Get a hobby!

Although no one has demanded that I get one, I felt it's about time I actually do a get a new hobby.  I've had numerous hobbies growing up, mostly consisting of arts & crafts, but I haven't had a real hobby in about a year and I miss it.  Currently my time consists of working full-time, working out a few days a week, hanging out with my boyfriend and friends, and when I'm flying solo it's pretty much reading or watching TV (I'm not the biggest fan of the latter unless it's a show I'm a huge fan of.)  So, I decided I need to get a hobby to fill that void in my life.  Not to mention, I'm tired of spending my free time mostly just doing something around the house.

I may consider myself a home body a lot, but I really enjoy being out and about and not always being cooped up.  Although I've always known this about myself, I really realized it on vacation last week.  It's like when I was out and about, even just driving around seeing the random sights and surrounding of different towns within California, I was at my happiest on vacation.  Being stuck in my hotel room for longer than to just sleep and shower was almost hair pulling.  I'm not saying relaxing some wasn't needed and appreciated, but I much preferred enjoying life and to me that doesn't consist of watching TV or just sitting a room.

Looking back at this concept, I realized that my new hobby should be something that doesn't force me to spend more time indoors.  So, I thought about things I enjoy doing that don't involve me relying on anyone else, but that also doesn't force me to suddenly become a loner in order to enjoy my hobby.  That's when it hit me...photography!  I used to carry my camera around with me everywhere so that I wouldn't miss a moment of anything fun or exciting happening.  The problem was that many of the people I used to hangout with back in the day dreaded that I had my camera with.  It was like they didn't want moments of their lives caught on film.  If you look back at my old photo albums, I have pictures of everything from special moments (birthdays, graduations, parties, etc.) to tons of pictures of us just enjoying life together not doing anything special.  Nowadays though, it's like if it's not a brutally special occasion, I don't bother even bringing my camera along because of all those years of having friends hide from the camera caused me to assume people hate cameras.  Hell, most special occasions that I have brought my camera along to, it never even got used just to avoid what I thought would be an awkward situation for some people.  I miss having pictures galore though of just living life.  It doesn't have to be of people, hell it could be sights or cool plants or animals I come across, even interesting things I see out running errands.  I realize now that pictures don't have to only be of people in posed moments.  They can be of anything and everything.

With that realization, I decided that I want to get into photography as a hobby.  I realize that when you get heavily into it, it can be a very expensive hobby since really good cameras aren't cheap and all the accessories you need can quite pricey, but for right now, I'd be a beginner.  The camera I currently have will be fine for me to start with.  As I get more into the hobby, if I love it as much as I think I will, I can always invest in a shnazzy camera later.  For now though, my only investment into this hobby was that today I ordered off of Amazon.com a couple of those "Photography for Dummies" books.  One helps understand what digital cameras are capable of (I'm totally ignorant to everything my simple camera can do, let alone what a fancy camera can do).  The other book actually helps guide you to notice photographic moments and how to appropriately catch them with the right camera settings, then how to fix and correct pictures as needed with programs on the computer.  It was about $40 spent, but well worth learning something new.  I should have the books later this week and hopefully I can start to fill my brain with new knowledge that I look forward to learning.  I do realize that books can't teach me everything, but I'm willing to learn with trial and error doing hands on work.  Not to mention, it helps that one of my close friends is a Photographer and I'm sure she will be happy to guide me with any questions I have.

I don't plan on making this a profession since I did spend ridiculous amounts of money going to school to get my degree in Criminal Justice, but I think this will be a fun hobby that will also allow me to have memories for life in the form of a photograph.  Not to mention, I'm tired of having so many moments in my life that I regret having a picture of to be a physical memory.  I've seen some fun, awesome, and interesting things, but the only memories I have of them are whatever my brain allows me to remember.  I like the idea of being able to look at a photograph more and having that memory jogged that way.  Not to mention, pictures don't lie and they are an awesome way to have a memory remembered exactly as it really was and not as our brains morphed into being remembered.