I have always had a serious craft (hobby).
I began photography when I was 11 or 12. As a teenager I learned to knit and crochet. Late teens I started ceramics, and did that for about 5 years. During that same time frame I learned to embroidery. Then I moved to x-stitch, doing x-stitch from 1983 to 2005. When Jimmy and I married (February 1996) we both started bird watching from our back screened porch that Jimmy built. Being a photographer I had to try to capture them on film as often as I could. We moved from that house in 2000, and seemed like we doubled our bird population by moving one mile.
Jimmy and I both took a stained glass class in 2005. Something he had always wanted to try. He has not done any stained glass since the class. In 2006 we built a new house (30 miles to the east) and I made lots of stained glass for the house. The largest piece is over the claw foot tub in our master bath. I finally made all I could for myself so I setup http://www.heirloomgoods.com/ at that time. Before the economy did it's nose dive I was selling some stained glass pieces. Maybe I will be able to again someday.
Then my 35mm Canon AE1 saw it's last and I switched to a digital camera in June of 2007. I first bought a Fuji point and shoot, but it could not capture those birds like I was used to with the AE1. About 6 months later I went to the Canon Rebel XTi digital SLR. When I got the D-SLR my macro photography went back to what I had been accustomed to with the Canon AE1. I had done photography all through all the other crafts, but digital opened up photography at a new level. I had always taken lots of photos. A week's vacation could be 6 to 10 rolls of film, easily. With a special trip being up to 20 rolls of film. I filled 4 albums when we went to the Badlands and Yellowstone in 1998. Sometimes I felt like the film developing cost as much as the trip itself. But now there is no restriction on how many photos I can take of that butterfly or bird. It does seem that everything else has been set to the side as I have gone back to my photography full force. I photographed my first 'real' engagement and wedding in 2008. Really had a blast doing it. Also, had some photography assignment work in 2008, with some more coming up soon for the same company.
What you see in my photography is still what I capture with the camera. Photoshop is way above my head, and am not even sure what I feel about it. The old saying 'pictures don't lie' has gone out the window. Now when a person sees a photograph that seems unbelievable it makes us stop and think that it probably is. But not from this photographer, my pictures still do not lie. The enjoyment I feel is the capture from behind the camera, not the computer screen.
