Tuesday, January 10, 2012

The Greens of Summer

The greens of summer? But you're thinking it's winter, right?

As I am typing I can't seem to get the beloved song lyrics of this song out of my head, "I've got a Nikon camera, I love to take a photograph, so Mama don't take my Kodachrome away." I can't say my Kodachrome was taken away, but my Nikon camera was. Well, not really. It just has retired to the back shelf for now because this past weekend I purchased a new Canon Camera! Don't worry, I won't petition to change the song lyrics or do away with my Nikon camera.

I grew up with quite a few cameras, mainly inspired by my Dad's love of photography. My first camera ever was a simple point and shoot camera that took 110 film rolls. I took that camera on some pretty amazing trips to Disneyland and Arizona. I also took pictures of my animals, including my cat and birds, my Christmas presents, and my childhood home. Yeah, I was 10.

I took several photography classes in school growing up. They always gave me a loaner camera. And yes, it had film. I even learned how to roll film on a film spool and develop prints on photo paper with enlargers in the dark room. Sometimes I felt like Ansel Adams. One of my best ever cameras was one I made myself in middle school. It was called a pinhole camera and it was made of cardboard and had just that, a pinhole in the front. When I opened the small cardboard flap I made to cover the hole, light would stream in and make an image on a small strip of photo paper I taped inside. I would hold the camera very still for several minutes then close the flap and run back inside to see what I had created. It looked like a masterpiece, like the original photographs first taken.

It wasn't until college that I was gifted with my first SLR camera. It was a Nikon N90. That camera traveled with me on hikes, to the east coast for an internship in Massachusetts, and captured memories of family and friends. As of late, I've been taking photos with one of the original digital SLR cameras to come on the market (in the early 2000's), a Nikon D100. That camera blessed me with many endearing photographs, some I will cherish forever and are absolutely irreplaceable.

And there I stood at the store, looking over this new Canon Camera and I decided on it. I splurged, but I did it on purpose. With my lifelong love of photography surrounding me and an upcoming trip of a lifetime to South America approaching (the last one for a while anyway), I had to do it. I am really excited to share with you some of the first images I will create and share with you my experiences as I travel. Like I did before in recent trips to Chile and Argentina, I am going to blog about my experience and I hope you will join me! I arrive in Valdivia, Chile this Sunday. I will spend a week on the coast, travel across the Andes Mountains (by bus) and stay in Argentina for two weeks before I make my way back to Chile and fly home.

My first goal: To capture the nice bright colors and the greens of summer so you will think all the world's a sunny day!

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