Hobbies

By definition, a hobby is a pursuit outside one's regular occupation engaged in for relaxation. I guess that is a pretty good description of my photography. If I could have combined wanting to be a writer and wanting to be a photographer into a successful career, that is who I would have been.

I can remember Mom letting me use her Kodak Box Camera a few times. My own first camera was probably a Kodak Brownie 127 - something I bought to take pictures of Doug when he was a baby. That was replaced by a Kodak Instamatic which I had for many years. Having a 35 mm camera was always a dream but not a reality until I was in my 40's and had grandchildren. Spending a hundred dollars on a camera was beyond my budget until then. My first 35 mm was a Pentax.

One of my daughters-in-law joked that the grandkids only knew me as "that woman behind the black box". I do have lots of grandchildren pictures!

Right around the turn of the century I used my xmas bonus money from work and splurged on a Canon Rebel 2000/EOS 300. It felt quite extravagant to spend $400 on a camera. I was still taking lots of pictures of grandchildren, but more often I was trying for artistic scenery shots. (Like the ones above.)

Two years ago I decided to join the digital age and bought a Canon PowerShot A550. I wanted to learn to use it before we took our three week tour east of the Mississippi. I took both Canons on the trip. The size of the A550 made it easier to take along if we were hiking any distance but I still took several rolls of film on the Rebel 2000.

Photography will never be more than a hobby for me. It is one I enjoy tremendously. I seldom go anyplace without a camera - usually both of them. The few times I do leave them home I will invariably see something I wish I had my camera to take a picture of.

Now if I could just make myself go through all those boxes of pictures and write on the back of them where they were taken and when and who/what of and why......