What I learned these past 2 years

April, 2009

August, 2011

This week over at Click it up a Notch she challenges us to post a photo from when we first started in Manual and now. Before I got my DSLR, I had a Canon film SLR, and I just shot auto on that. (I was always afraid of wasting film if I shot in Manual mode.) But I begged Jamie for a new camera the Christmas before Isla was born. He didn't think I needed one since I already had a point and shoot and the Canon was basically sitting there unused. But I vowed to make good use of a new digital camera and told him it would be my main hobby. So he got me a Nikon d40 and I researched online and did a lot of reading, practicing on anything I could. I switched a lot from P mode to A mode and S back then, and once in a while M when I was brave. I didn't know anything about ISO or white balance or anything. Back then I used to think every picture had to be shot on F1.8 and every picture had to have bokeh. I tended to have underexposed photos because I thought they looked better. I never even really paid attention to sharpness really, I was more focused on different compositions and just getting cute pics of my kids. I practiced a ton and did a project 365 in 2010. I think I've learned a lot since then! Not just with the camera but with editing also. I used to always run actions, and now I just do some basic clean edits and a few tweaks here and there. I'm still learning more and more every day, and I'm glad I proved to Jamie that I could stick with this hobby.

I shared what I learned on Click it up a Notch! Check it out and share what you learned: