Jumping Back In

I have been absent from here for quite a bit.  Other interests and the like have seemed to take precedence.  And I just wasn't feeling it.

But last year, I joined a Photography Club in my area and have enjoyed participating in its meetings, challenges and competitions.  Nothing like that to get your creative juices flowing again.  As well as having a place to share your images besides Facebook or Instagram.

I took the plunge and have joined other photography club members in the LWRDCP 52-Week Photography Challenge where we must post an image once a week for 52 weeks, beginning October 1.  Each week, we must capture an image that best represents the theme for that week and post one image.  Weekly theme Categories are either Creative, Technical, Composition and Wild Card.  Sample Themes include Movement, Twilight, Water Drop, Leading Lines and so on.  You get the idea.  And you can't use past photos .... bummer!!  You must get off your butt and get out there and practice your craft.

So that is the whole purpose of the Challenge! To motivate us to expand the mastery of our cameras.

And if you want to follow me over at my new blog (which is still a work in progress!) as I post images over the next 52 weeks, you can find me at:

 www.reenawalkling.com

Cheers, my friends.  
Be kind to one another!

Reena

Wintering in Sunshine

In the past, I would have been sharing winter scenes this time of year.  But not any more. Aside from a ski trip or two out west with The Professor, I will happily be spending my winters in glorious Florida sunshine. 

The cool thing about living part of the year in here is that there is a local photo club which I have joined.  It is a very active group of several hundred individuals. Some with little experience and others who earn a living at their craft. They host monthly meetings, focus group outings, feedback sessions, and too many other activities to mention.  Needless to say, I am in hog heaven.  Sunshine, beaches, amazing critters and all to be enjoyed through my camera!  (Which has been greatly neglected over the past year.)

In January, the photo club had a fun excursion in Ybor City, a historic neighborhood of Tampa. Although I had been there before, it was fun to see it through my lens.

“ Ybor City was founded as an independent town in 1885 by a group of cigar manufacturers led by Vicente Martinez and was annexed by Tampa in 1887. The original population was mostly composed of Cuban and Spanish immigrants who worked in cigar factories.' 

Ybor City was unique in the fact that it was entirely populated and owned by immigrants. Nowadays, its a mixture of an entertainment and night club district amidst offices and residences.  

A cool place to photograph with its Spanish, Cuban and Italian architecture. The lady below, as you can see, was none so please as I quickly snapped a shot.

We had lunch at the Columbia Restaurant, which is the oldest restaurant in Florida, owned and operated by five generations since 1905.  It was delightful as well as meeting new folks and talking camera talk at lunch.

This past month, we enjoyed the Herrmann's Royal Lipizzan Stallions.  I'll share next time.  Until then, my friends!

I have returned!

Hi Peeps!

I'm finally back from my summer break and I do have a lot to share.  As you know, we spent our summer in Maine.  (Have I told you how much I love Maine?)   Well, I do love it.  It feels like coming home.  I think I was always meant to be a Mainer.

My summer was filled with so much activity that it will take more than this blog to cover all that was accomplished.  Let me just summarize briefly ...
~landscaping project that involved big boulders ~
~kitchen renovation~
~repair of 2 water line leaks~
~interior painting~
~photography class~
~searching and purchasing boat~
~finding and negotiating a mooring for such boat~
~entertaining family visitors~
~meeting new friends, new friends, new friends~

Highlights of my summer ... well, I'll just cover that in the next several blogs.  For now, I'll let my view through my lens serve as a preview.

One of the best highlights was taking a week photography class at a Maine Media workshop in Rockport.  More on that later but here are my classmates.  We had a blast and learned a lot!

Probably by the time you are reading this, we are off on our next adventure.  An Around-the-World trip with stops in New Zealand, Australia, Thailand, Singapore and Amsterdam.  The Professor is taking a sabbatical (research) and I, humble assistant, will be his muse.  Yeh, right!

Bags are packed (carry-ons, even with all my camera gear), check lists completed, house sitters coordinated and itinerary complete.  Hope to see you here.  You can also "Like" me at Missing Moments Facebook Page and keep up on all my posts as well.

Bon Voyage!  Wish us safe travels!

Independence

Hope this Fourth finds you celebrating 

your own independence

and honoring

our wonderful country 

and the principals 

that make it 

great.

Have a Safe and Happy July 4th

my friends!

 

I edited this photo using Dynamic Light's Urban Light screen.

The photo is the stern view of a sailboat.  

Can you see it?

If not for you ...

About a year ago now, I purchased my Nikon D7000.  Before then, I had been using my Canon PowerShot point and shoot.  It was/is a great little camera and I still use it here and there!  But more and more less so.  It's just too darn easy these days to use all the incredible camera apps out there for our cell phones.  We've all seen some incredible photos with these apps and the growth of iPhonography has skyrocketed.

Before I bought my Nikon, I really gave little thought to my photos.  Most photos were taken to document an event or travels, only to be stored among the thousands that came before on my computer.  But all that changed once I started blogging and discovered others with photography interests.  There was no turning back.

I guess what I love most about photography is how a moment is captured.  It can be as raw as an unedited photo or as artistic as if Monet himself painted the scene.  I can choose how I want to edit my scene and believe me, I can spend hours with just one photo experimenting with all the various editing programs available to us these days.  For me, photography is a way to express the mood of a moment.

Take for example the photo above.  It is straight out of the camera, no editing, just a bad photo.  I was attempting to capture the Goldfinch sitting in my redbud tree but didn't have the focus set.  This was the result.  I almost deleted it but then I thought how beautiful it was to me. 

It's imperfection made it beautiful.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that in photography, unlike many professions and skills, 

there is room for imperfections.

Even when you may have captured an imperfect shot, like these, with a little bit of editing with all the apps available to us these days, you can turn imperfection into a thing of beauty.

