Friday
Dec032010
2010 Gratitude #1: My Camera
Friday, December 3, 2010 at 11:42AM
2010 has been a tough year. At its end, I feel like I have been stretched and expanded and challenged in profound ways, and I'm pretty emotionally exhausted.
Yet it has offered enormous gifts, as does any difficult year (2003? I'm talking about you). With the last 28 days of the year, I want to chronicle my daily gratitude for the 2010 gems I can take with me into 2011.
#1: My Camera
Last Christmas, Chris and our dear friend Mandy coordinated a surprise gift for me -- her storied old Canon Rebel 300D and a 100mm macro lens. Mandy started using the camera around 2003 or 2004 for her gorgeous and distinctive photography. She also used the camera to take photos of our lives when Chris and I were newly in love. She used it to take engagement photos of me and Chris in Central Park in 2005. She used it to take photos on our wedding day.
And now, it's in my hands. 2010 was my first year experimenting with digital SLR photography, and I fell in love immediately. I'm so grateful for the way I was introduced to this craft, and for the stories and love that travel with me when I use this camera.
Throughout this hard, growing year, I've taken comfort in documenting my life with this camera. Even when the things I was documenting were sad, filled with loss and grief, it felt good to mark them, to pay them respect by remembering them. This camera gave me the gift of Project 365, which has challenged me to take at least one photo every day. (I'm up-to-date, though I'm about 40 days behind in processing them.)
Thank you, Mandy and Chris, for this enormous gift of a new way to see the world.
Yet it has offered enormous gifts, as does any difficult year (2003? I'm talking about you). With the last 28 days of the year, I want to chronicle my daily gratitude for the 2010 gems I can take with me into 2011.
#1: My Camera
Last Christmas, Chris and our dear friend Mandy coordinated a surprise gift for me -- her storied old Canon Rebel 300D and a 100mm macro lens. Mandy started using the camera around 2003 or 2004 for her gorgeous and distinctive photography. She also used the camera to take photos of our lives when Chris and I were newly in love. She used it to take engagement photos of me and Chris in Central Park in 2005. She used it to take photos on our wedding day.
And now, it's in my hands. 2010 was my first year experimenting with digital SLR photography, and I fell in love immediately. I'm so grateful for the way I was introduced to this craft, and for the stories and love that travel with me when I use this camera.
Throughout this hard, growing year, I've taken comfort in documenting my life with this camera. Even when the things I was documenting were sad, filled with loss and grief, it felt good to mark them, to pay them respect by remembering them. This camera gave me the gift of Project 365, which has challenged me to take at least one photo every day. (I'm up-to-date, though I'm about 40 days behind in processing them.)
Thank you, Mandy and Chris, for this enormous gift of a new way to see the world.
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