It's getting better all the time.

I'm constantly trying to get better at the things I enjoy doing. Painting, writing, drawing, taking pictures.  I might be as bad at taking photographs as I am at writing. I know nothing about photography and what it takes to make a good picture. I've been browsing Pinterest for a little bit today looking for some helpful tips and things that may help me become better at taking photos. I mean, I bought a nice digital camera, I should use it, right? I also have a pretty cool old Canon film camera, which I am also trying to figure out. So far, it's been a lot easier to figure out...kind of. Here are a few things I figured out recently (regarding the film camera): my hands shake...a lot, so I have to keep the shutter speed fairly high so my shaking doesn't make the pictures blurry. I got an entire roll of film developed the other day and every single picture was blurry. So there's that. Another fun time learning to use the film camera: I had to waste two rolls of film just to figure out how to roll said film back into its canister after finishing the roll. I exposed the first roll and the second I ripped in half. The great thing about these experiences, though, is that I'm learning and hopefully making progress.

As I said, I have this digital camera. It's a Fujifilm that I bought myself for Christmas. It's a pretty nice camera, but I feel like I need to branch out of the automatic modes. The only thing I'm capable of doing is choosing the scene position and whether or not I want flash. I've found a few blogs that have some fairly simple steps and explanations that aim to teach the reader how to control the aperture and shutter speed, and all that good stuff. I'm slowly learning about all of these little things that come together to make a photograph. It's difficult and frustrating, but nothing that has ever been worth it has been easy.

I don't know if you've ever seen those things on the internet, the "30 day photo challenge" things. Well, typically, I dislike them. The subject matter (what you're supposed to photograph) is usually pretty bland, boring, or just plain stupid. However, I found one that isn't too bad. I also feel like it will be a good excuse to use my camera at least once a day and it could make for good practice. So, I'm going to do it! I will post my photos here, and hopefully we'll both begin to notice a (positive) difference in them. For all of you out there, here's the list of things I'm supposed to photograph and I'll do my best to post each photo that day with a little blurb about it and whatever else I feel the need to blurb about.

THE LIST

Day 1: Self-portrait

Day 2: What you wore today

Day 3: Clouds

Day 4: Something green

Day 5: From a high angle

Day 6: From a low angle

Day 7: Fruit

Day 8: A bad habit

Day 9: Someone you love

Day 10: Childhood memory 

Day 11: Something blue

Day 12: Sunset

Day 13: Yourself with 13 things 

Day 14: Eyes

Day 15: Silhouette

Day 16: Long exposure

Day 17: Technology

Day 18: Your shoes

Day 19: Something orange

Day 20: Bokeh (which apparently is just out of focus areas?)

Day 21: Faceless self-portrait

Day 22: Hands

Day 23: Sunflare

Day 24: Animal

Day 25: Something pink

Day 26: Close-up

Day 27: From a distance

Day 28: Flowers

Day 29: Black and white

Day 30: Self-portrait

So there it is. Some of them I'm not entirely sure, but I'll make it work. Let's hope this little (or not so little) exercise helps along my journey to become a bit more skilled behind the camera. 

Have a beautiful night and, hey, thanks for reading my blog. G'night.

P.S. I just realized I never proof-read my blog posts. I should probably do that.