The Joy of Photography

I remember the day our brand new baby came in the mail. We had finally taken the leap and ordered our very first camera, a Canon 5D Mark II. We had recently placed our order at ASAP Photo and Camera and we were ready to start pursuing our dreams as filmmakers and photographers and the energy was high! A day after our camera came, Grady and I headed right over to my sister-in-law’s house to take photos of our nephew, Bruce. I was so excited! I was going to figure out this manual mode thing! I had been studying and googling and researching. I had been practicing with our old Nikon. Here is one of the first photos I ever took with my brand new, big girl camera in February, 2013. As you can see, I wasn’t exactly a fresh out of the box photographer prodigy here. This photo is blurry and out of focus. Poor Bruce’s arms are chopped off and the composition…well what composition, I didn’t even know what that meant? There are so many things wrong with this photo and there were so many reasons to be discouraged. Yet even so, there is still one thing I love about this photo…It captured a moment of joy and that joy is something I will always be reminded of when I look at this photo. The joy on sweet, little Bruce’s face and the joy that was awakening in my heart as I explored this desire to create photos and help people preserve moments in life with intention. So today, here’s to joy awakening in your heart. Here’s to first moments. Here’s to the beginning of something beautiful.