mostly i was getting tired of having my very old last journal on my front page, so this is a rather bs entry.

it's been cool and rainy (so unlike the winters i'm used to in spokane, where it's still snowing, even halfway through march) but because i don't really know the area and my favorite scenery to photograph is wilderness (forests, rivers, state parks, etc) i haven't had much opportunity to use my camera.

i did have a highly successful trip to the beach, my first since i've really gotten into photography.

i'm looking forward to spring, and especially summer so i can wander the area and find nooks and crannies for potentially great pictures. looking around deviantart, i feel now more than ever that i really need to step it up as a photographer, if i ever want anything to come of it. the pictures i've been taking are good, some of them really good, but not striking, or awe-inspiring, or great. and only a small percentage of that blame can be put on my camera. i've heard time and time again, you don't need a great camera to take great pictures.

i think a better understanding of my camera would help, though, and in the summer, when richard and i were going to take our math classes together, i think i'll enroll in a digital photography class, also. i took half of one in high school, but i missed most of the basic lessons in f-stop, ISO, and the other elements of photography.

i want to stand out as a photographer, and be able to better capture the view of what i see in my head with my camera. my camera can get roughly what i want, but i know unless i really intimately know my camera, i won't be able to get the picture to turn out exactly as i imagine it. and if i can't do that, i can't truly show the world my creativity and vision.

i've been working on making my pictures less average, though. we'll see where it takes me.