The Photo Untaken

Last week, we saw a car broken down on the side of the highway It wouldn't have drawn my notice except for the words "Just Married" soaped on the back window of the car. Were they in their wedding clothes when they broke down? Were they on their honeymoon? Who rescued them? What a story that couple would have to tell. As we passed, I was wishing I had my camera, even while I realized that in the middle of a major highway, there was no way I could take that photo.
It's one I have to just let go............

Recycling has been on my mind a lot lately. My son and I are getting rid of old VHS tapes, old monitors, computers and printers, and figuring out what to do with old TVs that Goodwill won't even take. Where do I put all this stuff? And how on earth can I be responsible about it when I don't know where to take it? How do I know that the company I give my old computers to is disposing of them properly? How do I make sure that my old information is totally gone from my computer? And why do companies who trash all these things with alarming regularity not seem to feel the least bit guilty about it? What happened to the good old days, when people would actually take your old stuff and fix it to resell at their store? Too many questions with no answers.

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The Pull of Photography

I love to take pictures. Some times I just drive past something and I am compelled to stop and take a photo of it. It doesn't always happen - I might not have my camera, or I can't pull off the road. If I don't have my camera with me, I think about the photo and debate whether I should go back and take it for hours afterward. It literally pulls at me to go back and take the photo. Yesterday was such a day. It was beautiful and sunny and the skies were blue and I'd driven past this dandelion field for the second day in a row, contemplating the photo it would make. Last year, I had the same compulsion and passed by the dandelion field. The following day, the grass had been cut. I had missed the chance. So, after I drove home yesterday, I grabbed my camera and drove back down the road and took this photo. Ironically, today, the skies are gray after a hard rain yesterday and the dandelions are completely closed up.

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What do I do with a blog?

Well, I'm new at this, so bear with me while I find my bearings.

So this is my blog. Hmmm. My mother always told me never to write anything I didn’t want anyone else to read, but I love to have other people read things I write. It may not always be quilting related, even though my website points to quilting. I have quite a few interests and want the blog to be a general life rant if I want to also.

Speaking of quilting, I found a great new site the other day called Spoonflower.com, which led me to a host of other new sites and so on and so on. They are a new company who will print your design onto fabric. Hopefully the prices will come down a little when they get past the beta stage and into big production mode or maybe they’ll have a wholesale price for a large quantity of fabric. That led me to another site called wordle.net and another called etsy.com. Hopefully reading others blogs will lead me to more fun and interesting sites like these.

So on to photography, I also was pointed to a site called Kelbytraining.com where you can pay a fee (by month or by year) to take online classes. Well, in the last few days, I’ve taken almost 4 full classes, on Camera Raw and my new D300, studio lighting and business ideas. I’m getting my money’s worth that’s for sure, but it’s fun too. And I have actually learned some things I didn’t know before. I feel energized in my photography and my quilting.

Sometimes I just have too many ideas floating around in my head to connect the two and then I get frustrated and go read a book!! Of course I always wanted to write a romance novel too. I devour romance novels. I’m going to keep track for a normal month and see how many I’ve read. There should be a frequent reader program.

Do what you love. Love what you do.

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