insanity

I've always loved photography. My mom was a newspaper photographer and editor, so maybe I got my love of it from her. As a kid I took pictures and entered them in school contests and stuff, but it hasn't been until lately that I've really wanted to get serious about it. I think having kids makes you realize how fleeting moments are, and what better way to remember them than to capture them in a photograph. And with my kids having hearing loss, I want the pictures that I take to compensate for whatever memories their hearing loss might have taken away from them.

I've really wanted an SLR camera for a long time, and for a while now I've been doing a lot of research deciding which camera I want to buy. I also had the chance to borrow a friend's Nikon D80 yesterday to take pictures at a friend's very informal wedding. I've LOVED abosorbing myself in the photography world, but I feel like I'm going insane. Every time I closed my eyes last night, all I could see was different camera shots I had taken and how I could have improved them. It seems like now I see the world around me in frames and camera angles and one of the most common thoughts in my head lately is, "Oh, that would've been a good shot." It's like my perspective on the way I view the world has changed. I hope my right brain settles down a little bit cause it's maddening.

Here are some of the pictures I took yesterday. I had SO much fun, but man, I have a lot to learn! The first three pictures are from my camera, and the rest are from the D80.