Snap Happy

I have a new passion in my life. It’s not a new man – gawd knows one is more than enough; I have three dogs so I can assure you that I have no desire for more of those.
No, my new passion is photography. Since my darling husband treated me to a new camera (a Nikon D5000) I have discovered a new form of creativity that is satisfying a need I previously never knew existed.
I have been a ‘snapper’ for as long as I can remember. I would return from foreign trips with roll upon roll of film, desperate to have them developed so I could relive my happy holiday memories. I was, invariably, disappointed with the results: the composition was off, the lighting either too harsh or insufficient, the people too posed or with their eyes half closed. And with the cost of the film stock AND developing, these were expensive mistakes to make.
So, I plodded on, taking photos at every occasion I could, trying not to replicate the mistakes and being frustrated by the low level of equipment I used.
Then came the digital revolution.
My first digital camera had a resolution of less than 1 meg and, unsurprisingly, the results were, if anything, worse than my film cameras. But because I didn’t have to have each and every photo developed and printed, I could snap more, try out different angles and play around with the compostion.
At this stage I didn’t use any software to manipulate the images so the pictures were still no better than the duff lens and poor resolution of the camera.
Over time technology improved the ‘bang for your buck’ and I was able to buy cameras with higher resolutions and slightly better lenses. My new camera is an entry level Digital SLR, but I couldn’t be happier with it and the lenses I have. I am also getting to grips with Photoshop and am now producing the kind of photographs I always dreamed of.
I have loads to learn. I am still at the beginning of my journey, but I will get better. Right now, I am happy photographing the world around me and I hope you don’t mind me sharing them with you now and then.

My photographs can be viewed on my facebook page and at my Redbubble site.