Flavoured Echoes

It’s been a while.  The taxes are safely tucked into CRA’s database and I am all caught up and ready to tackle 2010.

I haven’t had much time to bake or cook or even make pysanky for Easter.  What I have been doing is learning more about photography.  I have been listening to the This Week in Photography TWiP podcast (available on iTunes) every single day to catch up – currently on episode 96.  I’ve been taking the camera out to play around with and can be frequently overheard saying things like “oh, so that’s what that button does”.  It’s exciting and overwhelming; I have a lot to learn.

To make things even more exciting, I am heading to the RA Centre tomorrow evening to attend Steve Simon’s presentation ‘The Passionate Photographer’ hosted by the RA Photo Club. I’ve been listening to Steve Simon on the TWiP podcast, and I am looking forward to hear what he has to say.

Why the sudden interest in photography?  It’s not so sudden.  Photography has always been a part of my life.  My father was a photographer back in the sixties.  As a result, we had great looking family photo albums, I was given a point-and-shoot cameras at a young age, and understood the importance of documenting my life.  For no real reason, my interest waned in photography and I didn’t take many photos for the last 15 years.  I had played with my father’s Nikkormat in the late 90s but it was film and I got frustrated with my lack of knowledge and my interest dropped again.  Along came digital and my interest peaked a bit but I considered it my husband’s interest, not mine.  I asked for a little Canon Digital Elph for my birthday last year but curiously, I found myself getting bored, I wanted more control. My husband bought himself a Nikon D300 this past year and that meant the D70 was all mine, plus access to all the lenses. Yup, all four of them.

This is just a beginning.  I mentioned the overwhelming part but now I am aiming getting over what silly fears I have about grabbing my camera and heading out the door.  I think people will be able to tell that I don’t actually know what I’m doing. This doesn’t work.  I already know that the best way to becoming a better photography is shoot often. At the moment, it’s not happening all that often.

For now, I have a few photos on a new flickr feed under my name: Tamara Manning.

Here’s a shot from Dows Lake this past Sunday from my first photo walk (before the snow):

Pink Tulip found at Dows Lake