Photography has always been an art that I have been interested in, but like a lot of photographers, I didn’t attempt to really learn the craft until I had children. The first few times I took my oldest to have his picture taken, we went to the big in and out “studios” that are located at the mall or in department stores. When Ben turned one, I paid for a custom portrait session with a local photographer. The images were gorgeous and I thought, “I can do that!”.   Shortly afterward, my point and shoot camera kicked the bucket, so my husband bought me my first DSLR for Christmas. It was  Nikon D40x which I exchanged shortly afterward for the Nikon D80, which I literally used until the shutter stopped working and upgraded to the Nikon D700.

This picture is from January of 2008 a couple of weeks after I got the camera for Christmas. I had no idea what I was doing. I was using a kit lens and aperture priority.

Fast forward a bit. I took a class at the local college where we had weekly assignments. I can’t find any of those gems, but they looked a lot like the ones above.

Delia was born in June of that year. This is the a-mazing image that I put on her birth announcement. I was still shooting with a kit lens and aperture priority and had not a clue about metering or exposure compensation or photoshop for that matter.

This image (to me) represents a turning point. I had been practicing shooting in manual occasionally, but this image was the first that I had taken where it kind of clicked for me about how the exposure triangle worked. This is September of 2008. From this point on, I practiced in manual and searched online for any information I could find about photography and editing.

I had to add this one. I was so proud of it and printed it and mailed it to all of the relatives. Looks like I learned how to do a little skin smoothing in PS Elements and sharpening. :)

Let’s fast forward again to 2009, I joined Clickin Moms in June of 2009 where I had a multitude of tutorials at my fingertips. I really studied a lot that year. I took an editing class called Phaunt U now called Phaunt Naked. Here are a few of my favorite images from the remainder of 2009.

The best thing that I ever did to improve my photography skills happened in 2010 (and 2011). It wasn’t an amazing new camera (which I also acquired that year) or a new lens or a really good class, it was a Project 365 with a bunch of ladies from Clickin Moms. What a great experience! I learned so much because I practiced taking pictures daily!  I didn’t really have any set goals for 2010, I just wanted to get better.

In 2011, my goal was to concentrate on composition and creativity.

And a few from this year. I took my first Clickin Mom’s class in March of this year. It was amazing. I learned so much and I can’t wait to take another course soon!

I’m not where I want to be, but I have a better idea as to where I want to go. Thanks for bearing with me as I took a stroll down memory lane!