What inspires me to take photos?

I had a friend ask some questions about what inspires me to take photos.

I do take a bazillion. One reason - we are home almost all the time and I like to think it's a hobby and that maybe someday I'll improve that skill through practice and maybe it's to add spice to my day. But here are a few of my answers I wrote a while ago that I thought I'd post for any interested peoples.

She asked, "How do you take such good pictures?"

My photos aren't awesome. In fast, most of my photos are lousy (as in lighting, clarity, saturation) until they've been run through photoshop elements and sometimes that helps salvage the photo... but sometimes the photos are hopeless. I know nothing about aperture or all those other fancy photographic terms. I have been trying to work on composition so I can arrange for a balanced photo. Mostly I think it's fun to take pictures of my silly kids and pretend like it's a hobby. And I like increasing the contrast in my photos so they pop out at me.

I don't pretend to know much about photo editing, but here's my attempt. See - there's nothing professional about this photo.

I saw this sunset on my drive home and knew I would be able to see it out my bathroom window so I ran upstairs so I could capture the sight. I know in 4 months it won't be there any more because once the house next store goes up, I'll have to say goodbye to the mountains and hello to brown stucco.

I think that photo is so-so lovely ... but this next photo run through soft light filter, a teeny-tiny saturation bump, and slightly burned edges makes it look more like what my eyes really saw (my camera just can't capture the light and such because it's dorky... or I'm dorky... not sure which...)

What inspires you to take a picture?

I came across this quote that kindof shares my inspiration for journaling and photos.

Quote by Rebecca Cooper, "When I sit down to scrapbook this ordinary life of mine, something always seems to happen. As I look at pictures of our little family doing what we do every day, I start to see things in a different light. Boring becomes beautiful, ordinary becomes extraordinary. Scrapbooking has this funny way of changing my perspective and reminding me of what's most important. It helps me find joy in the littlest things - perhaps even in changing all those dirty diapers. (Well, maybe that's pushing it.)"

So - I guess I feel like taking photos helps me see the little things in my life that I'm grateful for (and we all know those days that are sooooo hard and we're soooooo tired) but I try to find perspective by trying to appreciate my life in the present. I want to see the good and that is one way to try to capture it.

I think about all my memories as a child. And I don't have photos of every single day of my life. I don't have photos of swimming at Ricks and then going to get Millhollow yogurt afterwards. And I'm not sad that I don't have photos of those things, because I remember them fondly without having to see a photo.

So - sometimes I wonder if I'm just bazerko because I take photos of things that I don't need to. I don't think you need a photo of every single thing for it to be memorable. Just rambling through my thoughts...

How can I try to take more pics of ordinary stuff?

Taking a Photo-a-Day really helped me think about all the simple things in my day that someday I might miss. I don't know that laundry is one of those things I'll miss... but I'll miss the kids dirtying the laundry I suppose. I know my kids will grow up so fast and because I love, love little ones with all their funny sayings and squishy little faces and fingers, I guess I want to capture our every day life so that I can look back on those photos and remember.

Do you have to have a super fancy camera?

Nope. My camera is a cheapo Olympus that is 4+ years old. It's missing a pixel in the center which always ends up looking like a wart on someone's nose. It really doesn't make good enlargements because it has only 3.2 megapixels. But it's small and I can squish it into my pocket. I don't mind letting my kids use it occasionally because it's so dumb of a camera. And I suppose I'm in hopes that they'll drop it so I'll have to get a new one. Sigh...

Sooooo...nothing earth-shattering here.

But I'm glad Coralee asked the questions because it really made me think about why I do what I do... blog like a maniac, take photos like a maniac - all in my attempt to gain perspective and fully appreciate and learn from my life, my family, my experiences.