My love for photography and how I improved

I honestly can't say for sure that I was even interested in photography in high school. We didn't have cell phones (like literally right before they were affordable and had cameras). My school in Estacada didn't have the funds for developing film, and we just didn't have computers with cameras built into them.

When I was a freshman in college, that all changed. One of my first classes was photography. I started with intro to darkroom, and would spend four hours at a time developing film or trying to get an image burned perfectly onto photo paper.

Through college, the whole point of taking photos were for selfies, taking photos of what I was up to, and basically documenting anything related to college life. I stopped developing film but didn't stop taking pictures with that 35mm camera. I took it with me everywhere and ended up taking so many photos that I had a box of film that I finally had to develop because I couldn't remember any photos that I took.

Then boyfriends and heartbreak happened. I transferred to Oregon State (best school ever) and got sand in my camera. End. Of. Story.

After sand gets in your camera, you might as well just jump shot that bad boy into a trash can. No coming back from that. The lens doesn't turn and it sounds like broken glass is being pushed through a pvc pipe. UGH.

So that was the end of photography for me, or so it seemed. When I turned 21 I decided to travel alone to Ireland. I really wanted a camera to take photos. My mom bought me a $300 point and shoot Canon. I was so excited. And I fell in love all over again with photography.

I realized in that trip that I had a need to share what I thought was beautiful with other people. I had that desire all along but never recognized it. This is also maybe the reason why I became a teacher, but thats another story.

I started to get into composition, color, lighting and all that. I didn't take it very seriously until I met my now husband, Herbie.

I should have known he was the one once I was inspired to do art after a 6 year sabbatical. ;)

I bought my first DSLR when I was with him. A $350 Canon D3500. It wasn't much but got some beautiful shots. He was the one who encouraged me to do it. <3

I honestly haven't looked back since. I started doing wedding photography, looked at Jasmine Star's blog, and went to the online Digital Photography School. I learned everything I could and it was all from teaching myself.

How did I improve? Three things:

1) I spent so much time learning about the manual settings on my camera AND what they do. The three most important are ISO, Shutter speed, Aperture (f-stop). Once you know those, you're pretty set. Of course you should always learn more, but those are the meat and potatoes.

2) I looked at other peoples photos and asked what gear they used. I learned that different lenses take different kinds of photos. Lenses make a great photo, not the body. KEY POINT HERE!

3) I practiced and pushed myself. Sometimes I would take a photo expecting it to be amazing. It didn't turn out the way I wanted. I couldn't figure out why. I would do research and find out that my settings were wrong, or I was using the wrong lens for the kind of photo I wanted. It was all about trying to take a specific kind of photo and learning how to actually capture it. That was all problem solving.


So now... I am at a point where I love teaching, love spending summers with family, and am thinking I don't want to do weddings anymore. Why? I like having a life in the summer. I spend so much time editing and worrying about what the client thinks that I don't really enjoy my time away. I may go back to it, but I'm someone who always wants to change. I want to change what kind of art I work on. I want to try new things. Maybe after all that I'll find that wedding photography is where I am meant to be. Who knows? I'll finish this year and see where the wind blows me.

xo
Casi