Friday, March 26, 2010

Footloose and Fancy-free Friday Ramblings

Can I just tell you that I am really enjoying my photography class?  I love it.  I love controlling my shot so much and having so much say in how the shot turns out.  From taking it to processing the film to printing in the dark room.  It's all so amazingly fun.  And it lets me be creative in a completely different way than my writing does.

It's ruined me though.  I was taking pictures with my digital point-and-shoot the other day and I was getting so frustrated because the shots weren't turning out.  They were blurry because the people kept moving.  The lighting was crappy.  It stunk.

That's the thing about writing.  You don't have to worry about stuff you can't control.  Because you can always rework the manuscript if something doesn't come out quite right.

With photography, there's a little bit more pressure to get it right the first time.  (Unless it's something you know you can get back to shoot under the same conditions.)

I love both, but they've both got their own unique challenges.  I'm going to miss having access to the processing materials and dark room over the summer.  But in the fall I'll be back to photography classes.

Now to investigate a good scanner so I can share the images...

For today, I'll be down at school processing film, then shooting.  Then I have work.  Hopefully there will be a few minutes in the afternoon where I can write.  But over the next month or so I fear school will take the priority over my writing as the semester winds down.

9 comments:

  1. Oh, I would LOVE to take a photography class! My friend has a really awesome camera with an incredible lens--which she says she's outgrown. But a new one that she wants is $1,000!!! Her pictures are so great, though.

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  2. I took photography in highschool (can you believe it was a required class?) and I loved it. There is something wonderful about the physicality of the materials.

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  3. I've always wanted to take a photography class. I had never thought about how important it is to get it right the first time though. Maybe I should stick to writing because I rarely get things right the first time.

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  4. Photography is a great way to learn to see the details...which, you can then use in your writing too.

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  5. I have never taken a photography class but I think it sounds really cool! Basically all I know about cameras is that you press a button and a picture is taken. Oh and I know how to zoom in and out :)

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  6. That sounds really fun. It's nice to have other forms of creativity. Good luck with school.

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  7. I think it's so fantastic that you are exploring all these areas of your creative side. Wonderful!

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  8. I love photography as well. I have always wanted to take a class but with 2 business, work, three kids, the house, writing, plus all of my other activities, I have never seemed to fit it in! You make me want to stop what I am doing and enroll myself in a class!!! :) Good luck with it.

    Also thanks for adding yourself to my blog. Have a wonderful day!

    Hugs

    Micole Black

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  9. Jennifer, be glad you don't have such an expensive hobby. I'm already trying to scheme up ways of becoming independently wealthy so I can afford to keep up with all my hobbies. (Two of which can get costly.) I would love to get a different lens for my camera. And maybe a digital body for the lens I currently have. Sigh. Oh, and a couple different kinds of camera. And a dark room and wet lab. See, it racks up really quick.

    Lydia, I'm so jealous. I never got the chance to take photo in high school. I was too busy pretending to be an art student.

    Susan, there can be pressure. Which is why I tend to photograph things that I can go back to fairly easily. Headstones, inanimate objects, etc. That's the beauty of writing, though. You can easily go fix things. There are some things you can do in the dark room to correct for errors made in the photographing though, so it eases the pressure.

    Liza, agreed!

    Julie, that's all I knew going into this class. But I learned so much so quickly. Now I feel like I could take on the world sometimes.

    Angie, it's so nice to have something else to distract me when my characters give me a hard time.

    Tess, thanks! I'm really enjoying it. I do hope to be able to share my photos with people someday. I'm still so new to it all though that it could be a while.

    Micole, I don't know how you do it all. I can barely keep up with my not-hectic schedule sometimes. Hope your day is bright and cheery with lots of words and lots of fun with the family.

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