I thought that today I’d share with you one of my newest passions: photography. While I’ve always been a bit of a shutterbug with a traditional camera, I’ve never really paid much attention to the details. I’ve always been a point-and-shoot kinda gal.

Until January, that is. Feeling burnt out because I’d taken my coupon hobby and turned it into a job, I’d set off in search of a new hobby. I have been drawn to the beautiful visuals of Pinterest, and I thought photography would be a good place to start. If nothing else, I would improve my blog photos, right?

I had no idea how deeply I’d fall in love with my camera! The world just looks different from behind the lens. New possibilities open up when I look through my viewfinder. I never know what beautiful sight I’m going to find! I didn’t pick up any kind of fancy camera–I just couldn’t invest the kind of money a DSLR will require until I am sure I really love this, long-term. So I picked up something right in between–the Nikon P500–and everything changed. I turned off the auto mode, took a couple of classes, and have hardly put the camera down since.

I’m currently enrolled in an online photography course called Elevate the Ordinary designed to help me improve my eye and understand some of the more intermediate concepts of photo composition. One of our assignments is to go on regular photowalks. I thought that as I go through the class, that I’d share with you some of the resulting photos. This first collection is from the Cincinnati Butterfly Show, taken a couple of weeks ago. I’m not sure who had more fun chasing the butterflies–my kids or myself. It was a lot of fun! If you’d like to see any of these photos in a larger format, I have added them to my Flikr gallery as well. I still have a lot to learn–I’m not a professional photographer by any means. But I have learned a lot plus had tons of fun, and that was the goal!