Finding your creative edge

I think I am really beginning to find my creative edge. It hasn't shifted over to my writing just yet, but I believe it will soon. The creativity of late has been with photography, thanks to the folks over at Big Picture Classes!

Picture Inspiration has really given me a lot to think about creatively. The weekly prompts from Tracy Clark are really inspiring. As an example, last week the prompt was Rhythm. The task was to find the rhythm in your life and capture it through your lens. I don't know that I truly fulfilled this goal, but it definitely has me thinking about rhythm and how to show it.

Motif was the next prompt, and I was really surprised by the many motifs we pass in our daily lives. The photos below were shot for motifs, but I really think the flaming fence has a sense of rhythm.

I would be remiss if I didn't mention Mastering Manual and Elisha Snow here as well, because without her weekly tips, prompts and assignments I would not have been able to capture these photos.

This is about the third posting on Big Picture Classes and I promise I am not a spokesperson, just a truly satisfied customer!

Mastering Manual Mode

For the last five weeks I've participated in "Mastering Manual Mode" a photography class presented by Big Picture Classes Online, and I'm really enjoying it! Today I finally downloaded the 522 pictures I have taken in the last couple of weeks, which is not all of the photos taken.

I recall someone saying you shouldn't delete your bad photos, well I'm not totally sure about that, but I can say that some shots that are not the greatest, can have merits. A case in point is this photo of the tree in my backyard. I like this shot, but I can say it is not the shot I was looking for.

It is bit over processed, but I was able to learn a thing or two about ISO, shutter speed, and aperture from taking this shot.

This next shot is much better and also is the end result of several shots taken at the Westside Market.

Keep an eye out for more photo posts! Now off to do some knitting. Have a great week!

A Day of Accomplishments

Trying to find time to engage in some of my favorite activities has been a bit of a struggle lately.I love to say 'work gets in the way of life', but we all know you have to work in order to enjoy some of the joys in life!

Work is not always the problem. You see I enjoy a number of creative activities - writing, photography, paper crafting, knitting and reading. Now, each of these activities can be intense and time consuming so actively engaging in th

ese activities on a regular basis can be difficult.

Let's take a look at these activities:

Writing has been a love and a neglected passion for a number of years. I say it has been neglected because I have not quite figured out a good writing routine. I started this blog as a means to find my way back to writing, but as you can see from

glancing at the previous posts lists I have only been able to keep this up in spurts. The problem maintaining this blog consistently is that I don't have a true focus

.

You see truly successful blogs tend to focus on one, possibly two subjects and there are scheduled postings with a minimum of one posting per week. I have really got to get busy on making scheduling regular posts.

Additionally, I think I need to redesign my blog so that I can have sections for my various passions. This is a future endeavor, one I hope will take place in the near rather than far off future.

Photography has been a regular activity since I was about 13 and probably earlier than that, but that is when I received my first 35mm SLR camera. Over the years I

have taken photography classes and dabbled with developing

my own photos, but my diligence waned. This Christmas I received a Digital SLR and the photo-bug was reignited! Below is an example of some photos taken while playing around with my

new camera.

These photos bring us to another of my passions - knitting! I recently completed both of the hats pictured above! The bottom over processed photo was taken as part of my work for my Mastering Manual Mode class at Big Picture Online Classes.

The purpose of this class is to help owners of digital DSLR's take the camera off of automatic and add art to your photography. I can say it's been a bit of a challenge, but a lot of fun. I'm revisiting some of the basics of photography that I left behind when I picked up my first digital camera.

This is another example from class - the focus of this sample is a

perture settings.

Paper crafting really entails making greeting cards and invitations by hand. Utilizing stamps and a variety of techniques I have come to enjoy creating cards, but I have not found much time to create lately.

Finally, I love reading and every six weeks or so I read a new title thanks to my book club The Literary Sistas! My Sistas and I read only African American fiction, and it is usually of the literary variety. Some of the authors we have read include Toni Morrison, Tananarive Due, Carleen Brice, Virginia DeBerry and Donna Grant, Mat Johnson, and Leonard Pitts to name a few.

I read all authors and some non-fiction because I truly love a good book. The race or nationality of the author is not the first thing I look at, but I do have a tendency to read works by authors of color because they are so often overlooked by the masses.

To further my writing efforts I also post book reviews. Check back in the next couple of weeks for new reviews.

Today was a productive day because I dabbled in photography and found the time to write this post. Progress is made one step at a time! I hope you will join me on this journey.

Comments are always welcome...let me know what you think this might inspire a new post!

Photography Links

Today I've spent much of the day just perusing the internet checking out some of the wonderful photography sites. One of my passions that has been pushed to the rear over the last several years is photography, and in 2011 I plan to change that.

Here are some of the links those of you interested in photography might also find interesting:

• Shutter Sisters - A photoblog championing the beauty found with women behind the lense. It is a place for women to showcase their art as well as receive regular inspiration.
• Northeast Kingdom Photography - This specific link is to the ABC's of Photography, but the entire site is worth a viewing.
• 365 Words Through Photos - Looking for inspiration or a unique perspective to jump start your creative juices, then join Jen Hannux on this daily journey.
• One Word Project - Shutter Sisters offers this great tool, similar to the one above to help spark creativity and to urge you to express yourself through photos. This challenge is monthly as opposed to daily.
• Mastering Manual Mode - If you're looking to get more out of that DSLR you received for Christmas, this is the place to do that. The class starts in February, but promises to help you learn all about the new camera and how to use it in other than the "Auto" mode.
• Big Picture Classes Online - Don't let the name fool you, the crew over at Big Picture offer online classes in more than just photography. It is also a great place for scrapbookers too.

There are many more that I'm sure I missed, but these should get the juices flowing. If you know of a cool photography site, I'd love to hear about it! Leave a comment with a link.