Revitalizing the hobby of images captured by camera

I took photography in high school and loved it...I've always been into photography and the seeing emotions of people and character of places on walls and in picture books. I even had a stellar camera for a while, but sadly it got jacked up and hasn't been worth fixing since film cameras are obsolete and expensive to shoot with. So, for the longest time, I've been content capturing trips and shots of beautiful girls named Kristine Hunton with the point and shoot digital cameras I've had. In a nutshell, they take good pictures in bright conditions and don't do much else. I had learned to be creative in dim lighting and have taken pictures that I enjoy, but hadn't considered myself a photographer since the days of letter jackets and pizza faces...

all this changed a few weeks ago....with the addition of Adler on the way, my Dad hooked (and I mean HOOKED) me up with a new DSLR camera and a video mini-DV for the price of sending lots of images and movies to them of their Grandson. So, now I'm reacquainted with my High school fervor for photography and learning about the new toy (Nikon D80) so that I can hopefully take good pics. Here are a couple examples of stuff taken in the first few weeks...and you can see more at flickr.com/photos/stevohunton





I think the coolest part of being reintroduced to a hobby like photography isn't so much the images and much needed stretching of the creative side of my brain, but the new eyes I have for scenery, beauty and creation. What used to be a boring drive to work beginning with a winding tree covered road is now an exciting drive where I lean forward past my steering wheel because I see something that I think would look great inside a camera and try to remember this spot and time of day so that I can come back to it and capture it. There's really a lot out there, if you just look up and notice...it's just a matter of forgetting that I'm headed somewhere to sit in a grey box for 10 hours...