On any given day, I'll suddenly decide I need to take up one thing or another. Sky diving. Organic eating. Gardening. Yoga. Painting. Cooking. Some stick, some don't. Of that list every other one I've kept up with. I'll let you guess which.
So I waited for the photography fascination to fade. Shockingly it didn't. I found my old, once-very-expensive-and-now-not-much-better-than-a-cellphone digital camera and started playing. I started seeking out photography websites and online tutorials. My husband rescued from his closet an old text book on the subject passed down from aunt to father to son.
Like most novices, and since I didn't have a small child or puppy readily available, I decided to start my photography adventures outside. Nature shots are supposed to be some of the most difficult and I can see why: the lighting can be unforgiving (especially when your main tool only allows for 400 ISO!!!) and it's hard to set everything up so what you see with your eyes matches what the camera captures.
Anyway here are a few shots I'm least embarrassed by taken with my sad, but robust 3.2 MP Sony:
I have a thing about flowers. These pink ones are in bloom all over now.
This was at the entrance of a trail at a local park. It just struck me. The writer in me started making up the story of how that little girl's shoe ended up there.
This is Eagle Harbor in Bainbridge Island, Wash. The ferry, which takes passengers between the island and Seattle, passes through this inlet. I rather liked the scale here: beach to homes to trees to mountains. Like building blocks.
Yup. Trees and some leaves. Very creative. ;)
Remember: I like flowers. Plus, there was something here I liked. Maybe it was how imperfect they are, but still very lovely.
I'm using this one as my desktop background right now. It's peaceful.
Hidden in the woods I found an old shack and this was carved on one of the support beams. Again the writer in me loved it. I bet Rachel Moore is pretty proud too.
This is probably my favorite. Unfortunately, it turned out a little grainy.
Over the last few days I've been searching for a new camera. Let me just say: there are far too many options. Point-n-click, SLR, d-SLR, Canon, Nokia, Sony.... Sort of nuts. I've decided I'm not ready for a full-on d-SLR, but want more than a point-n-click so I'm going to take a happy medium and get the Canon G11:
I really like that a lot of the controls are manual (versus having to navigate through a screen). It has settings for all sorts of photography. I won't have as much control as I would with a big-boy SLR, but it'll give me enough to play and learn. Plus it's only $449 so a nice price to see how far this hobby will go!
