Friday, 15 May 2009

I have a new camera (hence this new blog!)! :)

Well, I bought a Sony Alpha 300 DSLR camera, and was honestly scared of it when it arrived and I unwrapped it! But I have just started taking photos with it in the last week, and I'm excited about it!

I really want to get GOOD at taking photographs. I want to capture soooo much of my children's early years, and beyond. I want to be GOOD at taking great photos of my newborn babies, and I have already had three so I feel like it's slipping away from me fast enough without me having learnt to take good quality photographs. I will have another newborn in the next 8 weeks (yay!) so I am really hoping to "study" photography in as much as I can here at home with three small boys to keep me busy while I wait to give birth! ;)

At the moment, I don't understand my camera yet. I don't know anything about photography. I haven't read much of the manual yet, and I'm shooting on full auto mode without the flash. I keep the display screen on, but I have no idea what all those numbers scrolling up and down mean, as I move the camera! I know I will learn though, and I'm SO eager to! I am actually interested in semi-professional photography of children and babies, if I am able to learn the art well enough and get good enough at it. I hope I can! I might find that I don't have time for that, but I will be delighted if I can learn to take professional quality photos of my own children throughout their childhoods, and my little nieces! I would love to also branch out and take beautiful photos of other people's children as (if!) I find time available in the future. I have had a nagging interest in this (nagging as in "vague", not pesteringly persistant!) since long before having my own children, but it was a sort of "I wish one day..." type dream, not something I necessarily expected to accomplish.

I bought a book which arrived a couple of weeks ago, called "Photographing Children" which is a Photo Workshop book, by Ginny Felch. The reviews were excellent and it sounded like exactly what would interest me and help me learn some new things. I'm delighted to see that it has an assignment at the end of each chapter, and I have started to read it as my "Work on a craft or hobby" item on my Motivated Moms list every Friday, so that I'll actually stick to working on it and make some progress - one chapter each Friday. It's Friday today and I have read the first chapter. I'm supposed to stop there but I was so excited about it that I went and read the second chapter too, hehe!

So, the first chapter taught me about inspiration and creativity. There is a main assignment, but I also liked a little "idea box" earlier in the chapter. I am supposed to take photographs each time I've read a chapter as an assignment, based on what I learned in the chapter, so I need a place to post those photos. I can post photos at my main blog but as I read the chapter I quickly realised that I should have a special place to post photographs as I learn and practise, because some of them will be just too MANY or too boring for my blog I think. I want a clear record of my progress as I practise things, so I figured I would have to start a photography blog! I'm excited about the very fact that I'm (ME!!) starting a photography blog! That in itself feels like it holds so much promise, and I'm so excited about it! :) Even if it doesn't end up panning out to anything. But I really hope (and expect?) that it might! :)

So, I have noooo idea how to use my camera, except for some photos that I have taken of the boys so far (which are on my blog, and some more on the camera that haven't been uploaded yet).

I am going to work on the "idea box" assignment before doing the Big One at the end of Chapter One. I hope it's okay (copyright-ish-ly) to state the assignments here... :S Anyway, hopefully it is!

I need to make 20 photographs out of the following subjects, and include a child in each photograph:

An egg
Texture
Harsh light
Colour
Junk as art
Window
A face
Black
White
Shadow
Reflection
Round
Smooth
Partnership

I have to just be creative and let my photos reflect what influences ME, and who I am. Thankfully I have a bunch of children to choose from to include in any photos I take ;) So I will try to get started on this list tomorrow, and I'll post things as I complete them. I'm hoping to complete this assignment over the weekend. I am not sure what I will do for some of them! It's all going to be at home, no field trips to the park or anything, lol! So I need to get somewhat imaginative I think, since I am not sure what to do for some of them here. I'll post again with the results! I don't know whether to make this blog public or not yet. I think I will want to, but right now it's sure to be boring to basically anyone and everyone, and also I feel kind of SHY about my beginner's status, and the stuff I might end up posting here (in case it's really really really BAD after all that waffle about wanting to someday take professional quality photographs, haha!)! So we'll see. For now, I'll post just for my records.

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