Ask B: How did you get started into photography?

I love photography.  It has been something I have enjoyed since being a young girl.  I started with film and now I am predominantly shoot digital, while still collecting film cameras.  Since that time the age of digital cameras has improved vastly.  The first digital camera we owned used a floppy disk! The quality of photos that phones take now a days is incredible.  If I do not feel like lugging around my big DSLR camera, I simply just rely on my iPhone.  Technology is always improving. What has gotten me is seeing how our expanding knowledge of the subject tied together with practice also evolves the quality of the photographs.  It is that natural progression as you strive to get better that has propelled me into my continual love for photography.
In 2005 my father gifted me with a Nikon Coolpix 8800.  It was not as tiny as the coolpix cameras  are now. It actually looked like a DSLR in size and shape although you could not change lenses.  I had just become a mum for the first time and had a great little subject of which to take photographs.  In 2007 a few months after having my second son I had really gotten interested in learning to shoot manual.  I started going to photography meetup groups with other military wives.  Almost all of them were shooting with DSLR cameras (primarily Nikon or Canon), talking about the lenses they used, and shooting in manual.  There was only so much I could do with my Nikon Coolpix and I was so entranced by the quality of photographs the other mums were producing of my own kids from the meet ups.  When my camera started giving me a lot of difficulty it furthered the need to move up in the camera world.  That was when we we got the Nikon D70 DSLR.  
Let me just say that it is not the camera you own that determines how well your photographs turn out.  Yes the quality of the camera and the lenses do make a difference. However its the person behind the lens knowing how use the camera and their vision for what gets captured in the frame that counts.  I took so many out of focused and badly exposed photographs while I was learning to shoot manual.  Not to mention having little subjects that move very quickly! 
I have included in this post a few of the very first photographs I took on our first DSLR and all though they look nice enough I can rip them apart years later as a photographer.  From the camera settings, to the lighting, to uneven shadows, the composition  body parts being cut off, the subject too centered, too many distracting items in the frame, etc.  I really think its true that we can be the worst critics of our won work.  I was looking at the photographs below today and realized something.  It is not about the level of experience at that moment, but why I took the photograph that is so important to me. All my photographs at this time in 2005 – 2007 were of my kids capturing their innocence and their moments of happiness.  I got into photography to capture the memories and to be fair, my reason for staying with it is pretty much the same.  
These smiles are why I continued my study in photography.
<3   
*All photographs are property of Bonnie Rose Photography. All Rights Reserved. 



Q: Why did you get into photography and of what do you like to take photographs?
  • http://www.blogger.com/profile/03410278332544790673 Heather K.

    Precious, precious photos. I’m glad your dad got you that nikon years ago… You’re a really great photographer :)

    • http://www.blogger.com/profile/05022023043718407104 Bonnie Rose

      Thank you Heather. Me too. My dad is no longer with us, so it means a lot that he started this path with me.

  • http://www.blogger.com/profile/05561342134449272620 Amy @ Not Your Average Baby Blog

    What cute kiddos! I know nothing about photography (so I’ll be staying around), but I like that you said even though you don’t love the composition of your old photos, that you still love why you took them. So important to remember! : )

    • http://www.blogger.com/profile/05022023043718407104 Bonnie Rose

      Thank you Amy, and yes please come back. I want to be sharing tips on photography as well. Thank you for commenting Amy. xx