Unperfect (Not Imperfect - You'll See!)

I thought I would write about photography skills today. Or rather, my lack thereof. I have a few friends who have told me that they would love to scrapbook, but they feel as though the pictures they take are not 'scrapbook worthy'. Well, why aren't they?

I am not a photographer. I have never been, nor will ever be a photographer. I have a regular old point and shoot style digital camera, and I couldn't tell you anything about any of the settings. I turn the dial to "Auto" and let the camera take care of things. I like to read websites about photography, but I really don't understand a lot of the terms and I'm unsure if my camera has the abilities to do what they're talking about anyway.

When I first started scrapbooking, I was always a little embarrassed of my photos. They were just snapshots. Sometimes blurry, very often red eyed snapshots. (I still had a film camera at the time) Whenever I looked through a scrapbooking magazine, all of the layouts contained beautiful, professional quality photographs! I felt like my pictures weren't worth scrapbooking. I told myself, "Your layouts could never look like the ones in the magazines!"

I liked to crop my pictures, which helped with centering and with removing objects that were included in the shot in error. I even used one of those red eye remover markers a bit!

Since I have gone digital it is so much easier to tidy up pictures before they are printed. Red eye is removed with the click of a button, and it is so easy to crop a picture! Since I have been using Photoshop, I have even learned how to blur the background so it is less distracting and how to adjust colours! My pictures are still just snapshots and still very amature compared to the ones in the magazines. But you know what? I don't care.

I can't remember where I heard or read this, but it basically went something like: You are not scrapbooking pictures, you are recording memories. This isn't something you are doing to win a contest, it is something you are doing for yourself and your family. Fifty or a hundred years from now, nobody will care that the picture is blurry or off center or that the colour isn't perfect. They will appreciate the fact that you did it at all.

So please don't let your pictures hold you back. If you think you would enjoy scrapbooking, then go ahead!

Enjoy this page! It is simply a photo my daughter took of herself and a little verse I found on line. I loved the "I'm so cool" expression on her face so much, that I wanted to scrap the picture even though it was "Unperfect!"