Explore!

Because my former hobby (making jewelry) has become my business, I needed a new hobby - which has become photography. My long time readers will remember my early posts about the frustrations I was experiencing in trying to photograph my jewelry for my on-line shop and the less than desirable results I was getting. So one day, out of desperation, I decided to go outside and practice with my new camera. After a few photo safaris/practice sessions, I discovered that I wasn't as bad as I thought I was and with after getting to know my camera better along with a little practice, my photography skills dramatically improved. I'm happy to say that I can take a decent picture of my jewelry.

Another thing I've discovered - I like taking photographs. So much so, I will tell you thatone of my hobbies is photography. Aside from the cost of the camera, it's cheap entertainment (no film to develop - it's digital). Every now and then I take a photograph that I think is good when that happens I download that photo to a photo sharing site called Flickr.

Flickr is a pretty cool site (http://www.flickr.com/) - it's a sort of social networking site dedicated to photographers. You get photographers from every skill level from around the world downloading their photographs to share with the world. From all the photos downloaded to the site each day Flickr will choose 500 photographs to post on their "Explore" page. Here's a blurb from their web site that explains the significance of being chosen:

"Flickr labs have been hard at work creating a way to show you some of the most awesome content on Flickr. We like to call it interestingness. Explore the gorgeousity by choosing a point in time..."

In this case the point in time is March 30, 2008 - http://flickr.com/explore/interesting/2008/03/30/page9/ (scroll down to the 5th picture on this page). There I am - 84th out 500 pictures!

Another web-site says this: "Explore is a swell way for photographers to be seen by thousands of people, but the only way to get there is to take great photos and upload them to Flickr (so what are you waiting for?)."

I thought being chosen was pretty damn cool!

It's starting to look a lot like spring...

Red blossoms
Originally uploaded by Dancing Monkey Jewelry

Note: This was written last night before the snow and icy roads arrived. Winter has arrived and is taking it's curtain call in the South Puget Sound Region.

My two favorite seasons are Spring and Autumn - both are seasons that bring the biggest changes to my world (and probably yours too). Each year I look forward to the changing of the seasons with giddy anticipation. This year, I'm so looking forward to spring - it's been a "blech" winter. I can't wait to reacquaint myself with my much neglected garden, to be able to work the soil and watch it come back to life. Then there are those walks around the neighborhood where I'll get to take in all the lovely gardens of my neighbors. There will be flowers, flowers everywhere - it will be lovely.

I've had a great time getting to know my camera over the winter and it has opened up a new world for me - one I had no idea that would become a big part of my life. When I decided to turn my hobby into my business I lost what I did for fun and relaxation and I sort of mourned that change. All my beads - my pretty beads - became inventory. All my tools became equipment. I miss those times I would sneak up to my workbench to create jewelry when I should have been doing something else. Since starting my business my jewelry has become what I should be doing and my my blog has become that thing I do when I should be doing something else. :) My camera was the best gift my husband could have given me for Christmas this year. I've become a "photographer" - if only by the very loosest of terms. I've entered one of my photographs in my "Staff Fine Art Show" at work.

About the photograph at the top of the post. This photograph is one of my favorites that I've taken on the last day of winter. I'm not sure what what this tree is - I'm thinking it's a flowering plum but I'm not sure - it's just very pink and pretty. It was one of the first trees in my neighborhood to burst forth in blooms and that thrilled me - of course I had to capture it on "film". Errrr...should I say capture it's image on my memory card? I'm hoping this Spring, Summer, Autumn and even Winter will provide me with many new images to capture.