a year with my camera?

time for a new challenge ... i have a wonderful camera, far better than i really need - it takes lovely, fully automatic pics which some how manage to overcome poor lighting and my shaky hands - but i feel it is time to take the leap and learn how to use some it's potential more effectively

so i 've signed up for A Year With My Camera in the hope that i manage to see it through

i thought it might help me if i took a few moments to considere what i hope to achieve and why ......

why do i take photos?

• to record images which interest me
• to capture images of places i have been to and things i have seen, so that i can look at them at leisure
• as part of my working process in my stitching, recording progress, trying out ideas
• to manipulate and incorporate images into my stitching

so, mostly i'm taking pictures for functional reasons, rather than to create beautiful photographic images .....i think

what do i hope to achieve?

this is less clear to me - i know i'm not looking to create beautiful images for posterity or decoration or to be viewed by others  - so i guess it's more about being able to capture what i want to record accurately so that minimal editing is required post shot - there are time when i know i could do that better if i could use the camera's manual features effectively 

looking at the first challenge the course sets: Make 30 Photos, i wish i had remembered to sign up earlier, to give myself more time to work through it - as it is i feel that i have done a lot of that over the years and could draw on my archive for examples, with a few exceptions - the exeptions tend to be types of shot or subject i don't tackle, for various reasons - so i'm wondering if it might be more useful for me to focus on those and "fill the gaps" - those would be 

• black & white
• motion and movement
• back lighting e.g. for silhouette
• light & shade
• depth 
• portrait

meanwhile ...... an unedited shot i'm quite pleased with