I have been interested in photography for a long time and when my children were younger they were my main models. They were so patient while I fiddled around in manual mode and learnt how to adjust the settings. However, they grew up and there didn't seem to be so many opportunities to take photos. Maybe life just got that bit busier. Not only that, I eventually found myself with a fully automatic DSLR. It didn't take long to forget how to use manual settings, especially when the camera mainly came out on holidays, and it was oh so easy to just set the camera on automatic and press the shutter.
Over the past two years I have been fortunate to have purchased some wonderful lenses to go along with my new Canon 7D camera body. When I received my macro lens for Christmas (I love my macro lens) I realised that I wasn't doing the camera, the lenses, or me, any justice by just using it as a 'point and shoot' camera. I needed to learn more about taking photos; how to use the camera and lenses to their maximum potential; to do more than pull the camera out occasionally. I had heard about these 365 challenges where the idea is to take a photo a day and I started looking around the internet to find one that I thought would work for me. I came across the Capture Your 365 and decided that was the one I was going to do.
So these lenses have been the inspiration to take my daily photo. They have given me a reason to push and challenge myself to take a photo - even on the days when I haven't been motivated by the prompt, or haven't felt particuarly creative. To take a photo when I was pushing for time, tired, or just really not interested. I've started to play around with post-editing and learning more about Lightroom. It has been a wonderful journey to date and I have appreciated the comments I've received on the CY365 gallery. It's been a real buzz when a photo of mine has been selected as one of the photos of the week. I have been inspired by the wonderful work put up by others and look forward to continuing this project.