It’s been a crazy ride the last few months …most of the time, I have just hung on for dear life or thrown my hands up and screamed …sometimes melted into a little puddle on the floor …but not that often🙃
With the holidays over …visiting friends and relatives departed …a close friend with a life-changing health condition…colds and stuffy noses with hubby and I are currently at bay …I’m taking a breath and catching up …
I do miss musings here…and this edition is just that …after a birthday two days ago, I am following my traditional yearly life review …
Coming from an era where I retouched photos on this Adams Retouching Machine …yep, I’m that old …it takes a great deal of skill to retouch one person in a family group on a 2×3 negative 😆with a sable brush with a one hair tip…photoshop gurus have nothing on me …haha!
I loved what I did then, in my first career …working in the photographic industry and watching the quick changeover to everything digital …no more worrying about wasting film …no more holding the breath waiting while the corner drugstore printed the 4×5 images in that unappetizizng green shade …
The saddest came when I witnessed major photographic studios and photographers lose their livelihood and businesses …I had watched the changes transitioning 10 years earlier on the coasts … along with a divorce, where I had to close my own studio, the closing of a professional studio that I retouched for, I could no longer support myself and went back to get a business degree and the trajectory of my career life changed …
Birthdays are always a remembering of where I have come from and adjusting of where I am going and reviewing what is needed to get there from where I’m at …
Now, I have the wonderful opportunity to follow my dreams and blossom into a photographer and writer that can touch this crazy world with a bit of magic and love …
Blessed to be retired and supported by the most incredible loving man that I have met, this side of heaven …I have been able to learn quite a bit in the past three years …it is starting all over again …this photographic learning process with digital cameras and Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop …every day is such an adventure in learning …every now and then my ADHD comes in handy …yet so far to go, I know that I may never catch up with technology changing and improving every 5 minutes …they say that learning is an incredible way to keep your mind young …
I started with a Photographic club here in Port Elizabeth several years ago, and it has been one of the best decisions for my growth as a photographer …each month there is a different set subject …last month is was coastal seascapes …I have not been judged yet on this one I entered …here I have added brush strokes …a view of Cape Recife in the early morning light while following my beloved around looking for birds (one of his passions)
I am now at a star rating of 3 …where I had to have 10 gold awards and 40 club points to move from a 3 star …it starts getting more challenging with 15 gold and 60 club points …and the most difficult having 6 salon acceptances (which only 20-25% of entries are accepted) …a long way to go …but this girl loves a good challenge …
Doesn’t keep me from having a pity party when I submit the same photo that I received a gold in the gold and totally rejected in a salon …nothing worthwhile is easy …or so they say …hmmm
The last three months have been inspiring to keep going …winning top Junior award with the three gold images below …and mention in the club magazine …
And then, there’s the writing …books were always my escape from my young life and the only gateway to knowledge and hopeful dreams in an environment that ill-fitting and stifling with no contact with the reality of the world…words are still my enjoyment …they create such incredible pathways into the unknown …a story that has been locked inside, knocking to get out for years …and it doesn’t stop knocking …
I tried doing both and it was an impossibility …so it’s sulking in the corner of my brain, waiting to be released …in the meantime, I continue to hone the craft …line upon line …letter by letter …
I can’t imagine life being sweeter …although a bite of bittersweet now and then occurs on a more regular basis…losses and disappointments of one kind or another materialize more as the sands slowly flow through the hourglass…it is what I focus on with gratitude that makes the sour and dark experiences transpose into a more palatable and loving emotion …and laughter, lots of laughter …
And even though I may need to stop now and then to take a breath, I am going down in flames …as Hunter S. Thompson wrote, ““Life should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well-preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside in a cloud of smoke, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming “Wow! What a Ride!”
May your day be filled with all the love your heart can hold, magic enough to make your eyes sparkle, and the knowledge that you are not alone …forever loved …❣ Renée
Dedicated to the man who makes all my dreams come true …my forever love 💕
One Response
You are my inspiration 😍😘