It Begins With A Subject

Photography has long been a passion of mine. I was bitten by the photography bug much more when I got my first digital camera. I took tons of pictures with my film camera, but I never really practiced close up shots or different angles. Who could afford the film?

 I don't think it requires a high end camera to get good pictures. It begins with a subject. Whether the person behind the camera focuses on children's faces, dogs, trees, roses, or sunsets , he can practice the craft by photographing the subject in different ways with different settings. My brother does much of his photography in black and white, but often moves between color and black and white using the same subject.

I wish I had children around more often. My students are not at the age that they want to pose with hands folded, or looking down,or being pensive. They all want to make silly faces, put their arms around each other, and yell funny words. When I am around other children I can practice posing, expression, and light in different settings. That doesn't happen very often.

I have hundreds of photos of my pets, but often they are just lucky shots. Nothing can be too planned with a red heeler, or an energetic kitten named Grayson. My dog Annie is too shy most of the time to look at the camera and a few of the cats walk off in disgust. 

Bless my husband's heart. He has held flowers, let me use his hands, face, and back in numerous poses, but he doesn't really want to be the main subject of my photos.

I raise flowers in my garden and love to create bouquets. This is the subject that has been successful for me in practicing photography. Flowers provide color, composition, and light depending on where I move them, arrange them or style them. I have been known to carry a bouquet of flowers out in freezing weather to get better light.

Choose a subject that is readily available to you most of the time then shoot away. Using my subject of flowers  gives me a perfect excuse to buy grocery store bouquets in the middle of winter.