My whole life creatively I have been involved in music. I’ve sung, played, written, arranged and taught. Music is as much a part of me as my eye colour (can’t say hair colour anymore though). My instrument is guitar and those that know me know I don’t mean strumming a few chords on an acoustic at parties. I own three electrics, two acoustics, two amps and a very nice pedal board. I am privileged to play on an amazing worship team at our church and am currently having fun in a local covers band.
And yet at the start of 2017 and in my early 50s, I am feeling challenged to step outside of the creativity I know and the medium I am fluent in to learn to speak a new language.
I’ve become increasingly interested in photography and our recent trip overseas really encouraged that. I was the person who was always running to catch up with everyone else because I had to get that one perfect shot – even on my iPhone. My wonderful husband, (who often senses things before I do) saw this, and bought me a very good camera as a belated birthday present halfway through the trip to feed this fledgling desire.
Since we have got back I have continued to fall in love with this new medium. I find myself thinking about shots and composition rather than guitar lines and chord progressions; scenes rather than set lists. It’s my camera I am picking up instead of my guitar, and camera, rather than guitar, tutorials I am glued to on YouTube.
I’m not used to being the novice, the person who doesn’t know what technical terms mean, who really doesn’t have a clue what they’re doing. I’ve taken a practical step and enrolled in a beginner course next month to help get to grips with this new world of ISO and f-stops. But it’s a steep and daunting learning curve!
I have no idea if I have any genuine skill or talent, and I have no idea where this might take me. I could spend this year studying something safe and sensible, or continuing to express myself in the safe medium of music; or I could take advantage of the fact that I have time to explore something new. I choose to do the latter (gulp). It’s definitely a step of faith which makes a naturally cautious pessimist like me very very nervous. (I think God likes steps of faith though…)
I don’t want to spend six months or a year procrastinating out of fear of the unknown. By writing this down here, I am at least admitting somewhat publicly that this is something I want to go after. I’m hoping that this time next year I will be looking back on this entry with a happy smile, and some great photos.
that’s a great idea and i am sure you gonna enjoy it! me too, i took some lessons with a photographer and it was great.. sure i could have done that as well
with youtube, but i felt it’s not the right way for me to beginn. once the basics were set, youtube is great 🙂 especially cause you get relatively easily good results, it’s a lot of just ‘know how’.. I recently got lightroom to level up my whole photography experience.. i am excited to see how that goes 🙂
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yes looking forward to being helped by someone who knows what they are doing! I’m looking at Lightroom as well – keen to hear what you think
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it was really the good thing to do 🙂 Hope you enjoy it as much as I do and you’re not getting too lost in all those technical specifications … Lightroom so far is… complicated! But I switched from PC to Mac at the same time and this is not making it easier :p
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You’ll love the Mac! I switched a few years ago and would never go back
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thats good to hear! I first found it great, but I was just browsing and writing on my blog .. but now with the folders, saving stuff on the cloud and Lightroom… it’s a bit much atm, but I am sure it will be fine ^^
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This is so exciting for you! I wish you the very best with your new endeavor!❤
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Fantastic. Get out there with that camera and enjoy. I doubt there’s been a better time to be learning photography.
I caught the bug in my mid twenties. Photography, as a hobby, has been a continuous interest since then. That was over 30 years ago!
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I too am trying to learn photography in hopes of combining it with my writing. I also bought myself what I laughingly refer to as my “fancy pants” camera……BIG learning curve!!! I wish you lots of fun in your new endeavor 😊
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Yes I am somewhere in the middle of the bonding process with my flash camera. Kind of an Everest level learning curve but I am having a lot of fun!
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That’s good ……the more fun the better!😊
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