John Hancock

I have a basic photo editing program that lets me play around a little bit with my photos. Photos that I happen to take on a smartphone camera. It's nowhere near the level Photoshop is, but I don't have $900 to spend on it so I use the most of what I have. Besides, I don't really need a bunch of fancy editing tools right now, I'm just interested in basics. Why mess with a good thing, right? While playing around with all the capabilities of the software I have, I stumbled across a watermark-type feature which I played with the rest of the afternoon.

I'm glad I can finally add my 'signature' line to the photos I create, because I tend to share them out in the internet world. Which can be dangerous. Like compromising your own intellectual property. Not a good thing if I'm aspiring to eventually have my photos on display.. somewhere, someday. For right now, I have been scouring for photography contests I can enter to bulk up my portfolio. Eventually, I'd like to save up enough money to get myself a beautiful digital SLR camera. I have lost so much of what I learned about photography when I was taking classes in college. Aperture, f/stops, ISO, darkroom development, camera angles, composition, diffused lighting techniques, the list goes on and on as to the intricacies of photography. And I love every second of it. Thankfully I kept the very well-loved, very well dog-eared photography text book from college.

My real interest right now is macro lens photography, getting down to the nitty gritty of things around me. I am also experimenting with different angles of ordinary things, as well as taking more pictures of people (something I was never really interested in doing, aside from capturing candid photos of my friends and loved ones). And of course, there's flowers. I love taking pictures of flowers, which I am fortunate I get a lot of this time of year. The dahlias are especially wonderful for the photos I love taking.

As much as I enjoy taking pictures of the bright greens and deep blues of summer; the rainbows of flower patterns, colors, shapes and sizes; the intricacies of the most simple of gardens; wonderful reds of ripening tomatoes; alas I have so much anticipation for the fall. I would argue with myself that fall is my favorite time of the year. My first love is and will always be trees. And when those leaves begin turning, falling and crunching beneath my feet, I am in pure photography bliss. I can't wait to throw on my rain boots, wrap my scarf around my neck and hop out the door, camera in hand.

Now, where did I put that photography book..