Sometime this week I should begin a new adventure. During the holidays I had been playing with my sister-in-law’s dSLR camera and liked what could be achieved over what my little Point-N-Shoot could do. My mother has been a photographer for many years – film to now using digital – but I never thought it was for me because I was seriously non-visual.
I’m not blind, unlike a couple of friends of mine. Nor do I have actual vision issues but rather I have a weirdly wired brain.
Most people are able to shut their eyes and think of a person or thing and “see” the image of that as if it were in front of them. I can’t. Instead I end up describing things to myself. I can recognize people if I see them and things like that but I’m not capable of having a mental picture. Even when I dream, there are no visuals. Instead it’s a bit like an audiobook with some tactile thrown in.
Very strange, I know.
So I’d discounted most visual arts as not being for me. I’m good with words though. But slowly I started to realize I like seeing nature and pictures, why not take some pictures.
Fast forward to my discussing with my mother on IM the idea of buying a somewhat basic dSLR and seeing what happened. I might like it, I might not. But at least I will have tried it.
Have I ever mentioned that my mother is devious?
Apparently she and my siblings have made it a mission to outfit me with a Canon Rebel XS. A basic kit with 2 lenses and it should be here this week sometime. I’m excited, I admit, despite the fact I have little idea what I’m doing.
What I really wonder is whether this adventure will change my writing. Maybe enrich my descriptions? It’s going to be interesting to find out!
Any advice for a new photographer?
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The thing I noticed with my camera is that if I don’t have it with me, I don’t take pictures. That’s sounds facile, but there kept being situations where I’d try to decide if I was going to take my camera with me, and I’d decide I’d feel like a dork if I took a camera, so I wouldn’t, and then I’d miss something. So now I have a little camera that I take with me everywhere. I find that having the *ability* to take a picture any time makes me look at the *possibilities* differently. When I got my dSLR, I started out carrying that with me everywhere, just so I would get used to it. Because I’m a vain bitch, the key to that for me was a cool looking camera bag. This is the one I have, and although I could probably go one bigger, it’s served my purposes as purse and camera bag through several vacations. The other thing I did was I took this class at BCC which helped me to get over the feeling that my camera is smarter than me.
by rkimedes January 18th, 2009 at 10:07 pmI’ve heard good things about the Crumpler bags. I did get a sling bag to try at least but I bookmark that one too.
I also have the small P&S camera that lives in my purse.
I may look into that class. There’s a lot to learn.
But it came TODAY – just waiting for the battery to charge….
by Maura Anderson January 19th, 2009 at 4:18 pm