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There aren't a lot of photos for July, but there are a few that stood out.  Most of those come from my I-phone as it's the one camera that's with me pretty much anywhere I go.  You can decide if "the best camera is the one you have with you" is true.  

The first photo was my second choice for the "Reflections" family photo challenge.  It's the only photo this month taken with my Canon 70D DSLR. I used a Sigma 105mm macro lens.  

It was close between this one and the one I used for ...

I've been taking photographs, but just haven't had time to review them.  My last Photo Play post was written in June. We moved Grad Girl out of College Station in July, then she found a job in August and we started the process of moving her back to Texas. Now it's almost the end of September and I'm just now having time to really get back to my photography.  It's quite possible I won't have much to post for July and August. There is still time for me to get the camera out before ...

May turned out to be a reasonable month on the photography front.  I took the camera out early in the month and then we were on vacation at the end of the month.  Nothing from my early in the month photography efforts made the cut to my curated list.  At least I have a few photos for the end of the month.  

The following photos were taken with either a Canon 70D DLSR with a Tamron 14-400 mm telephoto lens or an I-Phone 12.  Some photos have been cropped.  

The following three photos were all taken in Norman, OK when ...

It's been a slow year on the photography front.  I just haven't been reaching for my camera much this year.  Having said that I did do better in April.  We did more of the photography challenges in April, so I picked up my camera more.  What was probably the best motivator was all the spring flowers that were blooming around the house.  It was hard to whittle down the list to post, but that's a problem nice to have after having no photos to post for March. 

Following photos taken with a Canon 70D DSLR with a ...

Quilting goals for 2025 are going well. That's not the case for my photography goals. There have been opportunities, I just haven't reached for my camera during them. I'm not sure if I'm going to try to make photography a priority or just let it go for now. The weather this spring with the cold, wind and fire danger hasn't been very conducive to walks or going places.  Maybe that will change once we get into warmer weather? At any rate, I'm not going to force it. There are too many other things going ...

February was an amazingly busy month.  Keeping up the Stay At Home Round Robin quilt along plus the week long trip to Texas kept me pretty busy this month. So I'm just now reviewing how it went on the photography front for January. 

One of the first things on my photography to do list was to look back at all the photos I took in 2024. Then I compared that to my photography efforts in 2023.  There were a couple of take homes from that exercise.  

• I took a lot more photos in 2023 even though I only really ...

I'm really good about wrapping up and planning my quilty year, I don't have such good habits for my photography.  As I wrote in the post covering the November photos yesterday, I didn't think there would be much to review.  And that was true. Even though there wasn't much photography going on at the end of the year, there are a few photos that were interesting. 

December was so busy with my mom being here and then it seems like Christmas arrived shortly after. I never got around to reviewing my November photography efforts.  I was so very unfocused on photography in September and October, I tried to get back on track in November.  I ended up with 3 sets of photos that made my best list for the month.  

My October photography efforts are pretty much in line with my September efforts.  I wasn't sure there was going to be anything in my photo files for a post this month. Things have been moving along well in the sewing room, so I've not taken as much time to play with my camera.  I'm going to try to fix that this month and devote a bit more time to my photography studies.  At any rate, here's the photos that made the cut from October.  

With all the traveling lately, I'm way behind on looking at my photos. I definitely have not been as engaged with my photo play activities lately.  When I opened my photo files to look at what was there, I wasn't sure they'd be much of anything in them. But I found a few interesting shots to share.  

Photos were taken with either a Canon 70D DLSR or my I-Phone 12.  The DSLR shots used either a Tamron 18-400 telephoto or a Sigma 105 mm macro lens. 

We stayed in a loft in downtown Independence, Mo when we ...

It always takes a few weeks to review my photos from the previous month. August was another hot and humid month, so it wasn't fun to be outside much.  I've been sewing a lot, so have backed off on my photography studies lately.  I'll get back to it eventually.  There are more photographs to share this month as I had a lot of rejects from the last few photography challenges.  Three of the challenges were photography techniques and not subject limited, so I took a lot of photos.  Some of them didn't meet the challenge goals ...

It was so hot and humid in July, even in the mornings, that I just didn't do much on the photography front.  I did finish another chapter in Visual Poetry by Chris Orwig, but it was on portrait photography.  Portrait photography isn't something I do often. I do take a few family photos when we all get together, that's the chapter under review at the moment. 

With all the travel in late June and early July, I've had to catch up on blog reading and email. So it took me a bit to find the time to review my photos from June. 

My goal this year is to just enjoy the process of capturing the interplay of light and subject.  We've been so busy that I've not done much with my photography study, but early in June I did cover the chapter on lenses in Visual Poetry by Chris Orwig. If there is any theme for June it's what happens if you ...

With the improved mobility that showed up about mid May came a desire to get the camera out again. One thing I've learned over the last few months as I've struggled with my knee is that pain and photography don't mix for me. I can stitch when I really hurt, but taking photographs just doesn't appeal.  

Part of the renewed interest was starting a new book on photography:  Visual Poetry by Chris Orwig.  My copy came from a Half Price Books in Dallas, TX.  It was published in 2014, so it's probably out of print ...

April was another month where I didn't get the camera out much.  Knee surgery and recovery made it difficult to get out and about.  We spent the week before surgery in Texas for the eclipse and that's about the only time my camera saw any use.  Walking was difficult, so I wasn't very enthusiastic or focused on getting good pictures. It was a nice surprise to find some visually interesting photos in the few that I took. 

The goal with my photography this year is to just enjoy the process and capture photos that bring me joy.  The lack of mobility due to my knee problems limited my photo excursions in March.  But I did get out a couple of times with the camera.  

I didn't do a lot of photography in February, my leg issues limited my mobility the last half of the month. But I do have a few images from earlier in the month.  

It was still mostly brown on my walks early in the month.  But even brown in the right light can be interesting.  I showed a lot of single leaf photos from my January efforts, grouped leaves seemed to be the favorite subject for February. 

It really is all about the light for these three photos.  Even all brown can be interesting under the right light.  My ...

One of my 2023 goals was to focus on my photography more.  Well that lasted until about May.  It's not that I quit taking photos, it's just that I stopped what limited studying I'd been doing and didn't keep up with reviewing and critiquing my photos.  At the end of this January, I asked myself what I really wanted out of my photography, why am I taking photographs?  I came up with three reasons:

I'm still about a month behind on posting my photo practice sessions.  My photo taking has slowed down a bit as I've been trying to balance the have to do things like clean out the attic and garage with finding time to walk.  It's getting too hot to walk after lunch, so I need to adapt my schedule to walking earlier in the morning.  But that's when I tend to work on the computer. So it's going to take me a few weeks to adjust, but that may also give me a chance to get ...

At the very end of March, I took a flower arranging class with some friends.  It was a lot of fun and I got a nice centerpiece for the dining room table. 

Of course the next step was to get out the Canon 70D with the Sigma 105 mm macro lens to see what kind of images I could capture. The goal was to photograph from a unique viewpoint and come out with something pretty.  You can judge if I hit the mark with these images. 

There were a lot of good pictures from this shooting session, but these 6 ...