Hope and a step…

I started in photography as a complete novice with only a desire to capture the beautiful images I was mostly seeing on the regular bicycle rides I took with my husband on amazing woodland trails.

Being the supportive hubby that he is, he finally convinced me to buy a “decent” camera to learn the art. I fudged and bought a “bridge” camera, which is a real camera wannabe, with better capabilities than a point and shoot…none of which I understood. I definitely had no idea of the difference between a DSLR, Mirrorless, Bridge or point and shoot at the time.

So I started watching YouTube tutorials to learn about the camera I bought, and tried to take some spectacular photos…with maybe a little success…

Then one of the “real'“ photographers I was following sent out an invitation to go on a photography workshop with him to one of many different locations. All exotic and all expensive, and the thought was both intimidating and exhilarating!! “I couldn’t go with a bunch of real photographers regardless of the invite stating it was for all levels of experience. I couldn’t spend that kind of money to learn a hobby I had no idea if I would continue to pursue!” Which is literally what I said to my husband who just listened patiently.

Then enters my wonderful daughter-in-law, after I finally confessed to her my desire to go on the Ireland trip, she looked me in the eye, and kindly said two things that stuck:

1) “Mom, you cannot afford NOT to go, it is an incredible opportunity to learn and you can financially afford to go”, and

2) “You are not getting any younger (said with much gentleness!!), so why wait until you are too old to enjoy it!”

Of course, my husband agreed with her, so off we went to Ireland with my little Bridge camera in hand, minimal knowledge of how to even make it work, and a very bad case of Imposter Syndrome for even thinking I could interact with real photographers and not embarrass myself!

It was life changing…