Photography

I don't have any desire to be a photographer, yet I want to improve my photographic skills.  I have been thinking about getting a better camera, but have told myself that before I do, I need to improve my current skills.  For now, there are two things that I want to improve.

First, I'm tired of having so many of my images just slightly out of focus.  I'm going to dig out my camera's manual, and really read it.  I do change the settings sometimes, but I don't use the vast majority of them.  I'm going to keep the manual handy to use as a reference and try to trouble shoot my mistakes and play around with the setting I have never tried before.  Obviously, doing nothing isn't working, so I'm taking desperate measures. 

Second, I need to work on my general composition.  Currently, I think, "Hey!  My kid is doing something that I should probably take a picture of.  Hmmm...where's my camera?"  Then I dig up the camera and quickly snap a couple of shots without thinking much about them.  Usually half my mind is focused on what the kid who isn't in the picture is doing.

I'm not serious enough to join any of the thousands of photography challenges, but I do need to be challenged, so here is my plan.  I made up a list of 39 words.  No special reason for that number, it's just when I ran out of ideas.  I ran it through a list randomizer and have saved the list.  Each week, that word will be my theme, and I will try to take some pictures within that theme.  Hopefully, these words will make me actually stop and think a bit about what I'm photographing, try something new, and will get me to expand my subject matter a little.

We shall see.  It could be a total flop, or I might actually improve.  It certainly won't hurt anything, and if I get better, maybe then I will upgrade my camera.  I will post each Monday with my results.  It is near the end of the week, so this will be be a short week for me, but my first word happened to be "faces," so I think I can come up with something by then.  There are a couple of little faces around here that I love to take pictures of.

I don't normally blog without posting any pictures, so here is a recent one in Monday's theme that I took a few days ago.  Expect to see more very soon.

I thought about putting this in my crafting blog since this is more of a creative endeavor, but I'm guessing that most of the pictures will be of the kids, so I put it here.  It really could work in either location and I reserve the right to move it if it becomes more about the photography and less about my two little subjects.