Thank you, thank you, thank you to all of you who sent me encouragement and suggestions after last month’s rant (or whatever you call it). I really do appreciate your comments and I tried to take them to heart. The first thing I did was to get out one of my old travel cameras—a Lumix ZS100 with 9-91 zoom lens. Next I started taking the camera everywhere I went so I could look for photos instead of waiting for pictures to come to me. I also tried to turn each outing into a project. The result has been good fun with photography again. Not all the pictures I’ve taken this month are keepers and there have been no prize winners that I can see. But then many of the snapshots do tell a story and there may be a hidden gem of two in the lot.
This post will highlight 3 or 4 photos from the outings I’ve recently taken. I used the Lumix camera and a Nikon Z50ii with a 28-400 zoom lens. What I hope this post also shows is that even though my journey with Parkinson’s can still be depressing, with the help of some of you and my wonderful soulmate Anne, I can still find value and interest in doing things I can do.
AROUND THE HOUSE.
I started looking for things around the house to photograph. Some were common or everyday items and some were put together. Here are a select few.
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| Anne trimming our roses. |
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| Garlic from our neighbors next door. |
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| The pills that are our lives. |
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| The one who doesn't fit guards them all. |
AROUND THE NEIGHBORHOOD.
Hope Village, the senior community in which we live, has a communal garden area for residents. I took my camera with me on a short walk to the garden.
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| Sometimes the flower or fruit isn't the picture. |
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| Each unit in the Garden Homes section of Hope Village has its own patio. |
AROUND TOWN.
Any time I went to the small downtown area of Canby I took a camera. It’s a very quiet town most of the time, but I surprised myself with what I found shoot.
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| The middle of the day in a quiet town. |
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| On a hot day even partial shade is good to find. |
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| Pretty Trash |
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| Any guesses? It's one of two metal shaped benches in front of the old city hall. In the summer we call this burned buns. |
THE COMMUNITY POND.
I had to stop at least once at the Canby community pond. Instead of my usual walk along one side of the park, I sat in my car to see what I could catch around one picnic table.
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| Duck! Remember I'm shooting this out a car window. |
MOLALLA RIVER STATE PARK.
About three miles out of town is a small state park along the Molalla River. I hardly ever go there for photos because I didn’t think there was much of interest for me. I was surprised how much I could find when I really tried.
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| Artist Anne at Work |
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| River Rescue Boat...We hope it's just practice. |
BIRTHDAY LUNCH.
Anne and I took a trip to Salem to join her youngest sister, Charleen, at the Ankeny Vinyards south of Salem. We celebrated Charleen’s birthday with a lunch of pizza and wine. Another chance for photos.
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| Sisters |
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| Great pizza. Happy birthday! |
OLD PHOTOS. And for those of you who made suggestions about my access to old photo files, I have good news. I have figured ways to access some of the external hard drives and I'm working on others. Thanks.
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| Fence and barn near Taos, NM. |
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| Sweetheart tree in southern Colorado. |
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| Museum door in Taos, NM. |
NEXT: Maybe more and bigger projects.
