THROUGH THE LENS

Last week and the week before I spent a lot of time thinking about photography. Photography was my first creative adventure. You could say it was my first creative love. When I first started taking photos I dove in head first. I wanted to take photos of everyone and everything.  And I took photos of every single friend that would let me. I loved it, I was learning, I was challenging myself and I had no idea what I was doing.

Over time as I learned more and got comfortable in the craft I stopped challenging myself. This wasn't something that I knew was happening, it simply occurred as time went on. I got better and stronger, but the challenges became less. That's when it hit me last week. What have I done in a while that was a real challenge? What was I doing to really push myself forward. I needed to challenge myself in a way that made me feel like I had no idea what I was doing. A good friend once told me, "always be striving to do, what you can not do."

I wasn't quite sure how these challenges were supposed to begin. So I started by reminding myself to break out of the box of only shooting with one lens. I have three different lenses, all which are great. I have a 35mm, a 50mm, and a 55-300mm.  I often get stuck in only shooting with the 50mm or the 35mm. But last week I decided to shoot with the 55-300mm lens. It had been a long time since I had shot with it. I often don't think about it, but one morning I stood at our bedroom window and took photos from inside. I took photos of the snow falling, of the snow covered trees, and any other beautiful thing I could get my my lens on.

It was lovely to get out of my regular box. Since last week I have left my lenses sitting on my desk, reminding me to use them. I'm also working on a photography challenge that I'll be sharing soon. I have to make sure they are all good and hard before we get started. ;) xo. Samantha