Photo Hobbyist Jodi Horist Takes Some Cool Photographs

Jodi Horist aka @jojo_hb_ca on Instagram has lived in Huntington Beach for over thirty years. “So I have watched the many changes that our city has gone through during that time,” she said. A licensed marriage and family therapist, Jodi currently works for a non-profit organization that teaches literacy skills to children from low-income families.

Her Instagram account showcases the beauty of Huntington Beach from sunup to sundown. Read about how this photo hobbyist’s creative process:

Do you use your phone mainly to take photos or do you use a DSLR camera too?
I photograph with my Nikon L620. I like that it is small and light and I can quickly stuff it in my purse when I am in a hurry to get to the beach before the sun sets.

What are your favorite editing programs?
I like to download my photographs to my iPhone and edit on my phone using the iPhone editor. I find it relaxing to sit and edit photographs in the evening instead of watching TV. I also use PicsArt photo editing if I need to edit something out of my photograph such as a person walking into a landscape shot. It’s a fun app that you can do a lot of creative things with. Editing can accentuate and highlight the beauty in a photograph. I see it as the equivalent of a woman wearing a little bit of make-up to accentuate her eyes or lips.

What are your favorite subjects to photograph?
I love to photograph anything that is beautiful and fleeting such as a sunset, raindrops on a flower, or colorful rays of light bursting through the clouds at dawn. My favorite landscape to shoot is the beach. It never fails to inspire awe in me. I also love to photograph my teenage children, when they are willing to let me. I can walk down most any street and usually find a lot of different colorful and interesting things that I want to capture with my camera.

Why do you shoot the things you shoot?
I feel compelled to take a picture in order to capture and keep a beautiful moment, or scene that is just too spectacular to let pass. It is perhaps like a child having the urge to catch and hold a beautiful butterfly. It is a compelling feeling that overtakes me.
What advice would you give to someone who wants give photography a try?
My advice to someone who wants to pursue the art of photography is to just start taking pictures! Take pictures of whatever appeals to your eye. Don’t photograph what you think you should photograph. Take pictures of what elicits a response from within you. Take a lot of pictures! Try different angles. Experiment and use a simple photo editing program to start. Because photography is an art, it should be fun, relaxing, and an expression of who you are!