There's been many changes over the past five or six months-- moving (twice), starting a new job after a year at home, and becoming frustrated with my photography and losing some (though not much) of my interest in it, to name a few. All of it left me with little time with keeping even one blog up to date, much less two blogs (my other one is over at A Tale of Two Huskies) and my photography website.
Things have finally begun to settle down, and stuff has been (for the most part) put in its place after our most recent move, so I've begun to turn my attention to the things that have fallen by the wayside these past few months. Rediscovering myself a little, if you will.
I've started reading on a more regular basis again-- you'd think I'd have found more time for it while I was at home for almost the entire last year, but I never seemed to keep up with it. Now, I enjoy reading during my lunch hour at work, and have managed to read through a decent number of books in the last few months (several of which are listed under Recommended Reads on my sidebar). I love reading...you could call it my first love, I guess, because long before I was interested in boys or computers or even photography, there were books and books and more books to read about all sorts of things. Adventure when I was younger, romance as a teenager, and now a mix of both, plus a healthy dose of nonfiction (typically of the biography or animal-and-its-owner variety). I hope my love for reading never fades.
One thing that kicked into high gear while I wasn't working was my creative side. I started dreaming up all sorts of possibilities for a house I dearly hope to build one day, redesigned a bulletin board using an old ripped pair of my husband's blue jeans (complete with back pockets used to hold things on the board), and painted ladybugs onto water glasses for my sister-in-law that LOVES all things ladybugs. The creative side of me had gotten stamped down quite a bit over time at my last job-- it was a gradual thing, building up over time as my workload grew more and more and the stress level went up. So when we moved, and I left the only job I'd ever worked (for almost 10 years, I might add), the side of me that was nurtured somewhat in elective classes in college suddenly burst back to the surface. I'm happy to say that the creative juices are still flowing, even after starting another 40-hours-a-week job.
I became a little disillusioned with my photography business and photography in general, mainly because it didn't seem to go anywhere last year. I know that start-up businesses take time, especially with one like photography (because it's so competitive, and you've got to build up a client base and such). Thing is, I'm not very good at promoting myself. I don't have the salesman gene in me, much unlike my husband, who is very good at it and uses that skill in his job every day. Anyway, as I grew more frustrated with not making any money from photography, I started taking less photos of everyday things. Over the last month or so, however, I began playing with different settings on my camera, trying to make the transition from doing everything in automatic mode to using manual settings more. I've tried in the past, though I don't believe I tried as hard then as I should have. For some reason, reading over how-tos this time around, something clicked, and I've been adjusting settings and taking, I believe, better shots ever since. So now, after a lull in taking many photographs, I now can't seem to stop again. And it feels great. I just hope my computer can keep up with all my picture-taking. :)
I've discovered some new blogs recently (well, they may have been around for years, but I've just now discovered them), and I've been taking note of how the photographs look, and even more so, the layouts of their pages. The blogs helped inspire me to start playing around with the settings on my camera more, and got me to start looking at my blogs, this one in particular, and its design. So for any followers I may still have out there, who noticed that there have been some changes to this blog and its design...you now know how it all came about. :) There will probably be more changes to come in the near future, but for now, a template change and some adjustments to the sidebar will suffice.
I leave you with some shots I have taken lately, focusing more on the depth of field and blurring of backgrounds:
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