In college I got into photography. I took a few classes and had a great old Minolta. Eventually the camera started leaking light (read: broke) and I didn’t replace it. Enter husband and kid. I bought nice point and shoot cameras, but never felt like I had the capabilities I did with an SLR (read: real camera).

I have been promising myself a nice camera ever since. Somehow I always find other things to spend my money on. Until recently. While it’s not as nice as I wanted, I have bought a Nikon D3000. I realized maybe I’m not ready for a $1000+ camera and could do quite well with one half that price.

So far I love it. I’m dredging up creativity I thought was lost with the opening of my womb to another being. I’m seeing photo shots everywhere, whether I have my camera or not. I’m so looking forward to trying it out on our trip to Montreal, because my favorite shots are those I take when traveling. Which I haven’t done in as long as I haven’t had a good camera.

I have a theory. In our 30s (or mine, anyway) we rediscover our creativity, if we had it. In high school, my goal was to go to Kansas City Art Institute and become a professional artist. I later realized I didn’t have what it took to cut it (and even later realized that “professional artist” is not a true, money paying profession), so I went other routes. The sketch pads got put away. The portfolio gathered dust. But in the last year, I’ve started working on art projects, and adding photography to that just makes me feel whole again. I didn’t know what I’d been missing.

Art comes in and out of our lives as we need it. Apparently right now, I need it.