This week's class assignment was to focus on simple images -- fill the frame and begin thinking about composition. Fabulous plan excepting I think I'm a few steps further behind than my fellow aspiring artists . . . I just realized that I need to MANUALLY focus my camera. I mean, I've been doing manual everything else but couldn't figure out why what I thought I was focusing on wasn't actually in focus. Ta-da. I'm so excited by this discovery that I spent a bit of time with drops of melting snow. 
An unlikely subject -- barbwire. I'm loving being able to control depth of field and, once again, focus. I took several, varying the focus on the "clump" of wire vs. the pole. I'm wishing that I had filled the frame with the tangle and perhaps from a lower angle. I'm beginning to understand why, as a friend at the gym said, you could spend an hour taking pictures of a single bush. Of course, on this particular day, it was cold. I wore gloves and still found it difficult to use my fingers properly!
I took two pictures -- this and another that focused on the barn in the background with the fence out of focus. I like this one so much better. I don't know why. What about a fence pole with worn red paint and a bit of moss is so engaging? Is it that the red is reflected by the barn? The faint reminder of snow in the background, tying into the corrugated metal roof? Of course a post wouldn't be complete without some little trip into my inner world. The word of the day, if it hasn't been apparent, is "focus." In my last entry, I talked about focusing on the essentials -- those being sleep, nutrition and my family. Things are still a bit blurry. There is nothing "auto" about managing the multiple responsibilities and demands for my time and attention. Got to go manual . . . Man, that's cheesy. Sorry. I need practice on staying present in the here and now. Disregarding distractions and turning my attention to what is immediate. Right now it's my crazy offspring racing around the house.
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