Why I like to photograh

Jacqueline @jacqbb challenged me to tell a story about why I like to photograph. I'm not sure why I originally became interested in photography. I was given my camera when I was in about 7th grade. I had some pretty strange notions before that. In earlier grades, I remember thinking I couldn't wait until I was 14 so I could have a camera. Where did I get that idea?? My Brownie Starmite camera followed me into adulthood. The few and far between really good photos I took (this is obviously not one) were probably an accident.

After my son was born I got an SLR camera. It was entirely manual. I really never learned too much about the mechanics, but strangely, I did get some really nice pictures. When it stopped working, I got a camera that was more automatic. Sometime after we moved back to Kansas, I got a Sony P&S digital camera. I started on 365 with that. When that stopped working, I replaced it with the Nikon bridge camera that I really liked. It still works, but the dark dirty spot on the lens can't be cleaned as it doesn't have a removable lens.

I'm slowly becoming more comfortable with the Canon DSLR camera I bought before our (cancelled) trip to Ireland spring 2020. But it's too big to carry around in my purse, so I've been taking most of my pictures with the iPhone 6 (which is going further out of date as I type this.) So very recently I've bought a Canon P&S. One of the main draws was it's small size. I've just started using that. But I don't want to back off of the DSLR! I need to keep using it. That requires me to PLAN to use it.

I joined 365 because I'm a picture junkie -- with 3 file drawer of images -- including lots of photos from magazines--National Geographic etc. (Trying to weed those out now, as I'm no longer doing the quilt-block-style collages that sometimes required multiple copies of certain images.) So joining an online site where I can look at hundreds of beautiful pictures, while satisfying an urge to create art, was a no-brainer.

What keeps me here is still the urge to keep creating and learning, but also to a large part the community here. Thus, my response to Jacqueline's challenge focuses on the friendship(s) the photography fosters.

4th September 2022 4th Sep 22