Project 365: Are You Up To The Challenge?

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Ever since I was a kid I can remember loving photographs.  I would go through all of my mom’s old photos and organize them into albums and once I was old enough to take pictures myself I began making my own albums.  I can remember in college receiving my first digital camera and thinking, “WOW!  You can see the picture beforehand and decide if you want to print it or not!” Gone were the days of taking photos, crossing your fingers and hoping that they turned out decent when you got them back from the photo lab!

I have always loved taking photos, but once my first child was born I was shooting like crazy!  Can anyone else relate?  Since having children and seeing how quickly they grow and change, I have longed to get a DSLR.  I wanted to be able to truly capture the everyday moments that I had with them, not just cheap versions.  I wanted to look at my photos, my memories, and see them exactly how I remembered.

Well, I  recently received my very first DSLR camera!  My husband surprised me with it (yes, he is awesome), and now I am finally able to create photos of what I actually see!!  But here is the thing, now that I have this “fancy” camera, what I have come to realize is that it isn’t just the camera that makes the pictures look great…it is the person behind the camera.  I have been doing A LOT of research online about photography since getting my camera, and what I have come to see is that you can take great pictures with many different types of cameras if you know what you are doing.  Ultimately it comes down to knowing what your camera can do and mastering it.  So, with all that said, I want to learn everything my camera can do and master it.

To be good at something takes lots and lots…and lots of practice.  I have taken thousands of pictures on my new Canon 60D (Yes, I am now a Canon girl) just in the past few months. What I am seeing is that the more pictures I take, the better my photos become. Now, don’t get me wrong, to say I have a lot to learn about photography would be an understatement, but I am so much farther along than where I was a few months ago.

One of the reasons I started this blog was to motivate myself to begin what they call  a 365 Photography Project.  This project, or what I like to call a “challenge”, involves taking photos everyday and posting them on your blog or Instagram.  At the end of the year I hope to see how far I have progressed as a photographer, while at the same time having a photo journal of all that is beautiful from my everyday life this past year.  I have decided to take the challenge.  Will you?  If you head over to Click it Up a Notch, you can see a great post on how to make your 365 photography project a success.  I am excited to see what my photos will look like a year from now!