Photo: Catahoula-Australian Shepherd mix puppy; Montgomery County Animal Shelter, Conroe, Texas.
My early Mother’s Day gift was a new digital camera. The long-running joke in my family is that my husband rarely buys me jewelry, but instead gives me awesome hardware. I’ve been writing fiction since my teens and started as a technical writer in 1985. I got my first computer as a gift in 1985—an Atari ST. The most romantic Valentine’s Day gift I’ve ever received was a Mac Powerbook 65 (at the time it was cutting edge with 40 megabytes of hard disk space!) with all my files already downloaded. Over the years, my husband has upgraded my computers, given me printers, scanners, cameras and lenses as tokens of his love.
I’m currently shooting with an EOS Rebel XSi, an upgrade from a Canon Rebel XTi digital camera. The XTi is a superb camera, however, my 15-year-old daughter is a videographer who is taking a summer class at Texas A&M Galveston for SLR Digital Cameras and needed an outfit. My husband decided we would give my daughter my 2-year-old XTi and I could upgrade to the newer STi. This way we can swap lens (but not batteries, alas).
I’m an amateur photographer. I see so many wonderful photos of dogs on the various blogs, which has inspired me to try for more creative approaches with my camera. The problem is that I often shoot quick snapshots because I have other duties when I’m with my Shelter dogs. My current goal is to retrain my artist’s eye so that I can better utilize the technology of the Canon EOS Rebel. To that end, I am taking a bit more time to set up the shots whenever possible.
I am also pushing myself to experiment more with Photoshop, learning to use more than the crop tool and auto-enhancement. I’ve been on Flickr for a year (I just passed the 6,000 view-mark) and I’m posting photos, post-processed digital artwork, plus scans of items from my vast collection of ephemera. Feel free to check out my Flickr Photostream.
This blog forces me to carry the camera and get it out more often. And that’s a good thing.
hmmm...this all sounds so familiar, except for the new camera... I could use one of those!!! and the patience to learn how to use the tools I have available.
ReplyDeletethe puppy picture is really nice!!! I want that puppy!!!
Hi! I just discovered your blog and love the picture of the puppy! You talked about wanting to retrain your photographic eye and I immediately thought of the work of Amanda Jones (http://www.amandajones.com). If you are not already familiar with her work you could check it out to see how she captures the essence of the dog by focusing on a small detail. It's really nice work and I thought you might find some ideas for your own photography there....Best of luck! Amanda
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