What is your reason for taking photos?

I was in my local store a couple of months ago queuing up at the check out. The couple behind me had a new born baby, as in 1 week old. People were  around them showing interest in the new baby giving best wishes for the future and so on. Before leaving the store I pulled the dad a side and explained to him one of the best decisions of my life. I explained to him that I have been taking my daughters photo since she was born and every year on or very close to her birthday I take another image. This has been going on since she was "zero". I explained further that what makes it so special is that she has always been photographed in the same blue dress her mum owns. So we have a sequence of images that show her growing into this dress - crawling, cruising, playing an instrument, lots of developmental stages, and in the last year or so it has occurred to me that I am now taking images her children (in many years time) will enjoy seeing.

My journey in photography started as a preparation for the day my daughter entered this world - what was your reason to start? Does it still fuel your passion for images? Is taking special images now a vital part of your family tradition?


May be it is time to dust off the camera and feel that passion again.

Here are some suggestions to get you started...

1. Shoot for the waste basket.
Have fun and get acquainted again with some of the controls. Put the camera on Aperture Priority mode and play around with small F-stops and large F-stops and see the difference. Then set the camera to Time Priority mode and play some more.

2. Have a project.
If you start with a project that does not have the sun in the frame, it will be easier to control the exposure.

3. Keep it simple.
Go and have fun without any huge expectations of what comes out. Just note what works and keep going.



On my desk I have, like most parents, special images we get to see every day. One of the images I have is a shot of my daughter walking for the very first time where she is walking from grandma's arms to mum's arms. The image technically isn't the best: I didn't use a flash and from memory I needed to use a 1/2 sec exposure on about f4 but it is one of the most special images I have.

I was ready and my camera was very close by. May be it is time to get out your camera and have fun again.


have fun! ☺

see more of my images





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