How I got into Photography

Hello Steemians! Before I stepped my feet into this photography thingy, I virtually knew nothing and didn't care about it. All I knew how to do was press the shutter button on my phone, literally. Though I don't have a camera of my own yet, I've come quite a distance in the art of phone photography or "phoneography" as I'll like to call it.

About 3 years back, I was just an average guy who had little to no interests in photos. My Gallery was basically empty most of the time and I'd only have photos I downloaded or screenshots. Then one day, while I was out with some friends, they asked if I could take a shot of them. I got the phone and lazily took the picture with zero effort. They all commented saying the photo was nice, I didn't know what was so nice about it though.

Time passed, and I eventually became the go-to-guy for photos. They were always like "Anya please come take a photo of me" cause other guys didn't always do something good job. It became annoying because I always took photos that they liked but when in gets to my turn, it's either my head goes off or the picture becomes about something else and I'm just in the way. I always grumbled after such events and ranted about how I always took good photos of them. One of such persons is @jaydhee, though he has become a pro now😏.

Then one day, I was intensely soaked in boredom and had nothing to do on my phone. I used a low end phone back then and I could do almost nothing serious with it. I took my phone, opened up the camera and started tapping the screen. I noticed the focusing mechanism and compared it to that of my eye. When you look at an object close to your face, the object is in focus and the rest is blurred. I was intrigued and tried it with my phone camera, placed my thumb in front of the camera tapped on the thumb to focus on it, and took the shot. I was so happy with the discovery I made that day that immediately went outside to test my prowess😁. I found some flowers they looked all so pretty and I had never looked at them this way before. Rather than seeing them as they were, I had several images of what I could get from this flower, my imagination was going overboard.

Eventually, I went lower, focused on the closest flower and took the shot. I was satisfied with what I got and headed on to a white rose-like flower nearby and did the same thing but this time I took a few shots before I got THE ONE. I had recently downloaded the Snapseed app from the Google Play Store and had never made out time to use it. I used this opportunity to explore the app, edited the two photos and put my name on them😁. I immediately uploaded the photos online and I loved the feedback I got. It was at that moment that I knew there was more I could do with my phone. I showed the photos to my Dad when he got back from work and he liked them😊.

I kept on practicing my new-found hobby and developed my skill gradually. My social media account was always busy and full of content and I've gotten to know a lot of awesome people such as @tallbrownboi. There were countless situations where people doubted my photos were taken with my phone. With this all, I came to a conclusion that you don't need to have good equipment to be a photographer, it's a train powered by passion. There were times I almost gave up but I got back up again thanks to my good friends. I won't say I'm the best cause there are amazing people out there but I'll say I've done well in encouraging people, making them know that they can be their own photographer and any one is capable of creating masterpieces. I'm still raising funds for the "almighty" DSLR camera I've been dreaming of but it's not so easy especially when you have school to deal with. I was able to save up and get a better phone with a better camera which is responsible for she high resolution photos you see today. Here are a couple of my early photos, you may find some strange 😅.

Photography is something I've come to really like and I intend on making it a part of my life. If a lazy person like me can achieve it, you can too!

Photo were taken and edited on my Mobile Phone.

For more awesome posts, follow @anyadan!