My Learning Curve

Opportunities for interesting blog posts and/or photography have been pretty much non-existent since the wrens fledged.  For the past week or more my lymphocytic colitis has been quite terrible so I had another appointment with my gastroenterologist and have gone back on the (very expensive) medication, which is doing the job for which it is intended – Praise God.

Along with dealing with the colitis, I also threw out my left shoulder and pulled the muscles, so I was dealing with that excruciating pain.  My dad – who is 87 years old – was admitted to the hospital for the second time in three weeks, and we also celebrated Mark’s 50th birthday with a little surprise party I organized for his co-workers and friends and also a small get-together here at home on the real day with family and friends.  With so much going on, blogging and photography took a way-back seat.

For Mark’s birthday dinner we made Low Country Boil and I have to take just a moment to brag because it was amazing!!!  Low Country Boil is a staple in the coastal region of South Carolina.  It consists of new potatoes, corn on the cob, sausage, onions and shrimp.  I found a good recipe on Pinterest (check it out here) but then we changed it to suit our taste.  We used a half-gallon of chicken stock and a half-gallon of water along with the beer (instead of all water) and also adjusted the seasonings, omitting the hot sauce and tablespoon of red pepper, which would have been way too spicy for our tastes.  Mark covered the patio table with brown paper and we served it on the table along with beer bread purchased at the farmer’s market, cheeses and condiments.  I took a photo with my phone and it actually turned out well.  What a yummy meal!

Mark’s birthday dinner.

This photo only shows half of what we made – we ended up with lots of leftovers!

Needless to say, with all that has been going on, my new camera sat untouched for nearly two weeks.  I was really happy when my good friend Juli suggested we go somewhere to practice our photography.  We decided on a trip to Toledo Botanical Gardens.  Juli has taken classes in photography and has a much more artistic eye than I have, so she was a big help in pointing out good color combinations, interesting angles, etc.  I have continued to read and experiment with my camera but I have decided that I am going to lighten up on myself and not worry so much if I understand everything.  As long as I continue to learn and improve – and have FUN – that is enough.

The day was mostly cloudy and humid, which actually helped us somewhat because they were high clouds, giving us a nice filtered light with no harsh shadows.  The Toledo Botanical Gardens had hosted a huge art show over the weekend, so the groundskeepers were bustling everywhere in their golf carts, cleaning up tents, tables and chairs.  We found plenty of things to photograph.

We started out with this turtle sunning himself.

Then we moved on to the ducks.  There were ducks feeding…

Ducks preening… (in unison)

Ducks swimming…

Ducks resting…

And ducks just looking pretty…

Eventually we did move on to other things, like dragonflies.  I was really pleased with these shots.  They are not cropped at all and I didn’t even have to fix them in post processing!

Believe it or not, there are actually flowers at the Toledo Botanical Gardens, and I did get around to photographing some of them.  I am learning that photographing white flowers is difficult because the light seems to reflect off them.  But these didn’t turn out too bad.

We peeked through windows…

And doors….

I have been very impressed by a couple of the bloggers I follow and their ability to photograph bees.  I learned what a skill this is, since bees aren’t ones to sit around posing for pictures.  I used the continuous shooting function on my camera to take three quick shots of this (very small) bee.  These were my best photos of the day.  I love the sharpness of the purple flower.  These also are not cropped or post-processed.

This is one of my favorite statues in the gardens.  It makes a very appealing and willing subject so I photographed her from the front…

From the side…

And from the back…

Here are some yellow lilies, at least I think these are lilies.  You all know how I am with flowers. 🙂

This is another of my favorites at the gardens, I believe it is titled Woman with Birds.  Unfortunately the sun was directly overhead so if I photographed her from the front she just looked like a big dark blob, but from the side you can’t really see the beauty of the piece.

I will end with a couple of colorful displays.

Oh, and one more, just because I like this one.  🙂

I suppose I put way too many photos in this post, but since I am learning, I thought all of these were good examples of what I am learning and how I’m trying to improve and experiment.  If there are followers who don’t like “too many photographs” – they can scroll past. 🙂

Tomorrow we head north for the Fourth of July holiday, so hopefully I will have some fun Northwoods Adventures to post about in the coming days!