Shutterbug captures the moment

When it comes to photography, Rose Tracey says, “You either have it, or you don’t.” According to her, “it” is “Being able to spot something that other people don’t see. It’s like a ‘wow’ moment.”
Recently on a Caribbean cruise, Tracey and her friend noticed two cruise ships docked across from each other and while average people walked away, they embraced the moment as they saw “it.”
The titanic ships, floating side-by-side atop clear blue water on a warm Caribbean background created a magical scene, a true “wow moment.”
Tracey said there wasn’t a specific time when she realized she liked photography, there was no eye-opening revelation, but as long as she can remember she has had this passion and ability.
“It kind of just developed; I was always interested in taking whatever looked interesting,” said Tracey.
As a child she remembers taking photos with a “black box Brownie camera.” As an adult, when she went to events in the city or was traveling with her husband, although he controlled the camera, it was her eye that caught interesting things and she pointed them out to him.
Eventually her husband realized that she needed a camera of her own, so one Christmas he gave her one, which intensified her love of photography.
Ever since, Tracey has used her camera to capture interesting and significant things, but what sets her apart is the extent of which she takes care of her pictures.
First, she doesn’t just take a picture. Everything in the scene has to be set perfectly or the picture won’t look its best.
“I am a person, if I’m taking a picture of you I want to get the best picture for you. Other people don’t take the time,” said Tracey.
After snapping them, Tracey preserves her photos in her computer and also on CDs as back-ups. Later, she uses many of them to create scrapbooks, such as a book she put together of the first 12 years of her first grandchild.
She does this process because of her passion and love of photos and it’s because of the same passion she joined the North Shore Towers Camera Club.
Shortly after she moved in she said, “I remember seeing that they had a club and was excited.”
She enjoys the club because of the people in it and because they share the same hobby.
The club has also helped Tracey learn a lot about her hobby, such as things to know when purchasing a new camera, not to have too many elements in a single picture and different techniques when taking a photo.
She has also learned more about Photoshop and altering photos; however she said it’s not a feature that she likes to use.
“I’m more of a traditionalist who goes with what I took,” she said, adding, “that is the picture I took, that is the one I want to show.”
Her feelings on digitally changing photos stem from the reason why she originally took the picture — because she saw what was special in the scene.
So instead of changing her pictures, she wants to show others what she saw, and hopefully they will also see “it.”