Experiencing Life with Camera in Hand
After a thirty-year teaching career, I am enjoying retirement. My life is full of travel experiences and learning about life in other countries. My camera is always close at hand to capture memories of the tropical flowers and beaches of Costa Rica and Mexico, the cobbled streets of the many old towns in Europe, and any animals I can get close enough to, to capture on film.
My interest in photography started young, taking black and white photos with my trusted Brownie camera. I remember the excitement of finally getting back the developed pictures. My father was also interested in photography, and I remember being fascinated with the developing process and the agony of remembering to not turn on lights or flush the toilet while the film was being developed. I loved watching the pictures appear on the paper when dipped in the chemical trays.
My camera was always close at hand but until retirement my focus was capturing memories. Formats changed from slides to prints to digital. A whole new world opened up for me with digital cameras. In recent years my focus has been on photo composition and photo editing. There is always something new to learn. I started using my social media accounts to post a picture a day. During COVID I read about and tried two photo challenges that made a big difference to my photography. The first was taking pictures representing each letter of the alphabet. I did one letter each day for a week and posted the seven pictures on social media.
The other activity is one I completed several times and will often repeat. I take my camera with me for a walk in a chosen location. I choose a number of steps then start my walk counting steps. When I reach the chosen number, I look around and focus on something and take a picture. Then I repeat counting steps and taking pictures until the end of my walk.
There is so much to learn in the photo editing process. Here are a few of my favourites.
