My Unexpected Everyday Day 31 | Lessons Learned from Click It Up A Notch

I am so thankful for these 30 Days. I’m thankful for Courtney at Click It Up A Notch. I’m thankful for her ebook, The Unexpected Everyday. I’m thankful for the opportunity to learn and the time and space to develop. And I’m so thankful for my family, my children, and the ability to see how truly blessed I am.

That’s a huge part of what these 30 Days has been about. I’ve been shooting a lot of photos and learning about my camera and the settings, but I feel like what I’ve re-seen through my lens is what is most important.

But here are some Lessons Learned from The Unexpected Everyday:

• I feel so much more comfortable with my camera in my hands. I won’t say I know how to use all of the features or what every switch or button does, but I know more about the relationship of ISO, f-stops, and shutter speed. I’m starting to understand metering. But understanding the basic workings of my camera feels so monumental.
• I can get the great shot. I can take beautiful photos. Maybe they aren’t the majority of what I shoot, but when I slow down and think carefully about what I’m shooting, I can take an amazing photo that I want to send to my mother right away and then frame on the living room wall. And all of this is because I’m taking enough photos.
• The photography isn’t just for me. My kids love it too. They are happy to pose, happy to smile or stare or run fast past me. Photography has become something that we can share, and I look forward to sharing it more with them, and maybe teaching them how to shoot beautiful photos for themselves.
• I have to take my DSLR with me, where ever I go. I just have to. It’s the only way I will for sure get the shots I want, and it’s the only way to truly learn how to be proficient at photography.
• Photography equipment doesn’t have to be expensive. It can be simple and easily made, like this DIY camera beanbag that can replace a tripod.
• My kids are awesome. It’s not that I’d forgotten, but this challenge was a reminder of the little things that make them so fabulous, so unique, so mine. When things something get busy and hard, as life can be, those simple, perfect, and beautiful moments can get lost. I’ve found them all over again, and that is a beautiful thing.

I have big plans for my photos. I’m going to choose my favorite 10 or so to hang in my hallway where I started a gallery wall several years ago and never finished. But once I have the frames and plans in place, I can swap out photos at least once a year. I hope to keep up with my kids and the way they grow that way. And photos are meant to be displayed and enjoyed off the computer.

Tell me, what have you learned this month? I want to hear all about it.