Photography

*YES* every photo in this blog (unless otherwise noted) was taken by me... Oh. I guess. Except for those on this page?

My cousin, Sue gave me my first camera when I was 7 years old - and I've been HOOKED ever since.

I was one of those weirdo kids who brought her camera to school to take pictures of friends when I was in elementary school and junior high. By high school more of my friends had cameras but it became a HUGE deal to finish a roll of film take it to Longs Drugs (now CVS) and then trade and swap photos of each other with friends. We'd finish ROLLS and ROLLS of film in a weekend.

By college it was starting to become obvious that I was a bit of a "photography nut". I had albums of photos with captions and dates and was constantly blowing up pictures and framing them all over my room or college condo. People knew I couldn't do anything without my camera and would be surprised if I didn't have it. I actually found myself a bit depressed if I had attended some fun trip or event and hadn't taken any pictures of it. Oh yes, something was brewing...

As everyone transitioned to digital photography around 2000/2001 my physical photo album stockpile screeched to a halt. But the picture taking did not. To replace the albums I found myself burning photos to CD and of course finally stocking up on external hard drives.

When my friends started getting married in droves sometime in the last 5-6 years, I became known as "the friend who would have her photos online before the couple had gotten home from their reception". But I was noticing something about this point... the things I needed to manipulate to get the shot I wanted were not available to manipulate on my little P&S. There were suddenly rumblings of an SLR deep in the back of my head.

Everyone around me had Nikons. Dad, Uncle, Dad's friends, my friends so I obviously gravitated towards a Nikon. I made my first purchase which was the Nikon D40: a *total* entry level SLR and all I thought I'd need. I loved that camera and loved how much freedom and flexibility it gave me with my photos! Suddenly I could change the aperture and shutter speed!! And NO - I never once used it in "Auto" mode. If you buy an SLR and ever put it in Auto mode - you should not have purchased that SLR. Just sayin'...

Well my photography hobby grew to a level I wasn't anticipating. I suddenly found that I'd outgrown my D40 (primarily cuz of the AF-S lens requirement, I owned a handful of AF lenses...) and I was reinvesting in the next notch up: D90. Anything bigger than that was just too heavy for me to carry along on my extensive travels.

And here we are... At this point I've shot everything from weddings to newborns to products for friends' businesses. And just anything in between. My family practically doesn't bring cameras to events anymore 'cuz they know I'll be shooting. I still have a TON to learn and don't consider myself anything other than "amateur". But I LOVE my photography. And goshdarnit, I better with the amount of money now invested in it!