A Passion for Photography

As you probably know, I'll be having guest bloggers all month long. I am so pleased to have a chance to introduce you to the people I admire and have come to call friend. Meet Beth from More Doors blog. ~ Relyn

Hi everyone.... I'm so excited to be here with Relyn, drinking tea and sitting by the fire....okay, fine, I'm at my computer in chilly Wisconsin, but at least that's what it feels like to me....and you should see how cute her house is !! I've never posted anywhere other than my own blog, so this is quite an adventure for me and I hope I can keep you somewhat entertained and not become too wordy with my little love fest here.

If I had been asked a year ago to write about a personal passion of mine, I would have turned around and ran as fast as I could trying to get away from you, feeling silly that I didn't have an answer. Sure, I could have come up with lots of things I love, but nothing that was an "in my heart" passion. At the time I was being very "arty" and it kept my hands busy, but it wasn't in my heart.
Six months ago I picked up my camera, looked at it and it hit me...this is what I was in love with. Sure I had used this camera before for so many things...holidays, vacations, new home pictures....things that I felt needed to be documented, but I had never used it as a tool to fill my hands with and to replace the scissors and glue sticks that were now starting to feel like strangers to me and just didn't feel right anymore.

So I had an affair with my camera....we went off on sunny afternoons to play in the warmth, returning exhausted and satisfied and with smiles on our faces. We disappeared into the woods, hand in hand and shared secrets while looking at the little mushrooms sprouting through the moss. We became inseparable. Taking pictures, I found out, wasn't something I had to make time for. It quickly just became part of my life to see the things I see everyday, but in a new and different way.

I didn't keep this affair from my hubby...thankfully he's a kind man who understood my new love and quite often, he comes with us on our dates and adventures and together we trespass on marked land, do u-turns where they're not allowed because I saw something beautiful "over there" and we come home smiling, wondering how our day disappeared so quickly.

Being inspired to take photos has come in so many forms and this blogging world has been such a huge part of that. I have learned more through blogging, than any teacher ever taught me during school....which wasn't too hard as I was an awful student and always had this in the comment section for my parents..."Beth is such a delight to have in class, but SHE TALKS TOO MUCH and that can be disruptive to the other students"....to those who know me, go figure !

Seriously though, through blogging, I have a macro lens that my hubby gave me after I mentioned that I might need one because they do cool things. That lens and an old box camera and a contraption he built for it because I wanted to be part of the "through the view finder" group....all because of other blogs and wonderful women who openly shared their loves and ideas with me.....me, a complete stranger. And then I met Jen Gray at SQUAM last year and she's a REAL photographer and she talked to me and I got all sappy and fell in love with her because she's really cool and funny and she loves photography and life and love....and I want to be just like her when I grow up !!

When my sister told her friends that I was wielding a camera and calling myself a photographer, they called me for photo shoots....YIKES...CRAP....now what ? Well, I didn't charge anything and I made "no promises" as far as the finished products and that took a ton of pressure of off me and guess what ? Every photo shoot I did, was beautiful and the pictures were wonderful and my head grew a size larger....well, maybe not a whole size, but close. And then friends saw my portfolio and wanted pictures for Christmas cards and they wanted to pay me for my time and and editing and I had to sit down with my head between my knees and take some deep breaths before I jumped up and did a little happy dance while I shouted, "life is good!"

Everyday I now see the world and things and smiles and life in a different way....a bigger, brighter way, as everything looks different to me. I have discovered that on the days I feel the need to write, all I have to do is go through my picture files and find one I like and almost instantly the words come pouring out of me and I have something to share on my blog. Try it sometime, seriously, it does work.

Thanks for your time....and thank you, Relyn, for being such a sweetheart and inviting me over. And the next time we get together I'll talk about photo editing and my love for that....which is quickly becoming another personal passion of mine.


All words and images by Beth.