Photography is one of those arts that everyone thinks they excel at, thanks to the amazing cameras on cell phones nowadays. Unfortunately for those fellows, they couldn't be further from the truth. While there are several hundreds of people who do excel at taking kickass photos, most people breaking out the duck face on Instagram are not one of those people. I'm not one of those people either.

My sister got a really nice camera for Christmas a couple years back. That just goes to show you I'm not a skilled photographer, because I don't even know what the camera was. This past Christmas I got a little point-and-shoot camera for my trip to Sweden. Between those two cameras, I've found a hobby that is rather enjoyable.

Taking beautiful photographs isn't just about pointing a camera and clicking the button. So many things go into it. Lighting, settings, positionings, etc. Not to mention all the time that goes into editing after spending hours taking those photos.

The only way to really become good at something is to practice. Practice with those settings and with the lighting. And spend hours upon hours on that editing software and just maybe your pictures will begin to resemble that of someone who dedicates their entire life to taking snapshots of the world.

I've been going on two years of taking pictures whenever the urge strikes me and I still get awkward and blurry photos that I instantly delete because they hurt my eyes so much. The pictures you see in this article are the lucky shots, the ones that make me smile.

I know I'm not a master photographer. I have a book that proves it: Photography for Dummies. That book still confuses me and I haven't even made it past the gazillion of camera options with their numerious selections of settings.

I do know that I love taking really good pictures. I love staging mundane items to tell a story, and love capturing life as it happens. Taking bad pictures can be fun sometimes, but it doesn't thrill me as much as the good ones do. The ones that I'm eager to share on social media almost immediately. So I'm going to keep practicing, keep taking both bad and good pictures, capturing life. Maybe, someday, I'll move onto action shots and I'll actually know what setting works for what picture without trying every single one.

I'm still learning photography.