There is something beautiful and almost magical about pictures. The ability to capture a single moment in time and be able to hold on to it is breathtaking. Speaking as a person who is always behind the camera, I personally know the feeling of capturing a moment and looking back on it later. That feeling of the lightbulb going off when you see something so magnificent that you start going through all these lenses and angles in your head trying to figure out the best way to capture it. You will even go the lengths like climbing a tree or laying on the ground just to get that perfect shot.

Another thing I love about pictures is that you can tell a lot about a person based on the pictures they have hanging in their home, or even the ones they've taken on their camera. If many of them are of people, then one can conclude that they find them interesting. A hobby of theirs is to people watch; watch their habits, the way they move, talk. I find this to be very common in larger cities. Then there are people, like me, who have many pictures of landmarks and places they've been. This is an interest so not to forget how beautiful that sunset looked, or how majestic that building looked on that day.

On the downside of taking pictures, they never seem show up quite the way we remember them in person. Over the years I have been taking pictures, I have found that I get very disappointed with the way some of them turn out. They never seem to capture the same essence of the place like the eyes do when seeing it in person. This is why I am thankful computers have the editing tools. This way we can bring out the colors that pop and stand out to the eye. We can enhance the details that one can only see up close and in person. With this tool, although its not perfect, its the closest we can get to bringing the real image back to life.

One thing that I have heard many people complain about in pictures are the people. Some seem to think that when there are other people in the picture that it is then ruined. I disagree. I think that it adds life to a picture. When looking at a picture of a beach or other places where there are always people, if it seems deserted in a picture, it looks dead. Many pictures are made better when people are added in. This brings the picture to life and makes it like you are really there in that specific moment.

Another technique I like to do, and admire those who can really pull it off, is when you can take a picture of absolutely nothing. If you can take a picture of nothing and make it something, something beautiful, then you have really made magic happen. To take an ordinary setting, like an alleyway, they sky, a field, or a road, and make it into something that people just want to stare at and soak up every little detail about it; that is something to strive for.

I hope that one day my pictures will hang on people's walls; that the moments I have captured will live on and be shared for many years with many people. I hope to one day capture so much beauty in a still frame and someone say that I have the gift of magic. That gift to take nothing and make it beautiful. I hope to bring beauty into the lives of others.