Being the visual person that I am, I always like to add a picture to my random ramblings. I feel like it helps to set the tone of where my mind is as I write…sort of a way for me to take you there with me. I tend to think that if it speaks to me, then it will speak to whoever reads my ramblings.

Several weeks ago I was on one of my quests for the perfect picture with a specific verse for something I had written. As I was looking through the photos online, something inside of me said, “Hey, I could do this.” I started thinking about pictures we had taken over the past couple of years on camping trips, so I went and grabbed my cameras.

I love photography and used to dream of taking amazing pictures, but I don’t seem to have that ability to capture a moment as some can. I’ve invested in some really nice cameras, figuring that if I had something really good, I’d become an awesome photographer. (I laugh to myself, because that’s how my brain can think sometimes. Sort of like buying the nice treadmill and somehow thinking I’d be running marathons…I’m not.)

You will almost always find my cameras set to the “auto” function on the dial. I’ve downloaded tons of cheat sheets and tips on Pinterest about my specific cameras, but I’m either too clueless or just too lazy to figure it out – and when I have tried, I’ve only served to mess things up by changing something that I can’t remember how to put back the way it was. So…auto function works for me!

When I pulled out my cameras, I came across many photo cards. Eureka! I was excited. I poured through all of the family pictures and then found the mother-lode…pictures of our trips to the redwoods, the west coast, and little lakes we found hidden in the hills. All, taken with the auto focus. *wink*

So began the creation of putting words with my pictures. I’m no longer feeling inadequate over the fact that I can’t tweak all of the settings on my cameras and take photos like a few of my friends can (may God bless them – as well as the creator of Instagram – and all of those other built-in-filters photography apps!). 

Photography has an entirely new meaning for me… 

While I’m not the artist whose photograph can speak a thousand words…
I’m the artist who can speak a thousand words into a photograph.
What a defining moment!

Just give me “auto focus” and I’m a happy girl!

Hope you enjoy some of my creations….