Spring is meandering into our lives once again.  It dances close, then retreats.  Soon it will settle in for the duration.  Roadtrips will be coming along with it.  We are starting slowly by tripping locally.
Last month, we went down to Nashville for a Macro workshop.  It was interesting and the speaker showed a lot of gorgeous pictures, but I wasn’t personally inspired to try.  I’ve done Macro work before and I like the effects I can get shooting that way, but it’s just not my main focus.  It’s closer than Photojournalism or portraiture, but I still prefer landscapes.

So my photos from Nashville are of the skyline instead of closeups of flowers.   After the workshop we all went to Ray’s condo for dinner, then walked down to the river to shoot the skyline.  I had forgotten my tripod and didn’t expect to get much, but I was surprisingly pleased with some of them.

This past weekend we went to Pennyrile State Park at Dawson Springs for the Spring Photography Weekend.  It’s an annual excursion for us.  When we started I was using a point and shoot Minolta that I still remember fondly.  It was an easy camera to use and got beautiful photos.  In the lower category with that camera, I always got two or three awards.  It was so easy, I felt guilty.  So I pushed myself into the SLR category.  Now I consider myself fortunate to place even one time.  However, I am learning more about the use of interchangeable lenses and setting the aperture/shutter speed to get the effect I want.

It has been a slow process, stalled by changing cameras several times.  The first time because I slipped crossing a stream and drowned the camera and lens.  I replaced that one with the next step up and had almost mastered it, when Jim bought his new D800.  He decided to give me his D700 and I passed my simpler D90 on to my grandson.  Now I am back at square 5, not one.  Some things are still the same, but the location of features and how they work together is very different.

In spite of that, I did manage to get third place in the Cliff’s category of the Intermediate Division.  Perhaps by fall, I’ll understand the camera well enough to improve my standing