pictures of you

I have recently gotten the photo bug. Well, I always loved taking pictures. And with my pretty nifty 8.1 Mega-Pixel Sony Cyber-Shot, I have been able to point and shoot at pretty much anything and get a good snapshot of the moment. On my travels, with friends and by my lonesome, I have been a self-taught photographer. I love the angles, the depth, the asymmetry in a glimpse. But when I was asked to help my friend snap her in her Mom's vintage Versace and Escada ball gowns from the 80's, my little digital dream didn't do the deed just how I would've liked. Not until I discovered the simple edit function on my Mac and played around for a couple hours with the shots did I realize that I really love telling stories with photos. 

My last big story was my China trip - over 500 photos that captured the magic so intensely, only could anyone else but me feel that emotion portrayed? One of my friends who is a great photographer, and is Chinese, shared with me that I should enter some of the photos in contests. And from that moment on, I was hooked. 

I need a good camera - I mean a really good one. The kind that takes multiple frames per second. The kind where you capture the slightest mood shift, and it makes all the difference. I wish I had one of those when I did the photo shoot of "the dresses". But back to the magic of a little color saturation and enhancement with the iPhoto edit  -  I literally felt like a photo genius. I don't know much about photoshopping, although I know I must learn at some point. I just wonder what I could do with a professional camera and a little color editing? 

After 2 hours and 30 photos later, I put together a story about "the dresses" that I wish I could publish. That's how proud I was of figuring out how to edit. And the very last photo took me less than 1 minute to manipulate and it was done -- and it was perfect.

My friend recently updated her facebook profile picture with this one and had a flood of comments on where this shot was taken, how, etc... and how it looks like it's an ad in a fashion magazine. I am pretty proud of it, if I must say so, and it has definitely given me the inspiration to take this hobby to the next level.