Taking some amazing pictures

I have always loved taking pictures. It seems like I have always had a camera either close to me, on my phone, or close enough that I can grab someone's camera and take pictures for them. I see something somewhere and think it needs to be recorded now. Growing up in California and in Hawaii, I always had a camera and always took pictures of family, friends, animals, travel, everything. Ever trip would be photographed, every game would have some sort of memory, everything. I have boxes and boxes of pictures that I took and can see as a photographer how I have grown. Some are bad or blurry shots, some are amazing shots. When I got married, I had no control of the pictures taken. My cousin did take some great shots, but in my mind I could see different shots that I could have taken.

When our children were born, I took a ton of pictures. A friend of mine said that I would take more pictures of my first one and not as many as the second. I tried desperately not to be like that and took as many if not more of both, as well as our older daughter. It is so wonderful to go back through the pictures and see the growth of all three girls throughout time. My camera at the time was a Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ5. It was small enough to pull out of a pocket or put into a purse. I knew eventually I would need a larger camera. On Mother's Day, my mom who knows how much I love taking pictures got me a Panasonic Lumix DMC-F2.It was good for more personal shots, but not the best. This year I got luck and I was able to get a camera from my mom to "use". My new camera, Nikon D40x is amazing! I am so worried my mom will ask for it back one day. The pictures I take from it are so much better and so much more amazing than my old one. Mom said that the Nikon was too heavy for her to take while traveling so I hope she never does ask for it back. It is one of my absolute favorite things ever.

This summer my mother-in-law asked if I could bring it with us when we went to Boise for our annual family reunion. Our son and his family were coming out for a visit and she wanted pictures done with great-grandma and all of us together. The pictures on the new Nikon were incredible! It was the first time I was able to take these pictures from the digital drive onto the computer without any real editing needed. Plus, it helped taking the pictures outside instead of in. I was hooked! My camera (yes, it is mine now no matter what) is usually with me where ever we go. So this blog will show the pictures I have taken. This will help with what works and what doesn't work. What I like taking and what I didn't like, which can be seen in the pictures.