For a really long time I thought becoming an excellent photographer was necessary to entertain my visitors. I bought a DSLR camera (a Nikon D50) in 2007 along with a book to explain exactly how to use it.

I never read it.

It seemed that every blog I loved had beautiful photography. I would flip through issues of The Artful Blogger and daydream about one day being worthy of their acceptance.

But the truth is, I have absolutely no interest in learning about aperture, shutter time and lighting issues. None.

I made a feeble attempt at photography about two years ago after reading a few of The Pioneer Woman‘s photography posts. I did end up with this picture of Charlotte’s eye, which I really do like.

But then there was this really embarrassing post on asparagus. I remember contemplating deleting it at one point, but I’m really glad I didn’t so now I get to make fun of myself.

Although, three people commented on that post, which is three more than usual.

Anyway, it wasn’t until I started stalking The Hungry Runner Girl‘s blog that I realized that it’s perfectly fine not obsess about posting only perfectly Photoshopped pictures taken with a $1,000 camera. She takes a lot of her pictures with her phone. Some of the are really good and make me want to reach out and eat her food, but a few are out of focus and in need of Photoshop trickery. But it really doesn’t matter. I (and many many other people) love her blog.

She blogs mostly about her life. Every day. Just her life. She eats lots of candy and runs and plays with her brand new baby (who was due the same day as Eliza, that’s how I came across her blog). She is cute and optimistic and she shops at Costco every week and I find myself wondering every week “Janae! What will you buy on your next trip to Costco?! I can’t wait to find out!” I am so engaged with her totally normal and mostly uneventful life. I love her. And her pictures are nothing The Artful Blogger would pay attention to.

She helped me to realize that I need to stop worrying about how I don’t know (and don’t want to know) much about photography. I need to just blog about what I want to blog about, even if my pictures totally suck.

And so I’ve actually been doing that. And if that means no one comments, I’m actually fine with that. Because it makes me feel good to write and post pictures that I love, like this blurry thing I took with my phone…

Do you like photography?

What kind of camera do you use the most?

What holds you back from blogging?

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