got to start somewhere

i'm so new at this. i rarely read blogs, only the ones rebekah sends me really, let alone have my own. i really just wanted to find an easy way to get something close to my heart out in this big world to be seen. i caught the photography bug in my eleventh grade shop class with mrs. um, well, i can't remember her name. i loved the projects, getting to learn the ends and outs of a camera and learning how to develop it in the dark room and watching it come to life. years have gone by and so have a few different kinds of cameras. never really saw myself having enough pennies to get a "real" camera. there is something about the sacrifice of a parent. being one myself now i understand that you will lose to see your children gain. i have watched and listened to my dad, john, ramble on and on about camera stuff for years while i just nodded and smiled acting like i understood this foreign language. it wasn't really until garrett and i had our first child, caroline, did i rethink that maybe i could do this too. i would spend hours looking at her and any pictures anyone took of her. i wanted to capture her every breath hoping to not miss anything as she grew and changed everyday! mom's famous last words will be, "john, get the camera!!!" the first year of caroline was numbing so if it weren't for dad and his always ready camera i would have missed so much. the greatest gift he gave me was a book, a collection rather, of caroline from delivery room-and i do mean delivery room- through her first year. he never acts nervous or afraid when one of his kids picks up his camera to use it. i started playing with it and the bug bit me again. daydreaming, i would talk of one day owning a camera so i could carry on capturing caroline and our family since john has a full time job and can't be there for all the running around naked, eating a watermelon for the first time, running through the sprinkler, hiding in the kitchen cabinet shots. he said he was ready to upgrade his camera equipment and would sell me the camera and extras for what he could sell it used for. conveniently this offer was on the table when the tax refund was on it's way back into our pockets. before i knew it, i had a "real" camera and didn't know where to start. he had the original box for every piece so it was like opening it as if i bought it new. strangely i didn't want new, i wanted to hold and learn on what my mentor used. no warranty on parts but the manuel wears glasses that break at the temple and a calculator on his wrist. can't beat that. it wasn't until weeks later i realized he pulled a fast one over me. yes, we paid for the camera but he did not charge what he could have gotten for the camera, flash, CF cards, remote, filter, etc. he did what a dad does when one of his kids has an interest in something, he sets them up for success. so, now that i am typing behind tears i hope you give me a chance. watch me grow into a photographer who will one day travel to fields outside alabama allowing the good lord to see through my lens. here are just a few favorites.