Photography hates me.

I am such a bad photographer. I feel that good pictures are part and parcel of a good blog, so I fear that my limited photgraphic skills are going to play a role in making this bloggedy blog sub-par. My hopes of sharing endless snaps of Austria's beauty may simply end up a conspicuous and embarrasing display of my lack of talent.

Having a low-end, much abused digital camera probably doesn't help in the quality department, but I could never justify purchasing a decent camera. For one, I would rather spend that money on clothes or other frivolous items (recovering shopaholic with periodic relapses). Secondly, I carry around pretty much everything I own in my purse and I don't think my shoulders or back could stand the extra weight and strain of a "good" camera. Thirdly, my Type A personality is none more apparent than with my considerable lack of patience. I never wanted to take the time to learn about cameras, about photo composition, lighting, blah blah, blah.

So what do I have? A Sony digital camera that is scratched to bits from its home on the bottom of my purse. The lens is filthy, so several of my pics end up with spots where there shouldn't be spots (I like to call them UFOs). I think the camera is 7.2 megapixels, but I can't be too sure as the letters and numbers have long since rubbed off. These days I tend to use my grainy, off-colour Blackberry camera rather than dig that old thing out of my bag.

And what do I do? I take hasty, crooked, poorly-lit photos. Generally, I think I can at least centre a photo, but that is Step One in a million, I'm sure.

As a Christmas gift to my Oma, I compiled photos I had taken on our trip to Germany in 2007 into a wall calendar. Everyone marveled over my photographic abilities, but I had to confess that I sorted through an infinite amount of garbage before finding just enough pics to fill up 12 months worth of calendar pages. Hey, when you take almost 800 pics, you are bound to have a few that turn out okay. Right? (In my case, just barely...).

Long story short, I've been contemplating starting one of those photo-a-day blogs for 2011. The issue is that I cringe at the thought of me being able to produce that many decent photos. Hey, I guess if it sucks, I can always hit delete.

The Holocaust Memorial in Berlin.
Photo by author.
(I made this one crooked on purpuse. Ha!)

P.S. Leaving for Austria in 42 days!