About my site

For a long time I have looked for aways to express myself artistically.  I’ve done painting, drawing, oils, clay, collage . . . you name it and I’ve dabbled in it.  I have found that I have come back to my first love – Photography.   I started taking pictures in the early 1980’s and then got side-tracked by earning a living.  Even when I was not taking “serious” pictures, I always had a camera with me.  Now that I’m not working I’m able to spend the time needed on Photography.  It’s a whole new world though.  Digital is, to me, far different from film.  There are now so many different ways to present your image.  Right now I’m striving to just get good solid images without making major changes to the image using any image processing software.  Give me some good music, some images to work on and my dogs curled at my feet (to keep them warm) and I’m happy!

Life can be so enjoyable if you just keep it simple!

Lost images!

I’ve been cleaning up my files in Lightroom (LR) and found that I had over 2,000 images that were not being found by the LR catalogue.  Thank goodness I just got done with LR class and learned how to find them again!  Then while cleaning out the files I deleted the wrong file extensions!  YIKES.  After I got my breath back, I went to the Trash Can on my desktop – sorted by creation date – highlighted what I wanted back – and found a wonderful word as a choice – RESTORE.   Yes . . . I clicked on that magic word and my images that I had accidentally tossed went back to where they were suppose to be and I was able to reimport them to my LR catalogue.   Someone was looking out for me.

When culling thru my images, I find that what I thought was all that 2 years ago is not that at all!  Is it because I’m getting better images or is my taste in what I like changing?  I find that I don’t really like Landscape Photography that much.  People Photography is a real challenge for me.  I feel I’m invading someones privacy when I take pictures.  Taking pictures of people I don’t know . . .  out living their lives . . really takes me outside my comfort zone.  Last year I photographed for the fair.  It’s funny how having a little badge hanging around your neck gives you permission to get closer to strangers to take their pictures.

Printing Photos . . . GRRRRR

Taking photographs is such a pleasure.  I get into my own world . . . I'm learning to see the world thru new eyes and from a different perspective.  NOW . . all I need to do is really get my arms around printing the images.  You'd think is was really easy but its not!  In order to get beautiful images out onto paper you've got to really understand when to let your application (like Lightroom) manage the print and when to let your printer manage the job . . and that's after you calibrate your monitor.  Today I finished another great workshop on Lightroom with Laura Shoe.  She helps me get a hold of that elephant of Lightroom and nibble away at if one bite at a time.  Now I'm excited about trying to use what I learned this weekend and, hopefully, get beautiful prints that actually look like what is on my monitor.

Eating an elephant

I decided that learning Lightroom and/or Photoshop is much like eating and elephant.  You have to take one bite at a time.  I’ve taken the weeklong classes in both programs and its way too much to try to remember.  Taking short classes seems to be the way to go . . . and taking them from different instructors because each one has a different slant or approach on what is baseline for working the programs.  Even though I feel that you should not take images with the intention of fixing them in Photoshop, my mind was racing on what I could do with a couple of images by doing a blurred layer under a sharp layer.  I think that when you load images into what eve filing system you have, you should wait  a couple of weeks before deleting.  What might not seem redeemable today might turn out to be the winning shot when you look at it with fresh eyes.

No Tweet for Me

Here I am trying to grow outside my comfort zone.  I took a Tweeter class and found that I’m not really a Tweeter.  In my opinion, I feel that is hard to express yourself in a meaningful way Tweeting.  It seems that the society is loosing the ability to communicate nicely.  We’re all in a hurry and feel that everyone needs to know everything about nothing!  Tweeter actually owns what ever you write and they retain the rights to publish anything they choose.  I thought I’d spread my wings on a blog but realize that I don’t need to raise the Tweeter wings.

Posting Pictures

Whew!  When it came to picking out pictures to post on the blog I managed to get so very sidetracked.  What I thought were good pictures 2 years ago when I started taking images I now think are crap.  Then there are images I’m surprised that I like now but didn’t like then.  I feel like a dog chasing its tail in figuring out what to post.  SO . . . I posted a bit of everything with the thought that I would thin out the images later.  It so tough having more imaged than you know what to do with and finding that you don’t like a lot of them and love a lot as well!

Wonderful words passed on to me today

Place your hand over your heart. You feel that beat? It’s saying over and over, “Do it! Do it! Do it!” As long as you can feel your heart speaking, YOU CAN DO IT. When your heart stops speaking it’s too late.  (From Jeff Cains via Laura Shoe)

Just when you think you’ve got it

I am in a real learning stage.  I’m currently learning Elements and Web Design.  What a kick!  I love seeing how everything comes together.  Now . . I hope I can remember how to do it all.  I know that you’ve got to practice, practice, practice.  I’m going to work on 2 websites and I’m hoping that I’m not in over my head. OR if I am in over my head the water is only 5′ 7″ . . . I won’t drown.   

I have taken several workshops in Lightroom and have always felt like I’ve been swimming against the tide with huge waves pounding down on me.  Sometimes I have the hardest time letting my mind wrap around something . . . right now Lightroom is that something.  I just finished a weekend Lightroom.  I had many “AH HA” moments!  I left the weekend class with new bits of knowledge just bouncing around in my head.  Now I can tackle my 78K files I have in LR and cull out my files because I know the filters to do so.  I try to take photographs that don’t need to be tweeked or fixed in Photoshop.  I don’t want to spend all my time fixing images on the computer . . . I want to be thoughtful in my process and decisions before I click the shutter.  But I must admit I love it when something that is fleeting in my mind finally gels and I get it!!  That is a rush for me!

I think the process of building my Blog and my websites (doing the writing and photography) is going to be an adventure.

Ah Ha Moment

I just love it when I have an “Ah Ha” Moment!  In learning how to use this Blog during class, we needed to create the banner.  Using Elements I actually managed to focus and hear what was being taught instead of jumping ahead and trying to figure it out before hand.  When everything comes together I am so delighted!  Can creating a webpage be “Ah Ha” Moments too?

Hello world!

This is my very first blog.  I think it is something I can check off my Bucket List.  I am now venturing into the world of websites and social networking.  For me that’s really going outside the box (and my comfort zone).

I’ve hesitated blogging because I don’t like journaling.   Thoughts and feelings put to word tend to come back and bit you on your tail end.  I don’t want a blog that lets one know that I had 36 cups of coffee today either.  So . . . hopefully this blog will be a mix of my loves:  my husband, my dogs and cat, my friends, photography and attempts to be a great painter!  (The last is really a stretch.)  BUT in order to honor my husband’s privacy (as well as the dog’s and cat’s privacy) I’ll end up talking about my photographs and my adventures in getting photographs.

For the photographers who read this:  We all know we want to have the perfect light and the perfect situation.  We take hundreds of photographs and end up with 1 or 2 that we’re thrilled with.  Sometimes an image that seems to be a “throw away” turns out to be a winner!  I’m learning that I see the world much differently than others and that I don’t like the expected . . . my comfort zone tends to really expand in photography.

I hope that who ever reads this enjoys my words and images . . . and perhaps will leave my blogs with a smile!