How Do I Start?-Photography

This is from my good and talented friend Rachel. Thanks Rach!

"I've always been a picture-taking person. I have a terrible memory and taking pictures helps cure me of that. But I didn't realize what poor quality my pictures were, nor did I care, until I had kids. Then all of a sudden, my point-and-shoot that only shot literally 3 times per minute, became less than sufficient. I got so frustrated with that camera, which also craved batteries every other day, for missing so many precious moments of my kids. I needed a camera that could do quick continuous shots. I also realized that standing in line at Wal-Mart with 2 kids to edit all my photos on their little machine just wasn't going to work anymore. I had a lot to learn!

Like a lot of people, I first found inspiration through a friend. She took my kids out on a photo shoot one day. Her results, compared to mine, were amazing. I told myself I wanted to learn how to do that. But I had no idea that so much time and money goes into learning how to take the kind of pictures I wanted to! Baby steps...

I started with the camera. So many people prefer a point and shoot because they are much more convenient, but my opinion is that if you care enough about quality pictures, you'll bite the bullet and start lugging around an SLR camera anyway. Its been so worth it to me! I have a Nikon D-40. It's a great starter camera and very lightweight for what it is. Before I spent the money, I did tons of research to help guide me to the right camera for me. Once you have an SLR camera, its so easy to keep it in auto. The difference between your point-and-shoot is already lightyears! But if you really want to learn how to use your camera--after all you did invest a lot of money-- then its fun to start learning about the manual settings. You'll have so much more creative control, like being able to focus on your subject while blurring the background. Once you learn how to take good pictures inside your camera (and the more expensice camera you get, the more cool stuff it can do), then its fun to learn how to edit. This is still my weakest area. I use Photoshop Elements, Google's Picasa, and Paint.net. There are several ways to edit, and my next goal is to learn how to apply "actions" to my photos. But again, that's where things start to get expensive!

The best advice I can give is to really be passionate about learning. Figure out how your camera works. Hardly a day goes by where I don't take a round of pictures. Even if we're not doing anything exciting, I just take pics to experiment. Practice with your camera is the best way to improve. I also talk to anyone I know who has photography expertise and is willing to share. Even if its only for 5 minutes, I always learn something. I've talked to all the guys at Best Buy and Ritz (hey, that's where they can show you stuff on your camera, and its free). I am constantly inspired by other mom photographers, and look at their blogs often. I have read the camera manual, and the one from Ken Rockwell, a few times. I also have read one book. There's so much more I'd like to do, like take a real class, but for the moment, I'm trying to learn all I can for free.

Here is a list of things that have inspired and helped me:
www.kenrockwell.com- great info on equipment
www.thepioneerwoman.com/photography- great photoshop tips
www.jordankrogmanphotography.blogspot.com- amazing pictures
www.photographybybrinn.com- she offered an online class that was great! its over now, but all the info is still there. leave a comment on her blog if you'd like an invite.
www.sheenaspics.blogspot.com- really good at working with light
Photographing Children, by Ginny Felch and Allison Tyler Jones
My camera's manual
Practice, practice, practice!"