By: Olivia Collins

When I was ten years old, my mom got me a coolpix camera for my birthday; this was my first time I experienced taking pictures. My first few pictures were horrible, as there was an over abundance of light in the photo, my subject was not the focal point of the picture, and my camera pictures were very fuzzy. However, as I began to take more photos daily, their quality greatly improved. It was not until last Christmas when my mom gave me a professional Nikon Camera that I realized I could do everything photography-related manually. I fooled around with the shutter speed, aperture, and ISO. This camera was another learning curve in which my pictures became increasingly better as I practiced. 

When I went to manual mode and did not depend on the auto function, I had more freedom of creativity. Most times, my pictures that had the right lighting and spacing was taken from a different angle than the one I originally thought of. Photography made me realize how everything looks different through the eyes and perspectives of others. For one person, a flower might look like just a normal thing you see everyday, but for others, it might be the object one stops and takes a picture of. There are more people and beauty in the world around us then our eyes see at first glance; there is more to a person’s soul than what one may find on the outside.

Photography is an art, but also a great outlet for creativity and insight into the world around us.