Have you entered your midlife and often feel like you are too old to start something new? I felt exactly like that when I started photography more seriously. If you love taking photographs there is absolutely nothing wrong with taking up photography. Don’t let anyone tell you, you are too old to start photography. It simply isn’t true.
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Turning 50 – Never stop pursuing
Can you believe I started getting into photography a lot more seriously when I turned 50? I can’t believe it myself sometimes. Wish I got more seriously into it sooner because I just love it that much.
But I married a little later in life, had kids, and had to devote my time to them and my full-time job. Photography was nowhere on the brain except for vacation and of course taking pictures of my beautiful children. Right?
I had all kinds of cameras over the years: pocket cameras, film cameras, video cameras, and then the digital era erupted. Everyone was getting into photography. The digital camera made it so much easier.
I finally succumbed to my desires and purchased my first DSLR camera (to add to my collection-lol). It wasn’t too long after that that I got the camera of my dreams; Canon 5d mk3.
crazy for photography
You don’t have to start that high. Don’t be crazy like me. If you love photography and you know you will always love it, then you can invest in it all. For now, learn all the tricks of the trade.
You have nothing to be afraid of. There is a lot to learn. Don’t let that scare you off. If you love photography, you will love to learn all the ways to create beautiful portrait-like photographs.
Related Article: How To Create Amazing Portrait-Like Photos
Let me show you why you should never give up on your dream.
5 Reasons Why You Are Never Too Old To Take Up Photography
First of all, you are never too old to do anything. If you love it, pursue it.
1. You Have More Time – The kids are older now and you have a little more time to yourself. You no longer have too many responsibilities with your children. They can take care of themselves (sort of). You have time to learn the craft and go out and practice shooting to your heart’s content. You could even use your children for subjects. I did. It wasn’t always easy to get them to pose.
My kids were a little younger when I started photographing them. That’s when they listened. Now my son is 21 and he doesn’t have the patience for it anymore. Thank goodness I still have my daughter.
2. You Have More Patience – speaking of patience. We are a little bit older now and we tend to have more patience. Maybe not with our own kids but we have the patience to learn something new. I love learning something new all the time. I guess that’s why I tried my hand at everything in the creative world.
You need to have patience in photography if you want to get that “shot”, that once in a lifetime “shot”. It doesn’t have to be anything spectacular or award-winning.
But when you are waiting for your first grandchild to share their first smile or snicker, you want to be prepared. And how will you be prepared? By being patient.
Or you are waiting to get that amazing horizon shot at the crack of dawn. What do you have to have? Patience! That’s what photography is all about. And yes you have to love it. But we already determined that. Right? Lol.
3. You Have More Income at Your Disposal – by the time you reach midlife, as your children are all grown up and some already out of the house, you have less financial obligations to them so you will have more income to spend on yourself.
Related Article: What Photography Equipment Do You Need When Starting Out
Like I said before, you need to progress in baby steps. It doesn’t mean you can’t find or wait for some great sales on camera equipment that you need. Look into Facebook groups for people selling items at an extremely great price. I did that when I wanted to add more lenses to my collection.
4. You Have More Life Experience – basically saying, you are more mature. You don’t jump on things to purchase. When you are young, you want things yesterday. You like it, you need it, you want it, you buy it.
Then discover you don’t like it after all. When you get to our age, you are more worldly and have so much more experience. We know what we want out of life. We are not frivolous.
5. It Is A Wonderful Creative Outlet – I have been a creative person all my life. I have tried a little bit of everything. But my greatest joy has always been photography. I have probably preached that a lot throughout many of my posts.
If you love something, you will succeed in it. If you love photography, you will definitely succeed and you might even change careers because of it or continue to do it professionally.
I love it so much I have gone into Newborn and Maternity Photography because I love babies so much. I just wish this type of photography was around when my own children were born.
My daughter helps me out on all my photoshoots and now she caught the photography bug. But she loves landscape photography more. Like the photo down below. She’s good, right?
Photography is a wonderful creative outlet and to me it has been so important to me. It keeps memories alive of all the people who left us too soon. It’s nice to look back at the photographs we took over the years and remember how happy we all were at that moment in time.
Photography is timeless. It captures our most tender moments: when our children and grandchildren are born, their very first step, their first day at school, their first soccer game, their first holy communion, their prom, their graduation, and so on and so on.
Go out and start practicing. That’s all it takes. Practice, practice, practice. And enjoy yourself. Keep your memories alive.
