Finding Photo Subjects

I subscribe to several scrapbooking magazines. (Gives me something to read on lunch.) I've also invested in a number of scrapbooking books on various topics. As I flip through page after page of scrapbooking layouts, I'm struck by one thing. These people have perfect photos. Not only seemingly perfect photos, but photos of all these events, from the mundane to the monumental.

I'll tell you right now, that's not what I have in my collection of photos. When I go places, I try to remember to take my camera. Sometimes, I'll get to where we're going and take a whole bunch of pictures. But more often than not, I won't pull my camera out at all. Or, worse yet, I will forget to bring my camera in the first place.

Honestly, ultimately what I end up with is a ton of pictures of my cats, many of which have bad lighting, are out of focus, or both. I rarely end up with pictures of people. I'm not even sure why that is. Perhaps it's an unconscious extension of my natural aversion to having my own picture taken. (My wedding day was torture, in that respect. Cameras EVERYWHERE, all pointed at ME!) Perhaps I just don't want to subject other people to what I perceive as torture.

Or maybe I'm just lazy and forgetful. I would lean towards laziness when it comes to having the camera present but not taking any pictures. I once came back from a trip to Disney World with 5 pictures. Admittedly, I was with my parents and my dad snappeda thousand pictures, I swear. But still. 5 pictures? From Disney World? Who cares if I had been there 5 times before? Laziness.

So my struggle with photos then, is not that I can't organize them. (I have an effective system that works for me.) Rather it's that I don't have pictures that are good enough, or of a wide enough variety to effectively scrapbook at times. (Hmmm...47 layouts of cats in various sleeping poses, anyone?)

Well I will tell you this. It is still early Spring in. I have a new purse, with a new wallet, that means I now have room to carry around my camera, if I so choose. I have a wedding coming up this week. I sent in the applications for our 2009 zoo memberships. I have a trip in a few weeks to visit my sister in NJ. And I'm mentally planning several camping trips and trips to visit other area zoos. I will vow now...to take my camera...and take pictures. I will take pictures of people I love and places I visit. I will get up the courage to ask other people to take my picture with these people and at these places. And I will utimately end up with a vast collection of subjects for my Scrapbooking enjoyment!