Photography Class Day 1

Well, I did it!  
I got up on time.  
I got dressed.  
I remembered my camera.
I found the school (the GPS helped with that.)  
And I walked into the classroom.  

The instructor is a beautiful, 57-year-old, professional fine arts photographer, who dresses in funky, artsy clothes and has long dreadlocks that hung down from the bright orange scarf she had wrapped around her head.  She talks so fast and has more experience with cameras and photography than the whole class combined.  There are 18 of us in this class, and we're divided into Canon and Nikon users.  (I'm on the Nikon side.)  This morning we had to introduce ourselves and declare a photography subject we want to shoot.  (That's the official word, by the way.  I no longer "take pictures."  I now "shoot" stuff.)  Apparently if you just say that you want to shoot everything, you end up not taking very good pictures...um...I mean, getting very good shots.  So, after being completely intimidated by all the people who declared themselves environmental photographers, sports photographers, photo journalists, and "in the moment" photographers (what in the heck is that anyway??) I realized that it is completely respectable to want to take pictures of my four babies so that I can remember all the things that seem to slip out of my memory so quickly.  I'm a mom who happens to love to blog and scrapbook, and that's totally enough.  And that's exactly what I said (well, not the "enough" part, but the rest.)  

I was a little lost today.  And A LOT intimidated by the rest of the class.   But...I LOVED being in a classroom again.  My head was totally spinning as I walked into that room and sat down.  I LOVE learning.  I LOVE taking notes.  I even LOVE having homework, which I definitely already have.  I don't love the feeling that everyone knows WAY more than I do, but that's probably because I haven't been in a classroom in about 20 years.  Maybe this little photography class will be the confidence-building catalyst I need to LAUNCH me into other classrooms.  I'm SO excited about the next 6 weeks and the amazing things I'll be able to do with my camera.  I'll post all of my homework so you can see it, too!  Wish me luck!