As part of Catch the Moment 365 we are featuring participants of the project monthly. Allison of Home and Never Alone has been participating in the project since it started at the beginning of the year. I’m so happy to share her photography story with you today. Follow her on facebook, twitter, and instagram to learn more about her journey.
When and how did you discover and
fall in love with photography? I've always liked
taking pictures - I have albums of photos I took as a kid on family vacations
and school trips. Like many people, I caught the photography bug in earnest
after my children were born. As they've grown from tiny newborns to busy kids,
the challenge to capture them in pictures has grown - and thanks to Catch the
Moment 365, so have my photography skills.
What's in your camera bag? What's
your favorite piece of equipment? Go to editing software/actions/presets etc? Photography
is my hobby, and my equipment reflects that - we upgraded from a pocket sized
point and shoot camera after our son was born and now I use a Nikon Coolpix
L310. It's a definite upgrade from our last camera but less of an investment
than many other cameras out there! I also take a lot of pictures on the go on
my iPod, and I love the PicTapGo app for making those quickie pictures look
their best.
What has been the most
influential technique or tip you learned to help you improve your own
photography? The best tip I've gotten came from our Catch the Moment
365 group - the right camera is the one you have at hand. Would I love to
capture every special moment on my "good" camera? Sure. But this
project has really taught me to appreciate the small everyday moments that I
might not have otherwise photographed, and sometimes that means letting go of
the perfect shot and taking what I can get with what's at hand.
If you could take a photo walk
anywhere in the world where would you go and who would you bring with you? I
had the chance to do this over the summer! Our family took a long awaited
vacation to Charleston, SC, a place my husband and I visited on our honeymoon.
We'd talked about going back with our kids for years, and the trip kept getting
postponed. I've had a picture in my head of the kids on the steps of the City
Market, and in June I finally got the chance to make that picture real. Taking
part in Catch the Moment 365 definitely honed my skills and helped make the
pictures I took even better than the ones I'd been imagining!
Who/What are your favorite
photography subjects? My kids. They grow and
change so much from week to week, and I love catching their funny little
expressions and gestures before they outgrow them and move on to the next
thing.
Is there anything you hope to
accomplish in regards to photography in the next year? I'm looking forward to completing a year in photos with Catch the
Moment 365, and I hope to continue to improve my photography skills.
Here's what Allison had to say about how doing a 365 project has improved her photography:
I've always loved taking pictures. As a little girl, I loved to get a disposable camera and fill it up with family vacation memories, clicking the shutter and winding the film along as I went. As I got older, I got my very own camera - how fancy it felt to load the 35mm film in myself! In college, I took endless pictures of fun times with friends. What a disappointment it was to get my pictures back and realize this one was a little too dark, and that one didn't quite fit the whole group in the frame!
When my husband and I got married, we got our first digital
camera, and it was a revelation. No more waiting until the pictures came back
to see if I'd captured the image I was hoping for! We filled up photo albums
with vacation photos, and when our daughter was born in 2009 we took hundreds
of pictures. Her little brother arrived in 2012, and I think we're on volume
nine of kid photo albums now.
I've
always thought of myself as a decent photographer...but I've never studied
photography or pushed myself to test my skills until I heard about the Catch
the Moment 365 project from my friend Mindi. I thought it would be a fun way to
catch more of our everyday life on camera. I completely underestimated how the
project would change my photography skills!
Taking a
picture a day has pushed me to get the camera out on days I wouldn't normally
consider photo-worthy. After eight months, I'm seeing more beauty in Legos
spilled across the carpet and paints splashed on the dining room table than in
posed portraits, which made up so much of my "before" photos. My
pictures are more clear and my sense of perspective has improved dramatically -
I don't hesitate to drop to the ground to catch my kids on their level now. The
only downside to the project is wishing I could go back and retake their baby
pictures - how sad it was to realize how many are just slightly out of focus!
I've loved
challenging myself to rethink what makes a good picture and watching my skills
change over the last eight months - and I can't wait to see where I'll be by
the end of the year.
I love this! I have to agree- my perspective of what's photo-worthy sure has changed.
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