Taking pictures

Most of you who know me already know that I have developed an obsession with taking pictures over the years and I guess it is not really something new.  I got my first camera when I was 8 or 9 and it was one of those film cameras that were long and rectangular and that a lot of people had back in the early 90s.  I got it for Christmas from Santa and I attempted to use it that same day.  I had no idea how to use it, of course, so when I put the film in, I took a few pictures and then decided I didn't like the last picture, so I opened the camera and tried to rewind the film like you would a cassette tape.  Needless to say, I ruined all the pictures by exposing the film to the sunlight.

That camera didn't last very long.  I have no idea what happened to it, or if I ever developed any pictures that I took with it, but as my interest in photography grew I began to volunteer as the picture-taker whenever we took a family vacation.  Now, I say "picture-taker" and not "photographer" because I was really no photographer.  I was just a girl borrowing her parents' point-and-shoot camera that, other than a flash, had no special features of any kind.

I enjoyed taking pictures, though.  I was not particularly good and the quality of the camera certainly did not help, but it was okay.  I just liked to try to take a good picture at least.  See, in my mind sometimes I just see places and moments that I feel the need to capture so I can share them with others.  Of course I like it when people tell me they like a picture I took, who wouldn't!  But that is not why I took pictures then and is not why I do it now.  I do it to remember, and I do it to share.

This became increasingly easy with the use of digital cameras, of course.  I got my first digital camera for my birthday in 2004.  Again, it was just a point-and-shoot camera with something like 4 megapixels, but it did the trick.  More importantly, at that point I was studying Film and TV production so I had learned a bit about framing, which made a big difference.

Then, Alex got a Canon PowerShot that I began using all the time. It had a better zoom and all kinds of manual modes that I never really used, but the quality of the camera was way superior to anything I had ever had.  That's when it started!  I loved that camera and I took it everywhere with me.  It was around that time that I graduated college in California and moved back to Chile.  Also around that time Facebook became popular in Chile so I saw real potential in posting pictures up on Facebook so my family and friends in the US and Chile would be able to see them.  I would like to tell you that I learned to take wonderful pictures using all kinds of manual settings but I didn't.  Like I said, to me it's never been about that.  I like to take pictures, but learning all the little details just suck the fun out of it for me. 

For Christmas in 2011 Alex gave me my current camera, which is also a Canon and it's better than the last camera.  I still didn't know how to use most of the settings, but it got my Pic a Day project started.  My New Year's resolution in 2011 was to take at least one picture every day of the year and post it on Facebook.  It worked for quite a while until I got tired of taking pointless pictures every single day and just started taking pictures when I had something to photograph.  Interestingly enough, I still ended up taking 4 or more pictures every week. If you want to see my Pic a Day album you can access it HERE and I think you should be able to see it regardless of whether we are friends on Facebook or not...

Anyway, there are certainly better photographers than me but when I look at that album I know that I'm doing what I enjoy the most, which is capturing a moment or a place and sharing it.  I probably will not make money out of it, but at least I'll always enjoy it.  It's the art of point and shoot.

That said, since I moved to London last September, I have taken many pictures and I have posted them weekly on Facebook.  I would like to start posting some on this blog as my new years resolution for 2012.  I know I'm a little late, it's February already, but my New Year's resolution is to see a new place in London every week, and I want to post some of my pictures here and share some of the stories behind them.  Who knows, maybe it'll be helpful to you if you come to London someday, or if you already live here, you may find out about a new place worth visiting.

Anyway, I'll leave it at that for now.  We'll see if it works out.