By far, these are not the most beautiful photos, but you get my drift.

And that's why I love coming here and sharing.

It's a place where imperfection is accepted.

It's a place where beauty comes in all forms.

It's a place to be who or whatever we want.

 I just wanted to let you know today,
that each and every one of you inspire me. 

Thank you!

~ sharing with ~

World Bird Wednesday

Pelican takes flight

I've been missing those darn pelicans so much that I went archive diving.  Not that it would surprise any of you, but one thing lead to another and 6 hours later, I had two new editing programs added to my Mac.

~ sigh ~

 I wonder if they have a Photo Editing Anonymous program

available for sickies like me?

I used both of these new editing programs on the FIRST photo.  I began with Snapseed which can be used on your computers as well as on an iPad and iPhone.  I haven't tried it out yet on my iPad but love using it on my computer.  I watched a YouTube video which gave me some instructions on all that it can do.  Pretty awesome!  

The only thing it couldn't do on that FIRST photo was add my copyright so I used a new program called Pixelmator, similar editing software as Photoshop but, as I'm told, more user friendly.  I haven't even begun to master that yet but hope to someday.  Maybe I'll just have to break down and learn Photoshop.  Ugh!

All the photos aside from the First photo ended up being straight out of the camera except for some cropping.  I had my camera set on the P mode and used my Nikon 70-300mm lens.  They all seemed somewhat cartoonish but I love the look.  Probably couldn't recreate it if I tried!

Hope your week has gotten off to a great start.  I still had some light at 6:15 last night when I went out to start the grill.  Hot damn!  Spring is on the way!

~ sharing with ~

World Bird Wednesday

Blinders would be useful

Ambergris Caye, Belize - 2008

The dangerous thing about blogging is that you sure can neglect many things.  

Like paying the bills, picking up the house, going for walks 

(which by the way, The Professor and I did on Sunday ... it was a beautiful day!), 

running needed errands, exercising,

 and even brushing one's hair!

(But I always always always brush my teeth!)

On top of that, 

you begin to learn new editing techniques from fellow bloggers

and then blow through a whole afternoon just editing a few photographs.

And that's pretty much what I've been doing the last few days.  

Playing around with a couple of new editing tools.

Eiffel Tower, Paris -2007

The first one is a new Topaz product called Star Effects.

I spent several hours perusing through old photographs trying to find ones that were appropriate to use the star burst effect.  I guess I don't take too many night photos.

But that may change.

Park City, Utah - 2009

I can see that it can be a cool tool to use in certain photos.

Even when they aren't the best photos but you still kind of like them.

Like most of these that were taken with my little point and shoot through the years.
Not only can you use the effect on lights but also on sunsets and sunrises.

Sunrise over Hermanus, South Africa - 2002

And then, today, after completing these photos and doing a little blog hop, I happen upon Nancy's post over at A Rural Journal.  She did some texture work using Pixlr.  I have been wondering what I might use when Picnik goes away.  iPiccy is not bad and easy to use.  But Pixlr is so much more robust but isn't nearly as intuitive.  Nancy has a nice little tutorial in her side bar describing how to use Pixlr for textures.  And of course, I have spent over an hour just playing around with Pixlr.  My guess is it feels similar to Photoshop which is all foreign to me.

And while I was doing all that, somehow I ended up on another sight that offers a free trial called Perfect Layers for Aperture, Photoshop and Lightroom users.  A plug-in program that combines several photos together to create one.  Mmmm.... I can see how my afternoon is going to go now!

(P.S.  This will be one blog post that I hope The Professor doesn't read!)

I definitely need some blinders!

Unlike me, go out and do something fun today, dear friends!  (But actually, I am having fun!)

Flight of the pelican

I'm having a fixation on the pelicans while here and keep trying to capture them 

either in flight, take-offs or landings.  

This guy was in fine take-off form.

After 4-5-6 wing flaps, he's up up and up!

They seem like 747's.  Huge and heavy ... yet weightless once airborne.

The views they must have.

~ sigh ~

Now on to more serious matters.  See this photo below.  

A nice shot of the beach from this morning's walk.

When I got home and downloaded it and sharpened it up

this is what I got.

What the heck are those spots in the sky.

I've noticed it on other photos which I've edited out, but this one is bad.

At one time I thought it was on my lens so I cleaned them.

But I'm still getting these spots.

Argggghhhhhh! 

Has anyone had a similar thing happen?

I'd be interested in your feedback.

Other than that, I'm having a swell time in this warm weather

and stalking pelicans.

Later friends,

The trouble with sanderlings ...

Do you ever wonder what to do with bad photos?

Like the kind that come out blurry ... 

which I tend to have a LOT of! 

(I know, I'm not suppose to end a sentence with a preposition ... 

but sometimes it is just a hell of a lot easier to do so!)

I can NEVER NEVER NEVER get a good photograph of these little Sanderlings.

Racing back and forth along the beach,

feeding in the surf on exposed crustaceans.

They even tend to speed faster by as they pass in front of The Professor and me

as we sit along the shoreline waiting for sunset.

Even my attempts at panning (of which I have no talent) ... 

come out blurry blurry blurry!

So, instead of deleting them today,

I played around with a number of different editing programs til I found something that I liked.  

I used a program called Flare for Mac.

It allows me to add effects and textures effortlessly.

(Note the word "effortlessly"!)

My kind of photography!

And I ended up with some useful photos that I could share.

I guess the thing that I absolutely love about photography is that there are many ways to

illustrate and share a moment.

And I guess that's why many of us blog.

To share moments and glimpses of our lives

with people that matter.

Like you.

So

Stay safe.  Beathe deep.  Pause.  Enjoy.

Life rushes by (too fast) just like the sanderlings.