Yesterday, the family and I returned to an awakening rhododendron garden to take photographs . . . and I was on a roll! Our latest assignment was to make a written list of the skills we want to learn and through the week, pick one and get to work. The tasks I had set for myself yesterday was to learn how to play with water so that it appears ethereal and soft, figure out the timed shutter release for use with macro photography and bracketing my photos so that I have a range of exposures. Oh, and I wanted to get some of these durn ducks. Not so good with moving targets . . .
Despite the order of the pictures, I tackled the waterfalls first. Yippee! I ran into the predictable problem of forgetting to change my very slow shudder speed before trying to capture the speedy ducks and the macro shots of these spring time bulbs was a wee bit frustrating. I couldn't get in as close as I wanted and then I learned my most important lesson of the day -- CHARGE YOUR BATTERIES! Yep, hardly out of the gate and done for the day. I wondered around with my family, who were all very helpful in pointing out great photo ops, with my dead camera hanging around my neck like a dead weight. (So dramatic on a Sunday morning!)
The last paragraph of an entry is always the hardest. How do I finish things up? I've been thinking about a word that seems to sum up my experience at this stage in the journey -- "strive." Certainly it's obvious that in photography, I'm reaching for skills that are just beyond my reach. But in all areas of my life, new and novel experiences are challenging me to reach further, try harder and expand. Growth doesn't come without difficulty -- sometimes I fail, in small and big ways. My battery died. I continue to not get my paperwork done at work. I wasn't as prepared for my students as I would have liked . . . so then I set about figuring out how to do things differently next time. Plan, prepare and strive.
Yesterday, the family and I returned to an awakening rhododendron garden to take photographs . . . and I was on a roll! Our latest assignment was to make a written list of the skills we want to learn and through the week, pick one and get to work. The tasks I had set for myself yesterday was to learn how to play with water so that it appears ethereal and soft, figure out the timed shutter release for use with macro photography and bracketing my photos so that I have a range of exposures. Oh, and I wanted to get some of these durn ducks. Not so good with moving targets . . . 
Despite the order of the pictures, I tackled the waterfalls first. Yippee! I ran into the predictable problem of forgetting to change my very slow shudder speed before trying to capture the speedy ducks and the macro shots of these spring time bulbs was a wee bit frustrating. I couldn't get in as close as I wanted and then I learned my most important lesson of the day -- CHARGE YOUR BATTERIES! Yep, hardly out of the gate and done for the day. I wondered around with my family, who were all very helpful in pointing out great photo ops, with my dead camera hanging around my neck like a dead weight. (So dramatic on a Sunday morning!)
The last paragraph of an entry is always the hardest. How do I finish things up? I've been thinking about a word that seems to sum up my experience at this stage in the journey -- "strive." Certainly it's obvious that in photography, I'm reaching for skills that are just beyond my reach. But in all areas of my life, new and novel experiences are challenging me to reach further, try harder and expand. Growth doesn't come without difficulty -- sometimes I fail, in small and big ways. My battery died. I continue to not get my paperwork done at work. I wasn't as prepared for my students as I would have liked . . . so then I set about figuring out how to do things differently next time. Plan, prepare and strive.
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