Favorite Things - Connecticut in Style

Favorite Things

| Catherine splashing in the ocean |

Happy Friday! What is with me lately? I am becoming so verbose and I feel badly that you just wanted to come for a quick 2.5 minute visit and get on with your day. But, nooooo. Today I want to talk about waste. And the fact that I’m disgusted with myself (Psst! This is your opportunity to bail now or get a cup of coffee and come back. I will be right here).

The very first Christmas gift that Kerry gave me was a Canon Rebel XT camera. I was so surprised and absolutely thrilled to be the owner of such a great camera. I read most of the instruction manual, but with the exception of learning how to turn on the flash, it remained in A mode. A is for Auto. The photos were okay, not great. Sadly, that didn’t stop me from continuing to take them by the thousands. At last count, I have over 20,000 photos on my iMac. Most of the photos are of my kiddos looking startled by the flash and I can’t bear the thought of deleting even one photo, despite their little red eyes. I continued to gaze longingly at magazine covers and drooled over interior design photos and just assumed that professional photographers had tons of expensive camera equipment and years of training. It was a realm that I couldn’t enter.

When I followed my heart and launched my blog, I knew that the photographs were going to be a deciding factor of a first time visitor. When someone new comes to my blog, I suspect that they are wondering “Should I stay or should I go now?” I’ve got only a few seconds to make that first impression. I’ve visited many blogs and I can tell immediately who has invested the time and energy into learning how to take photos and who is like the me I was, two years ago.

I wanted the images to take center stage in my blog and needed to get serious about learning how to shoot great photos. I started at the beginning and took a two-hour photography class to learn the basics of my camera. A month later, I invested in a one-hour private teaching session. I learned how to use Manual Mode and make all the setting adjustments and the next thing I know, I’m taking photos that make my heart flutter. It happened overnight. When I think about the transformative impact to my photos from only three hours of instruction, I get frustrated. I think about what a waste of time it was to take years of bad photos when all I needed was a few hours of training to take bright, beautiful photos. And natural light. The light is everything.

I still have a long way to go and so much more to learn, but this week, I received some of the nicest compliments about my blog photographs and it made me feel like perhaps I am getting better. A reader sent me a message suggesting that I watermark the photos to prevent someone from unauthorized use. I was like “My photos?” and the same day, a girlfriend texted me that she loved the photo styling in the Fresh Margarita Recipe post.

There’s no magic. If someone else can do it, so can you. Get out that instruction manual or take a class and you’ll crush it. Have a wonderful weekend xo