i got learned about photography

I have a bad habit of not fully learning my stuff's abilities.  Admittedly, I'm not great with technology, so I usually leave it up to the hubs to learn the computer ins and outs, how the router works, how to set the thermostat, and the like.  It's not that I can't learn it, it's just that I don't have much of an interest in those things.  But some things that are more complicated than the average kitchen appliance I do bother to learn - my sewing machine, the baby's video monitor, and the awesome Canon Rebel camera the hubs got me for Christmas a year and a half ago.  Problem is, I learned how to use the camera "sort of" - enough to take tons of pictures and have a couple turn out well.  But I never got down to the nitty gritty of everything included in that camera bag.  And today I did.

I was looking at a Pinterest fail blog, where people submit pictures of their Pinterest attempts and how awful the results end up being.  Pretty funny stuff, especially for a Friday where I'm not getting any work done anyways.  And one "fail" was the spinning kid picture, where you have to set the camera's self-timer AND hold the camera around your neck with a camera strap, since you're supposed to be holding the kid's hands with yours.  I never put the camera strap on my camera.  Ever.  So when Britton, Barrett, and I were hanging out outside and she was totally in to me taking pictures, I ran upstairs to dig out my camera strap.  Ten attempts later, we got this:

                           

Fueled by success, I grabbed my "big lens."  It was a bonus addition to the camera package the hubs got me, and I've sadly never used it. I don't know how to use it and I don't know what difference it makes.  Turns out, it makes a difference.  The pictures are clearer, the detail is better, and I can actually see Britton's eye color in my pictures now!  Recently I was lamenting that the best pictures I seemed to take are taken on my phone and edited with a free app.  That's sad, especially when I have a great camera that isn't taking the same quality of pictures because I was too lazy to play around with its settings or even read the manual.  No more.  These pictures prove to me that it's time to stop being so lazy and learn the hard things in life.  It's worth it!

I'm by no means an expert, and I really need to take a course that teaches me how to take pictures on manual, but this is a start.  I can't wait to take more pictures and see what develops (bad pun intended)!