A couple of Christmases ago, my husband bought me a Canon 1100D. I’d long wanted a decent camera that I could get some great shots of my kids – I want a reminder of just how lovely they are and have been.
I duly started snapping, and I quickly realised I only ever took photos on automatic, or maybe sports for those action shots. I took myself off to Robbie’s, a fantastic local photo studio in Balham, to take a course. The course kicked me onto using AV, TV and sometimes even Manual! This revelation to me was fantastic and soon I was becoming obsessed with ISOs and f stops!
However, I still needed to push this challenge. I am never going to be a professional photographer, but I needed an outlet in which I could snap, publish, get feedback and develop (excuse the pun). Then I discovered Blipfoto. Blipfoto is a community based website, which lets you upload one photo with accompanying words each day. Your fellow community member are then invited to come and rate and comment on your entry for that day. I found the comments are only ever lovely and very encouraging – and as those stars and hearts (you can declare your very favourite images with a heart) come rolling in – therein the addiction starts!
My first break through photo was on 14th January. Not only did I master the manual setting on my camera, I also discovered the power of the edit! Not only did I manage to tweak my image to improve it, but it got me my first stars!
I was then on a roll. I absolutely loved blip, and it became part of my daily routine to take a photo, edit and upload. I began to look at the world around me in a totally different way: My eye saw everything within a frame – would that make a good composition? The ordinary and banal became fascinating – one of my highest rated photos was the escalators of my local tube station. And who knew that water drops on flowers would become such photographic gold!
What I wasn’t prepared for was that it gave me an outlet for my emotional outpouring. My father died last year and within my journal I document my feelings as he commences his demise, his death, his funeral and my feelings afterwards. There are no photographs of him, but the photos I took on poignant days will make me always remember those days. I am truly grateful for blip letting me document this sad but important time in my life.
Of course – I had a couple of disasters: Forgetting to put the memory card back in my camera, the memory card corrupting, forgetting and taking shots at 1150 at night. But somehow, with an iPhone I always got through it.
And I did it: 365 non-stop days of photos! What’s more, I am going to do it all again this year. Only now, I want to buy a new lense, a new camera (upgraded model), a tripod …
You can see my full journal at Megssw17
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