Universal

Photography is Universal.

It is a passion that has no borders.
It is a passion that captures love and beauty.
Photography is an art that is timeless.
It will always be......Universal.

This is Morekka one of my good friends. Last night, she called me on the phone and the main topic was photography. She and her husband just bought a new Nikon camera. She has always used a point and shoot and was feeling a little intimidated about her new purchase. She wondered if I had any tips or advice for her. Well I did. And it was simple. I told her that she just needed to get outside and use it. She needed to let her creative instincts take over and really begin to see all of her surroundings in a new and fresh way. She needed to put the "mechanics" aside and just concentrate on the art.

When I was surprised with my brand new fancy camera in August, I had the same feeling of intimidation. I held my Nikon in my hands and thought, "Wow, I sure wish that I knew what all of these buttons did". I stayed up almost the entire night reading my manual from front to back. I learned a lot of information that night and by the next morning, had really only retained a small portion of it. We were flying out that day, so I packed my camera and manuals and vowed to use it every single day while we were on our vacation. And I did use it every single day. I constantly worked on my automatic settings and began to realize that even in auto mode, I still had quite a lot of control over the outcome of my photo. I realized that I didn't need to be intimidated of my new camera because with a whole lot of trial and error, I was capturing nice shots and able to delete the terrible ones immediately!

I think that there are many different levels to photography and there is always going to be room for growth and continuous learning. But in order to get there, you have to have the passion for the art. The electric charge that you feel when you have captured something in your lens as beautifully as you had captured it in your mind. Photography has been one of my greatest challenges. Until I take a series of classes and really learn the "mechanics" of my camera, I am just going to have to take my own advice and just continue to shoot. Continue to express myself and continue to see the world through different angles and different perspectives.

Photography is a shared passion. It is a shared art. It is a shared skill.

This is why Photography will always be Universal.