What Are Quilters Blogging About Today?

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 ...

This is probably the first year in a long time that I've spent a lot of time outdoors.  When I was working what free time I had was spent sewing.  Picking up the camera again has had a lot of benefits.  Getting some much needed exercise is probably the most noticeable benefit, but I've also learned a lot about Oklahoma too.  Google Image has been really helpful in putting a name to what's in my photos.  Trying to see through camera lens has opened my eyes to the beauty of simple things.  It's such a good ...

Taking photo walks several times a week does remind you of what the weather was like the month before.  Most of March was cold, wet and windy.  Not conditions I like to walk in and not always ideal conditions for photography.  But the purpose of my current lessons is to try to see things from a different perspective and take photos that you wouldn't have taken before.  I really tried to do that with these photos from the end of March. 

Now that I can sit at the computer for longer than an hour each day, I'm pretty much caught up with replying to comments and blog reading.  My goal the next couple of weeks is to get caught up on the photography posts.  Quilting posts will resume on Sunday for sure.  

Spring has been a really fun time to work on my photography project.  Much more colorful and interesting subject matter.  I've definitely been taking more photos. Which means I'm spending more time at the computer reviewing and critiquing.  I've not done much with the lessons lately. I'll get back to them when there's not so many pretty spring things to photograph.  

The photography lessons have been a lot of fun. I don't have a schedule for when I work on a lesson, pretty much when I have the time and inclination.  In mid March, I finally finished the last of the lessons on learning to expand your perspectives. 

I'm still about a month behind on posting on my photography lessons and practice.  This post covers the practice shots from the first couple of weeks in March. By then, we were starting to see some signs of spring, though it was still really cold most days, especially at the start of the month.  I just bundled up and went for my photo walks. Depending on where I walked there might or might not be something new to photograph, so that learning to see a photograph in the ordinary was still a big challenge.  

My Guy and I have a date day tomorrow, a photography and hiking expedition followed by lunch out.  Since I'm still really behind on posting my photography improvement journey, I wanted to get a second photography post up this week and there won't be time tomorrow. (Besides doing anything to avoid doing taxes is more appealing at the moment.)

I'm hoping to get caught up with my photography lesson posts now that I've figured out my computer set up.  I appreciate the feedback that many of you have given me on this project.  That's one reason I really want to post about this effort, is to get some feedback (constructive criticism is welcome). The other reason is that my blog is my electronic record of what's going on in my life, so I'd like to have this project documented here too. So if you aren't into the photo stuff, no reason to read ...

I've been off the computer and out of the sewing room for about a week now in an effort to get my shoulder and back lined out.  Both are improving. I'm hoping to get in a bit of sewing time this afternoon, just as I'm getting in a bit of computer time this morning. I'm starting with a photography post as I've done a lot more of that recently. I'm hoping to get back to the quilting posts on Sunday.  Fingers crossed that there are no ill effects from this morning's computer time ...

Retirement is odd. For someone who's worked since she was 16, it's been a bit of an adjustment to not have on my schedule "go to work".  Luckily I knew the importance of getting a new schedule in place. It's easy to just drift if you don't think through how you want to spend your time. One of other items that needed more attention was my exercise program, that has been pretty much nonexistent since the Pandemic.  So three days a week I take my camera out on a walk. It's a nice synergy, some ...