16 year old amateur photographer and how photography changed my perspective on everything

Photography is one of, if not the most adventurous mediums of art there is. With just a camera and the world around you; there is so much possibility and potential.

I was 14 when I started taking pictures on a small Sony compact in my own backyard. I found incredible enjoyment out of sitting there, sitting and observing, thinking how I could use everything and anything around me to compose a decent photograph. I started taking it everywhere I go just to discover even more possibilities, and eventually I realized just how wonderful it is that this hobby can make you so incredibly outgoing. I wasn't even really that great at it, but I loved pushing myself to be creative and thinking outside of the box, especially when it seemed like there wasn't even anything to photograph.

Photography forces you to be creative and innovative, it teaches you how to serve the world around you. How can I use this pathway to naturally lead the viewers eyes into my subject, or how can I frame this pattern of rocks to create a truly balanced photo? Another beautiful thing about photography is that you don't even have to be great at it to achieve sincere enjoyment out of it.

Eventually my wonderful mother was gracious enough to gift me a Nikon D5500, an APS-C DSLR. So I'm assuming I have atleast some photographers reading this who know what that all means, but for those who don't; all that was is just fancy terms for something that can be put very simply, APS-C is just a fancy term for a cropped camera sensor, smaller than a full-frame camera sensor. And DSLR is the type of camera itself: 'digital single-lens reflex'

All of the photos you see below have been accumulated from my two years of doing photography as a hobby and I hope you like at-least some of them, I'll try my best to elaborate on some of these photos and also provide the specs and settings of my cameras. Some of these may be lower quality than they should be; simply because I downloaded them from my instagram, but the majority should be just fine.

Nikon D5500 | ƒ/4.5 | 1/2500 | 55mm | ISO800 |

"this was taken during the fall in the small town of Cherokee, North Carolina among the foothills of the wonderful Smoky Mountains"

Nikon D5500 | ƒ/4.5 | 1/640 | 55mm | ISO400 |

"Now usually I'm not one to take photos of the side of a cliff, but there's this lovely gradient going on where it moves from warm to cold; bottom to top, and I also love the geometric patterns going on with the lines seperating the rocks."

Nikon D5500 | ƒ/4.5 | 1/1000 | 58mm | ISO400 |
Nikon D5500 | ƒ/4.5| 1/800 | 55mm | ISO400 |

Nikon D5500 | ƒ/5.6 | 1/800 | 300mm | ISO100 |
Nikon D5500 | ƒ/5.6 | 1/320 | 300mm | ISO400 |

Nikon D5500 | ƒ/5.3 | 1/400 | 220mm | ISO400 |

Nikon D5500 | ƒ/7.1 | 1/50 | 18mm | ISO1600 |
Nikon D5500 | ƒ/3.5 | 1/400 | 18mm | ISO400 |

"This one was taken on the golf course behind my house, and although it's not my personal favorite; I think it's one of my best shots, and it was also one of the first I took with my new camera."

Nikon D5500 | ƒ/5.6 | 1/640 | 55mm | ISO400 |
Nikon D5500 || lost camera settings data ||

Nikon D5500 | ƒ/5.6 | 1/320 | 300mm | ISO200 |
Nikon D5500 | ƒ/??? | ??? | 300mm | ISO??? |

"Any birdwatchers reading this post? I would love to know what bird this is, he was just chillin' in my backyard"
Nikon D5500 || lost camera settings data ||

"I'm a massive arachnophobic, so I had to do a couple of takes just to get this one photo, yikes.."
Nikon D5500 | ƒ/5.6 | 1/1600 | 55mm | ISO1600 |
Sony DSC-HX9V | ƒ/4.5 | 1/25 | ??mm | ISO800 |

"Shoutout to Cherry Smash, an old-timey ice cream parlor down in South Florida"
Nikon D5500 | ƒ/5.0 | 1/125 | 18mm | ISO1600 |
Nikon D5500 | ƒ/4.5 | 2s | 18mm | ISO1000 |

"A slighlty long exposure photo I took on a Disney bus, super low quality for some reason"