The Calm After the Storm

Well it has been awhile!  A couple of months to be exact.  After practically living in my office for weeks on end while tax season was in full swing, I just did not have the energy to start writing again.  I think that after a little break, I am ready now, though.  I did have time during my little sabbatical to work on a few projects that are soon to come.

The thing I have been focusing on lately, though, is developing my photography skills.  I was fortunate to be able to attend a photography seminar at the end of April where they went into a lot of detail about utilizing manual mode on your camera and how the different settings work together to get the right exposure in your pictures.  It has been so much fun to experiment with the different settings and go out to try to find new subjects to work with.

So far, I have been focusing on aspects of nature, as well as older buildings, in my photos.  Eventually, I may venture into portrait photography as well.  As part of the class I attended, I received some free prints from an online business called One Click Pix.  Little did I know, they run a monthly photo contest where their employees pick a few pictures from the ones that are submitted for printing and post them on their website.  People then go online and can vote on the selected photos.  I was surprised to receive an email from the organization asking if they could include this photo in the contest. 



If you click on the following link, you can vote for my photo: http://www.oneclickpix.com/picture-month-contenders-june-2012#!prettyPhoto

The winning photo will be featured on the organization's home page for the remainder of the month.  Whether or not my photo wins, I am pretty excited to just get my work out there.

The prints from One Click Pix were really great quality.  Their prices are decent and they have a ton of different products to choose from, in addition to all the standard prints that you can get elsewhere.  Anything from prints on canvas to collages to white erase boards with your photo as the background are available.  They are pretty fast too.  I had my photos in less than a week from when I ordered.  They just might be my new first choice for prints!

If you are interested in enhancing your photography skills, Aimee at It's Overflowing has some great tutorials on photography and getting the most out of your pictures.  I would definitely encourage you to go check out some of her articles: http://www.itsoverflowing.com/p/photography_01.html


Soon to come - my redesigned mantel and some fun and easy craft ideas to spruce up items you may already have around the house.