Leaving Auto

First Hummingbird

When I was a child I thought my camera was a magic box that captured memories. Well maybe I wasn’t that sophisticated. I did sort of wonder how the drugstore got those images to appear. My childish brain was full of fantastical explanations.In High School I graduated to processing and printing my own film. Unfortunately as adult life took over, my camera found it’s way to the storage shelf, never to emerge again.Luckily for me the digital camera became accessible to the amateur photographer at a time when my home and work life were extremely stressful. I bought a digital camera and began hiking and taking pictures as often as I could.Walking, finding a subject, and clicking the shutter became a type of meditation for me.Taking photos helped me disconnect for the moment from the things that were so hard.All I had to do was walk and enjoy the view.

My results at that time were pretty random.I had convinced myself that those settings on my camera with the highly scientific names were way beyond my ability to comprehend. ISO? Shutterspeed? Aperture? I was getting images that I liked so I was content with auto. One day I was sitting at my desk and happened to glance out the window.There was, you guessed it, a hummingbird feeding on the pink geraniums. My camera was nearby so I grabbed it, aimed, and clicked the shutter.I didn’t have much hope of taking a great image. Hummingbirds are so small and they move so fast.When I uploaded and viewed the image you see above , I was amazed and ecstatic. I had done it! I had taken a recognizable image of a hummingbird!Right then my love of photographing birds began.

I knew that this image was not a masterpiece. However, taking that first hummingbird image made me wonder what I could do to get a better shot next time.I realized that those intimidating buttons and settings I had been avoiding might be the key to shooting better pictures. I signed up for a local photography class and learned that understanding ISO, shutterspeed, aperture were indeed the key to improving my photography. Thanks to this tiny hummingbird I was able to conquer my huge fear of those strangely named technical settings. By conquering my fear I was able to leave auto.