One of My Favorite Hobbies

           Something I’ve found to be very interesting to me in recent years is photography. It was always something I had admired ever since I got an Instagram. Now of course I saw all the pictures my mom took of my brother and me when we were younger and put them into scrapbooks, but that just seemed like organized blackmail to me. It took seeing someone’s best work, something someone thought was worth posting or seeing a public influencer showing off their new jacket they got for free from some company I can’t afford. That’s what got me interested. Landscapes, portraits, product advertisements, I didn’t care. It all looked so cool to me, so I had to give it a shot.

            Now keep in mind, I was in high school and didn’t have the money to buy some huge camera with a bunch of different lenses and attachments and let’s be honest, 5 years later and still don’t have that kind of money, but back then I started with my iPhone. I had an iPhone 5s to be exact. I would go out into my town and just start taking pictures of anything I could find. As you could imagine, the shots I got weren’t the greatest, but I was having fun, so I didn’t care about my content. I was the only one that saw it anyway.

            The world of creativity was wide open to me. I was so happy that I could be just like these famous people that I saw on social media and taking pictures of my own. Fast forward through 2-3 years of trial and error and blurry pictures from my iPhone 5s, I finally got an upgrade. I was so excited to go to the AT&T store to finally get a new phone and I knew exactly what I was getting; the iPhone 7 plus. Pretty much the only reason I wanted to get this phone was because it was the phone that introduced portrait mode. Portrait mode turned my phone into a professional camera. It blurred the background, so I didn’t have to edit anything and it got close-up, high definition shots of whatever I pointed it at. This brought a whole new level of excitement to my life and love of photography. And don’t even get me started on the iPhone X. About 2 months ago I was able to get my hands on the iPhone X and It’s blown my mind ever since I got it.

            For Christmas, my parents bought me a camera and I honestly think I’ve used it every day since I got it. It’s a different feeling than shooting on my phone. It gives my amateur hobby a professional feel. Now I go walk around campus and drive to different locations around the area just to take pictures with my new camera. It gives me a break from school work and gets me out of my room for as long as I can stand to be out. Or at least until I have to get back to do my homework.

            Being in front of the camera is awesome and makes you feel like the center of attention but being behind the camera and creating something is one of the best feelings to me. I love creating new perspectives and views on different subjects and items. It gives me a way to express my creativity and share it with other people. There are endless possibilities when it comes to photography and the only limit you have on creating is your own mind.