I am not a photographer. I have owned a camera of one kind or another since I was eight years old. It was given to me by my paternal grandfather who loved photography. His son, my dad, travelled the world and took lots of photos.
I was astonished as a teenager to find my boyfriend at the time didn’t own a camera so I can honestly say that I introduced WM to photography by buying him a camera when we were in our late teens. It was a Kodak Instamatic; remember those? You dropped the film in the back, stuck a flash cube on top [if needed] and away you went! Everyone had red eyes from the flash being too close to the lens!
Now, WM is into Gimp [similar to Photoshop, so I'm told] and owns an SLR digital camera as well as an SLR film camera and a really, truly underwater camera. And he collects cameras!
I did photography at TAFE as part of my fine arts course. Heck, I even got a distinction for art photography! Not that I'm boasting, I'm just trying to state my case. You'd think with my family background, my TAFE experience and living with a keen photographer, I'd take photos as a matter of course. But I don’t!
As I said, I am not a photographer. I don't even have a camera on my mobile phone. I specifically bought one without a camera!
I do have a nifty little digital camera. It takes very short videos [so I'm told] and does lots of interesting things but I rarely remember to take it out of the house. When I do take it out I forget to use it. Like the sock workshop last weekend - I took the camera but it never even got out of its case. It lay all day on the table with my samples, yarns, spare needles and sock books.
This "not being a photographer" has interfered with my blogging. I have things I want to say and projects that I’m working on but I forget to take photos until it’s dark outside. Even though words are my livelihood, I still believe that “a picture is worth a thousand words”. How many words would one need to describe how a project is going [or not]? One photo can say it all!
But I have none to show you! Nary a one! And that’s why I haven’t posted in over a week!
I sometimes forget to take photos too, when I'm out in social groups. I guess if you want to try to remember (so you've got things to blog about) you need to get into a habit - eg taking photos first thing in the morning, or at lunchtime, or whatever.
ReplyDeleteBlogging sure has made me more aware of my dependence on photos, too. So take a pic with indoor light and don't worry about perfection! We just like hearing about you and what you are up to!
ReplyDeleteI never used to think much about photos before blogging but since I figured out early on that I wanted to try and aim for better quality, I've really become quite attached to my little digital camera. It makes me quite happy to try and find images that go with the words.
ReplyDeleteI now have specified spots in the house that give good light, and often try and take photos as soon as I walk in the door for blogging later on. I just capture stuff in the hope that it's usable later on. I don't always take a photo JUST for the blog. I do a lot of just in case photography.
If you've got some training in it, you should try and put it to use! Don't have to Be A Photographer - just someone who takes photos!
Set yourself a challenge like a photo a day of something that catches your eye so you get in the habit of looking and recording, of course if that's too much like hard work try once a week!! Set a time or day or both though so it becomes a habit!
ReplyDeleteThis is so familiar! I'm the same way -- I just don't think to take pictures as a matter of course. My SIL, on the other hand, will take hundreds of photos in a day. She and I should probably just blog together :)
ReplyDeletemy camera goes [almost ] everywhere with me - as you well know having had it pointed in your direction - and that habit was pretty entrenched even before blogging entered my life.
ReplyDeleteall that is bye the bye
What I actually popped over for was to ask how Susan is handling the heat/humidity
Blogging aside, I basically take my camera near on everywhere with me. It must be the scrapbooker in me, because I am the storyteller of our lives and a picture is worth a thousand words.
ReplyDeleteI do love this Project 365 that I'm doing, a photo every day for a year. Can you even imagine in 50 years time how different things will look for people looking back at my ramblings in my album now.
So ... go forth grasshopper and start snapping!