Let’s hope for an improvement in my pictures in the near future on this blog!

I have always wanted to get better at photography and now more than ever is the time to do so! The books are in libraries to be found, there are YouTube for tutorials, and the interest is very much here so we are finally getting to it. Since I want to take more and more good care of this space of mine on the Internet, it is only fair to improve my photography skills for your eyes. Moreover I have a nice camera – the Canon M5 mark ii, that I really want to master. Manual mode, here I come!

I watched a lot of videos on the basics of photography on YouTube, such as ISO, shutter speed, aperture, etc. but realised that I needed something more ‘scholastic’ to start with. The videos are great and I will rewatch the ones I saved in the near future, but I do learn faster by reading. So off to the library I went, to get a good starter book for free (thank you libraries for your existence!).

I first borrowed two books Photography for dummies (as one does) and J’apprends la photographie by Nicolas Croce (a book to learn the basics of photography with exercises) but although it was informative and very thorough, I could not really get into it and only read the first 10 or 20 pages before getting it back.

The second book however combined lessons and exercises, which I found better to use to learn photography. They are 25 exercises in total and I am only on the first 3 but I feel good about it, and already know how to hold my camera to avoid blurs, and to focus on one subject while keeping the background blurry in manual mode. So far so good then!

In this exercise I had to place an object on the bottom left corner and focus on it while keeping the background blurry and then the other way round. I think I didn’t do so bad with cute little fuzzy bear here, no?

After reading this book, my next step will be to practice practice practice, photographing nature, books, family, friends, and really figure out what my style is. That is also where inspiration helps. I have a private Pinterest board dedicated to photography, with all the pictures that really speaks to me in terms of subjects, editing and overall feel. I also look up the editorials in fashion magazines for inspiration and content creators with visuals I find interesting such as Onyi Moss aka Mossonyi, Yossy Akin, Eleonore Quag and Alex Harrison Magrath for Inthefrow.

Who knows, by the end of this journey, I might be able to call myself a photographer and take on gigs for fashion photoshoots, events and family portraits. A girl can dream…

What do you think of my photos so far? I know it’s not much haha but I feel like I’m onto something, no? Please let me know in the comments!