OLD DOG NEW TRICK

I’ve been thinking for a while about working on my photography skills – what skills haha – so this Sunday afternoon, I got the manual to Mr. Iknead’s fancy schmancy camera and did a little reading. Really, cameras nowadays (this one, anyway) have a much higher IQ than I do. What I learned mostly was where all the buttons were and what they did.   OK, so far so good, photos look pretty good and the Mr. Canon and I are getting acquainted.  Next up, transfer pics from Mr. Canon to Ms. Dell, which took me what felt like forever, but really a couple of hours, to figure out, but still, mission accomplished.  Final step:  Upload to Flickr, which, again, has taken me a couple of hours to figure out, with their fancy new uploader, but again, mission accomplished.   Finally, it dawned on me that I needed to update my browser and then, I could drag and drop to my little heart’s content.  Done and done.  Here’s a few of my first attempts –

I could get into this whole photography thing, like I need another hobby!

BY THE BOOK

My reading/listening is all over the map the past week or so, ranging from Stephen King’s Under the Dome to Annie Dillard‘s Pilgrim at Tinker Creek.  I started Pilgrim at Tinker Creek  yesterday, just a few pages in, but am already enjoying it.  She writes about learning to unsee the obvious and find the hidden in nature, which I find compelling, especially when she writes about stillness and the frenetic activity underneath it.  Like I said, compelling.

FINALLY, SPRING

The past few days have been absolutely, positively gorgeous – short sleeve and sandal weather.  I’m finally motivated to do something- anything-outside.  The sunshine and breeze during my morning walk today felt like such a gift after so many cold, rainy, windy days when I literally had to force myself to just get out of the house.  Thunderstorms are predicted for tomorrow, but I’m living in today and it’s lovely.  I’m letting tomorrow be  tomorrow.

I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life and see if I could not learn what they had to teach; and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.  Henry David Thoreau, “Walden“