This week at I ♥ Faces they are taking a break from the usual contests. This week they wanted us to post some photos from when we first got interested in photography. As soon as I heard about this theme I immediately thought of a photo I took of Nora. I remember I had just started reading about composition and how important it was to “get close”. I started practicing that a bit and I was just thrilled with this photo I captured of Nora.

I look at it now and I am a little bit embarrassed The flash lighting is terrible and the photo is over-exposed in a bunch of places. I was so excited about her eyes, but now when I look at it, I don’t even think they are very sharp.

I was also really proud of these next two photos. I remember thinking that I had done such a good job on them. Now I look at them and I see so many places where I could improve.

The first one of Nora in her pumpkin costume is underexposed and out of focus. The framing on the second one is terrible–my subject’s face is in the center of the photo with a bunch of wasted space at the top. Also the lighting is not very good. Her face is in the dark and there are shadows and bright spots on her skin.

But it was a fun exercise to go back and look at my old photos. First it was fun to see how much my kids have grown and changed. But it was also fun to see how much my photography has changed.

Here are some of my more recent images.

This photo is similar to my first one of Nora. This one is outside, but I paid attention to the light so that I could get some good sparkle or “catch lights” in her eyes. This photo is properly exposed and very sharp. I also learned about white balance recently and started correcting the skin tones. This one looks so much better to me than that first one I took of Nora!

Just for fun here are a few more of my recent photos. I can see in all of them that I have learned how to “see the light”. Now when I take a photo I pay attention to how the light looks and how it will effect the photos. I watch to see that there will be light reflected in the eyes of my subjects because it really helps make the person look so much better. I have also gotten so much better at the framing and composition of my photos.

My photography journey has been a great learning experience. I have really enjoyed reading and learning. I hope to keep learning all the time and I hope my photography continues to improve.

Go check out I ♥ Faces to read about the photography journey of some other great photographers!