I've been writing half hearted blogs for years now. For a while, back in the doldrums of college, I had a particularly emo LiveJournal blog that ended up being about girls I pined for yet did nothing about. That one was a real downer. Last year I decided to start a blog with a a more optimistic flavor to it, but I lost interest pretty quickly. See, the thing is, I don't have a ton to talk about. I'm a relatively private person, and I would rather keep most of my private life, well, private. I then thought about writing a news reaction blog, but there are a million of those around, and mine wouldn't really offer anything new.
Well, a couple of things have changed since then. For one, I realized that I love taking pictures. This was somewhat of a shock to me because I've never been attracted to taking pictures of random places and people before. I can tell you lots of stories about my college days (there are actually stories that have little to nothing to do with girls I pined for) and my high school days, but I can show you very few, if any, corollary pictures. Taking them just always seemed like a waste of time.
Over the past year, though, I've come to realize that I really do enjoy photography, just not the usual sort of "Oh look, here's a group of 10 girls smiling!" sort of photography. This realization came when my good friend Cammila had me take a few pictures of her for her fashion blog. I loved her camera. It was capable of so much more than all of the old point-and-shoot, washed out color and grainy display cameras I've dealt with in the past. Holding it, I was able to take into account all that I've learned about artistic compositions over the years and apply it to the photos I took. After that, I became the unofficial photographer at group functions that both Cammila and I attended; I would take her camera and just start taking photos from all sorts of different angels, through glass, catching all those little emotions that people never pose for. I loved it.
My girlfriend, Annie, noticed this at the last party we were at. She's a wonderful person in so many ways, and apparently in one way that I wasn't aware of: she's willing to drop big money on gifts for Christmas. So Christmas Eve, we exchanged presents, and much to my surprise I found a Nikon D40 6.1 mpxl DSLR with an included lens beneath the thin veneer of recyclable wrapping paper. My jaw dropped, quite literally.
Now, I do hope she got a great Black Friday deal on the thing, but either way, she spent far more than I did. This means only one thing: I must use this camera all the time and learn to use it well. As an added impetus (added to a bit of guilt, truth be told) I have decided to begin a photo blog. Here you can see my progress as a photographer, give me tips, and see what I see in the world.
I hope you enjoy it. And let me begin with just one photo. These are Annie's vegan cinnamon rolls that she made for Christmas morning. I hope you enjoy it.
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