Do What You Love and Do It Often

This is not meant to be boastful,

but I am reasonably good at a lot of things.

I love the challenge of learning something new.

I'm persistent.

I'm meticulous.

I'm patient.

If something intrigues me, I will go the distance

until I figure out how to do it

or until I understand it.

It is at that point that I often lose interest.

The initial thrill is gone.

I move on.

Photography is the only thing that has been a constant.

I guess I would call it my passion.

I couldn't imagine my life without my camera.

If I'm feeling worried or restless,  I often grab my camera and go outside, not knowing what I will end up focusing on.

Do you know how long it took me to get a clear, close-up picture of a busy ant?

I was laying on the ground with my macro lens, trying to hold it steady and prepare for the moment when the ant crawled out of the crack in the rock.

I love this shot I took after a downpour the other day!  Macro lens again, on a tripod,  focused on the chrome part of the car door handle.  The green and pink color was my shirt.  There were MANY mediocre attempts that day of water droplets on many other things,  but this was the winner.

This is the sunset over Rockville, CT last week.  I was walking the dogs after dinner and noticed some dramatic clouds in the sky.  Vance was waiting to go for ice cream with me, but I made him drive to the tower in Rockville for a few pictures before dessert.  Wow!

Sometimes I overlook shots until I look back a few months later.  This was taken in the spring when I was out one night shooting sunset pictures.  The color was gone, but I saw the moon and one twinkling star in the sky.

I calmed myself last week by shooting bees on flowers for over an hour.  I kept only a handful of images.  I think bees are definitely busier than ants, flitting from one flower to the next in seconds.

It was so exciting to capture this picture of a bee in flight last spring!

Taking pictures while kayaking is especially challenging due to the movement of the boat.  Somehow I managed to get this shot of the inside of a yellow pond lily with two teeny flies on the petal! 

On the same kayaking trip,  I spent quite a while trying to capture this fluffy seed drifting on the surface of the water.

Water also opens up the possibility of reflections.  This heron was definitely keeping an eye on me as I glided closer!

I paddled through a sea of lily pads to get to the right side of these lovely lilies to capture their reflection.

Crystal Lake had never looked so beautiful as it did at sunrise this spring morning.  I had to lay down on the dock to get close to the water to get this breathtaking reflection of the sky in the lake.  Look at that water line!

The early morning light makes any scene sooo much better!

I was driving around town with my camera when I got this picture of my favorite barn!  The plants you see in the foreground are the mums they sell every year in the fall.

I felt kinda bad intruding on these newborns in the nest, but they were impossible to resist.

The momma kept a watchful eye on me from afar.

These are the same babies the day before the nest was empty.

Lastly,  this little songbird was chattering very loudly as it perched on my garden fence!

I LOVE photography.