Slowly, but surely, with a lot of coaxing–my camera and I are becoming friends.
I got my first SLR camera (this one) about eleven months ago, and while I did dutifully tote it to all of Warrior Man’s wrestling tournaments, other than sports I just left it languishing in its case. Why?:
1. I was intimidated by all its bells and whistles.
2. I was embarrassed of taking other people’s pictures, and annoying them.
However, eight weeks ago my sissy challenged a few bloggers to take one picture a day for a year, and all of a sudden I was forced to pull out my fancy, scary camera on a daily basis. I have discovered that an unused camera is just a fancy piece of glass and plastic, but a used camera is a paintbrush for the artist.
[Tweet “An unused camera is just a fancy piece of plastic; a used camera is a paintbrush for the artist. “]
Much to my surprise, Miss Fancy Pantsy Camera has grown on me. She no longer seems to be the snooty, high maintenance creature I once thought her to be. Underneath her fine threads I have discovered a down-to-earth gal who simply likes to work hard, and enjoy her art. I can work with that.
Since then, my love for photography has been growing with astonishing regularity. I am finding myself perusing through blog articles at an alarming rate–learning how to capture things in motion, puzzling over the exposure triangle, and monkeying around with the rule of thirds. I have even been emailing photographers, and asking for tips on starting a business. But, shhh!, those plans are still mulling about in my brain. Fantsy Pantsy and I still have a little getting to know each other to do before we become partners in a business venture.
This week of pictures started off with a day in the Big City. Warrior Man and I headed out in the wee hours of the morning to watch a friend run a half-marathon. I was still marveling over learning how to capture motion, and I so enjoyed taking pictures of runners in mid-stride! This is a pic of the first woman to cross the finish line at the half-marathon. Some runners seemed rather grumpy or in pain, but this lady was so enthusiastic and overjoyed. It did my heart good to see her.
We have had quite a lot of rain {and even some hail! To see pics of the marble sized hail, check out Sarah’s post!} this past week, and I noticed this little fella floundering on our balcony. Can you see me in the reflection?
My Mom gifted me a macro lens {like this one}, and I pulled it out for the first time this week to see what it could do.
We live right across from a Lutheran school, and there always seems to be a few urchins scrabbling around on the playground equipment.
I spent one hour this week working on aperture {blurring the background in pictures}. Good thing I had our Farkle game and a bear Warrior Man gave me for Christmas to use as subjects. 
I have been anxiously waiting for my wedding pictures to arrive {I will be posting lots of them on this blog when they do!} so I have been haunting the mailbox. One morning the light was so pretty, I snapped this picture using my macro lens.
My final picture is of some weeds growing in a few old pots o’ dirt I have on our balcony. Even a sunflower seed pod can be beautiful. This picture epitomizes the beginning of autumn, for us in the Midwest.
Don’t forget to check out Amy, Amalia, and Sarah’s pictures for this week!
How did your week go, friends? Did you snap any fun pictures? Do you, too, have a Fancy Pantsy camera?
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I love that you do this! I am trying to get better at remembering to take photos, myself! I take them on my phone a lot because I tend to have it with me, but I much prefer the photo quality of my actual camera (a Nikon J1 – aka an *almost* fancy pants camera 😉 hahaha)
Sounds pretty fancy pantsy to me, Grady! 😉 I take a lot of pictures with my phone too. It is just a lot easier than lugging around the bigger camera. Whatever it takes to capture the memories!
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I don’t have a camera. Oops–I do, but I’ve only used it once many years ago. My sister sent it half way around the world to reach me. It’s too hard to work out. Good for you to grapple with the techyness of it and take such good pictures.
Thanks Francene! You are so sweet.
Wow, Bethany, I see tons of development in this week’s photos (no pun intended!). I especially like the mailbox photo. That is brilliant!
Tons of development. Ha ha! Too funny. I went out one morning (looking for wedding pics) and the lighting was so pretty I grabbed my camera, and macro lens. I was so happy when I saw I caught the light in that way! Learning photography is so fun. 🙂
That is the secret of photography – keep taking pictures, lots of pictures. When I was young, film and film developing wasn’t cheap (especially color) and I had to learn to make every picture count. But, with digital photography, you can take multiple pictures, learn what works, and what doesn’t. There’s something to say about both situations. I love digital photography! Happy to see you aren’t intimidated by your camera, and that you are putting yourself out there.
Good advice, Alana! I love that you were so committed to photography. Digital photography is so handy–and you are right–there should be nothing holding us back from lots of practice when there is nothing to lose!
Bethany, I love your photos; I can tell you really were excited about doing it this week. Every one of your pictures are so vibrant and pretty. Great job.
Thank you, Sarah! You are so sweet. I love your pictures as well!