Humble Beginnings

I first got into photography because I was looking for an art form I could use to express myself. As I pondered my choices a few things became evident. Since I am unable to tell if a line is straight (much less draw one - even with a ruler) I realized that most forms of drawing and painting were out of the picture. I pondered abstract or expressionism and smiled as I pictured myself pushing blobs of paint around on a canvas. Suddenly I had multiple flashbacks to all of the times I have tried painting things (rooms, fences, little sisters) and realized that I would go broke buying cleaning supplies. Pottery sounded intriguing, until I pictured the wheel spinning out of control and blobs of clay taking out walls in the house. You see, I have a bottomless talent for making a mess and breaking the unbreakable.

I sat on my couch staring off into space trying to come up with my creative outlet. After a while I realized that I was staring at the book on the coffee table. Inspiration struck! It was an Ansel Adams book that I loved. His shots never failed to set me off into daydreams of rock climbing or hiking or tree climbing. I realized that I would make a minimal mess (unless I started developing my own film - which still interests me...) and had a pretty low risk of destroying my home if I took up photography. I informed my husband of my wish for a "real" camera, the kind where you could change the lens. Being the generous man that he is, he immediately bought me my first SLR. It was a Canon Rebel.



A first attempt at an art shot just resulted in

a serious case of "centeritis".



When I got my Rebel, I poured over the little instruction book. There were many pages on all of the different automatic settings and when to use them. There were maybe three small pages on the manual settings. I memorized these pages (at least I thought I had) and then set out to shoot. I set off for a water fountain because I wanted to get one of those pictures with the soft ethereal looking water. I remembered I needed a slow shutter to do that, but........which control was the shutter? Was it the f number thingy or......? I couldn't remember, so I tried all of the different settings and then eagerly mailed my film off for processing (you see these were going to be art prints so I couldn't trust my film to the corner drug store 1 hour processing, any fool could tell you that). A week later I got my prints. There were a couple that came close to what I wanted but at that point I couldn't for the life of me remember which settings I used to get them.



I loved this shot, but had no idea howI got

it, or how to repeat it.



And so began my photo journey - using the automatic settings in the camera. I got some good snapshots that way. But I felt like I was not an "artist", a true photographer, by using them. And when I did happen to take a decent shot, I was at loss as to explain how I got it or how to repeat it. I kept promising myself that someday I would learn how to really use my camera. Then one day, I opened the quarterly Adult Ed brochure that came to my house. There was a Digital Photography class. (Chris had upgraded my old film Rebel body to a digital one, I think he was sick of paying film processing fees.) The class description asked: Do you want the most out of your digital SLR? (yeeeees) Are you ready to take that bold step toward manual control? (YES YES!) So I signed up on the spot.

To be continued.......