Check this out! [link]
Check this out too! [link]

Wow, this is totally freaky for me. I read someones journal and it is very reflective of my story with photography too. I used to suck at taking pics (maybe still do but not like back when). Heads cut off of portraits, etc. Terrible. So when I signed up for photo 101, I thought I'd lost my mind. I don't even remember what made me sign up. Next thing I know I'm running the darkroom, assisting the teacher, having competitions at state and national events and I'm living and breathing for photography. And I didn't suck after all.

I made the distinct error of hating Columbia, SC and had that normal teen angst to leave this dump so I randomly found some art school in another city that seemed pretty to live in and applied. My drawing/painting teacher asked me what school I'd applied to casually b/c she liked me as a person and I told her and her teeth almost dropped out. Not because she didn't think I could do it but because I think she knew that I didn't realize what I'd done in its entirety. I had applied to the nations premier art college. SCAD. And once she explained what it was all about I realized I had wasted an application fee.

Well she didn't think I did, so she took slides of my work to assist them in accepting me in the hopes I'd get in. Well, we mail off the slides, etc. and BAM! 2 weeks later they're back in the mail to me. I was afraid to open the envelope because if they hated me, which they obviously did to return them...how could I even finish photo class without humiliation and a loss of talent, money and interest?

They returned the slides to me b/c they'd made copies of them it turns out and in that same packet I was awarded a scholarship with them I didn't even apply for. I only sent them in to hope that I'd get accepted and not laughed at...wasn't expecting that at all. And other than my son, the biggest flattery of my life was not only getting accepted there but being given a scholarship I didn't even ask for. I was shocked. And I loved what I did even more because I felt like I was doing the right thing and headed down the right path.

Well, God obviously had other plans for me. I didn't go because I had Seth instead. I quit taking pics for a while because I was a new mom and didn't have $$ or time. Then I'm in a long-term relationship, engaged no less. And I was geared up to start my own business. It never happened because we ended our relationship and I couldn't do the business without him. And then it died. I didn't touch my camera anymore. I had no desire left at all to take pictures. And I knew I was behind the game on the photography information highway. I just gave up and lost the luster I once had.

Until this past fall. I was asked by my family to take pics of my son at his cousin's b-day party( not the ones posted on here). And suddenly it started to come back. I started craving it like I used to and figured what the hell.

So, I'm doing it again. Slowly but surely. And I am just doing it for fun now. I don't discuss camera models and what f stop I use. I don't care if people think my pics suck. It is just for me now and if people happen to enjoy my work it does make me feel wonderful and proud. And if not that is totally OK too. It feels great to have it again and just enjoy it. I don't want my own business, I'm not trying to be Ansel Adams. I'm just me, taking pics and enjoying the feeling it gives me once more. And hopefully I won't lose it again.

Thanks to all of you for helping me enjoy taking pictures again. So when you and leave comments, it means more than you all know. I'm also going to my first photography meeting tonight too and I feel great about it.