When my mom got her first job after high school graduation, she bought herself a Brownie camera. Many years later, when I was roughly the same age, she gave it to me. She had saved its yellow, black, and white box, and inside the box was a large flash attachment with a blue bulb and an empty box of film. The roll of film was actually in the camera, but we didn’t realize it. We opened it, exposing the film and destroying the photos she had taken decades earlier. Ugh.
What was on that film? Maybe it was pictures of her sister or friends from work or scenes from downtown where her office was. Or maybe it was snapshots of her sweetheart and future husband—my dad. I wish we knew.
Now, other than documenting my daughter’s childhood, I never showed much of an interest in photography. My daughter, on the other hand, went on to take an AP Art class in high school with a concentration in it. My husband enjoys taking photos too. For a long time, I was content to let them be the photographers in our family.
But then, a once-in-a-lifetime trip to a beautiful place stirred me to document in photos and words the beauty I saw. That stirring eventually led to the start of Glimsen.
I am not a professional. I don’t own a DSLR; I just use my iPhone. I want to capture what I see in its natural state, rather than using filters or special effects. I want to share beauty as it is so you will be inspired to look for the beauty around you too.
Monday, August 19th, is National Photography Day. In honor of that, here are three ideas for you:
Let me encourage you to take a photo of beauty you see next week and share it with me on the Glimsen Facebook page or on Instagram, using #glimsenshare.
On instagram, check out two of my favorite professional photographers who inspire me every day: @bonniebrunophotography and @ryanmaum. I hope to feature them here on Glimsen soon.
If you’d like to see some other professional work, check out the winners of last year’s National Geographic Photo Contest.
Don’t let the professionals intimidate you; let them inspire you. And leave me a comment below and tell me if you put any of these ideas into practice. I’d love to know!
Photos courtesy of Lubo Minor and Kevin Crosby | Unsplash
Are you receiving my blog posts by email? Here at Glimsen, I share glimpses of the beauty around us in nature, the arts, and the unexpected. If you would like to see more, click here to sign up to receive my posts and updates by email, and you'll also get this free printable gift of beauty (below) in your inbox. I look forward to connecting with you!
