon Rebel XSi a few years ago which I adore. Thousands and thousands and thousands of pictures later my family groans every time I pull out the camera and make them stop for a “photo op”, but I have received many compliments on my work. Do I really know what I am doing? Absolutely not! Do I full understand aperture and focal length? Nope, not really – just the basics. I have attended photography shows, started reading various books on digital photography, and have dabbled a little in Photoshop, but as a mother of two who works pretty much full-time as a legal assistant and does book reviewing on the side, I just can’t find enough free time to take a course or actually read a book from cover to cover.
So, after attending the Exposure Photo & Video Imaging Expo in Toronto yesterday and watching slide shows and listening to lectures by professional photographers, some of whom have photo blogs online, it came to me. Why don’t I start a photo blog? An amateur throwing her favourite photos out there to see what the world thinks. And these aren’t going to be photos that have been edited to perfection because remember, I don’t know how to do that yet. A little cropping, levels, and sharpening here and there, but that’s about the extent of it. So, here’s what I’m going to do. I’m going to try and post a photo every day (or so) and see if anyone wants to comment. I will try and give you an idea of the circumstances and what I was thinking at the time that I took the picture. In return, please feel free to tell me what you think of it. What could I have done to improve it and what editing would you suggest? I am totally open to criticism because I am hoping that this will be an amazing learning experience for me.
Here goes then. The first picture is…………
My son, Daniel, chose this as the first photo for my blog because it has always been one of his favourites. Since the inspiration for this blog was a seminar I attended yesterday given by Sam Javanrough, who is a popular urban photographer from Toronto and the creator of the photo blog “Daily Dose of Imagery”, I agreed that this photo was appropriate for my premiere. Thanks Sam!
photos from the loonybin 