My P52 project

I like love taking photographs, it makes my heart happy! To be able to seal a moment in time feels magical, and to share it with others is just plain exciting . When I first got my Nikon D80 camera a little over 3 years ago, I just thought it would take awesome pictures all by itself! What I didn't realize is that owning a Nikon camera does not make you a photographer, it just makes you an owner of a Nikon. A camera is only as good as it's operator and it seemed that this operator had no idea how to take a photograph in anything other than auto mode. I was frustrated. My husband gave me a book the following Christmas that was a field guide for my camera. It might as well have been in another language. Talk like aperture, ISO and white balance was well, confusing to say the least. One morning we went for our first sunrise on the water and I had no real idea of what I was doing or how to set my camera to capture the moment as I saw it. I was very fortunate to run into another hobbyist photographer, one much more seasoned than myself. He pushed buttons and turned dials and then the sun began to rise. I had my first sunrise picture, but with no way of knowing how to repeat it the next time. It has taken many sunrises and thousands of pictures to only start to understand how to correctly expose a moment. My journey has only just begun . . . 

This brings me to the purpose of this post, Foto photo Friday. Every week on Friday I will be posting my picture of the week. It's my P52 project of a photo a week for 52 weeks and one I am doing along with others on a flickr group. I hope to meet a few friends along the way, to learn from others and become a better photographer.

"Often while traveling with a camera we arrive just as the sun slips over the horizon of a moment, too late to expose film, only time enough to expose our hearts." 

                    ~Minor White


This quote would pretty much sum up my Thursday night! As I left the house at sunset to drive to my son's basketball game, the sky was more beautiful than words can describe. I didn't have even a minute to stop and get the camera, take a picture and still get to his game on time. I wouldn't have been late, I would have missed it entirely. I wouldn't have been able to help myself as I would have wanted to stay and take in every delicious moment until I was satisfied I wouldn't miss one second more. So last night at sunset, I went to the pond in the neighborhood by mine with my fingers crossed and I was not disappointed. I had to take a family vote on the favorite since I could not decide. This was the one that got 3 out of 4 votes:

This one was second . . .

And this one got honorable mention . . .

I'm probably gonna have to cheat here just a little. I can only participate one photo a week to the flickr group, but I take so many pictures that I can't pick just one to share with everyone else. I will have a few of my favorites for the week here. And I may even occasionally need your help picking "the" picture to submit.

I also have some other projects that involve photos and jewelry . . . stay tuned as I figure those out.

Have a wonderful day! 

Kim