Shutter-happy in 2015

     It’s funny how time blurs and softens the focus on our most cherished memories.  Nostalgia paints it’s own pictures and as we journey thru life we tuck those experiences away just like we would a photograph in a photo album.

Pictures of family camping trips to the Rocky Mountains,  birth of new babies, toddlers with spaghetti noodles stuck in their hair and tomato sauce smeared on their fat little cheeks.  Blurry, out of focus but cherished.  

 The good we remember better and the bad, well that was even worse.  

Growing up my family and I moved every 3.5 years so having our family come for a visit was a treat. My fathers parents call Ontario home and have for well over 80 years. The last 55+ years in the same house where my grandparents raised their own family, became grandparents & great grandparents.  My mothers parents lived in a quaint Mobile home nestled in the sunny Okanagan valley until I was in my first year of  College.  

Vacationing to visit us in Alberta wasn’t a trip either set of Grandparents made very often. 

*clickclickclickclickclick* out came the cameras and before we knew my parents, my sister and I were all lined up on the sofa so no one was missing from the shot.  Even if you didn’t want to be in the shot, you were in the shot.  Bad hair days and pimples weren’t a valid excuse when your grandparents drove 14 hours to come and see you. I sat and smiled and prayed that the photo would be blurry and out of focus.  In those days we had to wait for photographs to be developed and it was always a great laugh to see how many “thumb” photographs were taken. {I have more than my fair share of those}

Then came the dawn of digital cameras & smart phones neatly equipped with their own cameras.  Photographs { at least for us} weren’t being developed but rather stored on hard drives & memory sticks.  Not exactly the easiest way to share those special moment with your friends and loved ones. 

I have wanted to switch back to a “real camera” for a few years now but, the right moment never  presented itself.  Instead we relied on a family friend to help us capture our precious family photos or  my iphone for everything else.  *clickclickclickclickclick*  Which is great until you have to wait while your iphone throws a hissy fit turning the screen dark refusing to allow you to capture your daughter blowing out her birthday candles.  Not anymore. I’m done.

The time has come.  2015 is the dawn for this “soon -to-be shutterbug”.

I come from a long line of budding photographers and It’s time to step out from behind the shadow of my father and his father before him.  

Now it’s my turn.  

We picked up a Canon Rebel T5 18MP DSLR Camera which promises to be ideal for families, budding photo enthusiasts and first-time SLR users. The camera offers helpful shooting modes and convenient creative options to make capturing photos and movies straightforward and enjoyable. The powerful 18MP CMOS image sensor and DIGIC 4 image processor produce dazzling images and recordings.

I’m excited and up for the challenge.  The next couple of days  will be spent hovered over the user manual as I try familiarize myself with how this fancy machine operates.  

No more point-click for this girl.  

I have been looking into a photography course as well and if I really need too I can always go and see my dad….He’s been snapping great photos for years.

Wish me luck!