As I was making my plans for the summer break, I decided to add “try to develop a new hobby” to my agenda. I have had a camera since I was 6 years old and have always enjoyed taking photographs. I was given a hand-me-down Canon EOS Rebel last year, but hadn’t had time to learn how to use it fully so I continued to uses my phone over the camera for taking pictures. This was designated as the summer I would learn to use it, but it has become a segue to understanding life better.

How to master the plan I set out to complete was the question; I couldn’t afford to take a photography class through the local community college so I decided to get out books at the library on the topic. To my great fortune the librarian who I thought would steer me in the direction of a helpful book actually told me about four free classes they were offering on digital photography. Score! The classes were taught by a retired photographer whose work was used in magazines, and now he displays and sells his photos in community art shows.

It has been interesting and fun developing my skills at taking better pictures and understanding that patience is a virtue in this craft. Waiting for just the right moment to snap a picture usually means missing the shot all together. It is in this venture that I have learned how photography parallels life. If you want to wait until the “perfect” conditions to take that opportunity, it will be too late. The same type of lesson came through when I realized that when I take a photo from my perspective, and what is so obvious to me is so obscure to someone else.

Perspective defines everything, whether it is in regard to feelings, necessities or the way someone or something appears. Feelings affect perspective. The best photographers allow us to view their work with their perception, just as in life we use communication to bring others to our understanding of a topic.

The master behind the lens is like the skilled people person, and developing skills in either comes through experience. I have really enjoyed learning to work from a more global perspective, and I see how it will enhance my communication in other areas. It is interesting in life to find the things we learn along the way to learning something else.

I began my summer with the intent of developing a hobby and the desire to fine tune some amateur skills. I am doing that, but I also found how much a hobby can enhance my life in areas I was unaware needed growth. I have kept in touch with the photographer who taught the classes I took, and have done some local traveling to see his work. He has helped me to see that what I consider “just a hobby” at this point could grow into a side job or more.