Photography. It's more than a nice Camera.

I did it.  A few years ago I sold some guns and bought another thing that shoots.  A Canon T2i.  It's a nicely priced DSLR Camera.  FYI, most people that own a dslr camera have no idea what dslr means.    I found out pretty quickly that it can take really nice photos.  I didn't even have to learn what ISO, Aperture or Exposure meant.  It had a really nice "auto" feature.  But that didn't stop me from messing with all the different settings and taking some really nice photos.  Especially paired with a little post processing from any of the hundreds of post processing apps available.  Why would I want to spend hundreds, if not thousands on a photoshop program?

I had an idea.  I could offer really cheap photography services.  It would be cheap enough that people wouldn't care if the photos were good, but not that good.  So I created a Facebook page.  I shot one wedding.  I will say though, I think I did a pretty damn good job.  

It's then I realized that there is more to photography than just taking a photo.  I didn't deserve the title of a photographer. The good ones spend years developing their craft.  It's what goes into lighting, angles, the shot itself, how the photo is saved, post processing and delivering the files in a way that doesn't lose quality.  There is so much.

But what is it about photography that captures me?  I think it's finding an angle to look at something that most people don't stop and look at.  Taking that shot and allowing people to see life from a whole different perspective.

Have you ever looked at the world like this?  It's no wonder I enjoy photography.

But, for the love of all professional photographers out there.  Just because you own a nice camera, it doesn't make you a photographer.  You can be really good at taking photos.  You can even get really good at finding subject matter for your photos.  You can be really creative.  But if you don't know what RAW is....keep it a hobby.

I still love taking pictures.  I love looking at things from a slightly different perspective, capturing it, and hoping that the rest of the people that see it enjoy it as much as I do.

This is one I took, probably one of my many favorites.  To me, the story behind the photo is often times more important than the photo itself.  It's the memories.  This was in an old tractor shed just after the equally old tractor was started.  It created a massive dust storm that revealed the light rays from the sunshine coming through holes created by a perhaps poor judgement shot from a shotgun.  To me, it was just a cool photo.  But to those that grew up on that property, the memories it brings back are what's really important.