My journey

I grew up with a mom who always had her camera with her.  She took pictures of everything - vacations, parties, people, etc.  She probably has over 200 (if not more) photo albums crammed full of photos...and tons more in boxes waiting to be put into books.  Now that she has a digital camera she has even more saved on disks or on her computer.  Needless to say I get my love of photography from her.

My mom loved photography but she was by no means a professional.  She shoots her photos in the automatic mode and doesn't own any editing software.  That is how I take photos.  However, I want to change that.

In August of 2008 after a lot of research, I purchased a Canon 40D DSLR.  I didn't know the first thing about my camera.  I bought books and DVDs and to no avail--still use the automatic setting.

My plan was that if I invested in great photography equipment it would be my incentive to learn how to take better photos.  I had hoped that I would know what I was doing by the time I had kids.  Here I am 20 weeks pregnant and still as clueless as I was back in August of 2008.  What really kicked my butt into gear was something called "newborn photography".  I see all of these photos of innocent newborns and I melt.  I started looking for newborn photographers in our area.  My husband quickly put the kibosh on that idea.  He thinks that just because I have a nice camera I should be able to take the photos myself.  He doesn't understand that a great camera doesn't equal great photographs.  I know what kind of shots I want.  I can see these amazing photos in my head, BUT...the pictures in my head look nothing like the pictures that come out of my camera.  The sad thing is, I know it's not my camera's fault.

So, here I stand 20 weeks pregnant and 20 weeks (give or take) to learn my camera well enough to take decent photos of my son when he is born. 

My name is Cari.  I'm a beginner addicted to photography...and this is my journey.