Photo of the Week ~ Week 19

Posted on May 12, 2012May 12, 2012 by Dusty Roads

Pansy

April Showers bring May Flowers

Posted on May 9, 2012May 9, 2012 by Dusty Roads

Seems that the April Showers have continued into May with an annoying persistence. Oh I know we need the rain. I know that since we had so little snow that we are starting out in a drought (not good) but it would be so nice to have a little sun peek through. One acquaintance asked “Why can’t it rain at night and be nice during the day?” So as I sit here listening to the rain pitter patter on the deck I am counting my blessings that I got out on Monday..the one sunny day we had, and enjoyed some time in the outdoors.

I picked Nancy up about 11 am. We drove to Hingham where I had some business then grabbed lunch at Panera. By 1pm we were free for a few hours. Like a couple of kids playing hooky we kicked around our options. In the end we headed over to Sharon to explore the Moose Hill Wildlife Sanctuary. This is another of the Massachusetts Audubon Sanctuaries.

There are 20 miles of trails through fields, forests and wetlands. We chose to try the Vernal Pool trail. It looked pretty easy on the map but I think we got twisted around a few times. It was very quiet. There were occasional bird calls but we never spotted the birds.

We did upset a black snake. In fact I almost stepped on it. Too bad it was too fast to catch on camera. All I got was empty trail!

The only other wildlife we saw was a gray squirrel but he was also quite far from us on the trail. I was disappointed that we didn’t see a rabbit or two but we were walking at a steady pace with occasional rest stops for the old lady (me) .That may have been why we didn’t see much in the way of wildlife. We were just tramping along as well as chatting so quiet we were not. 🙂

Back at the visitor center we explored the Art Exhibit and I spotted some birds on the feeders.

We were so close to Wards Berry Farm that we decided to stop back over there for a soft ice cream.

Here were found the spring flowers in full bloom and tons of little sparrows.

It was hard to believe that it was 4:30 already and time to get back to the real world.

Pretty in Pink

Posted on May 7, 2012May 7, 2012 by Dusty Roads

My Big Announcement

Posted on January 23, 2012January 23, 2012 by Dusty Roads

I told you that I would have an announcement for you before the end of January and today’s the day. I actually had hoped to be ready by January 16 but nothing ever goes as planned.

You know I love to take pictures but in less than 2 years I have thousands! I felt there must be some way I can use these pictures because I certainly can’t put them all in albums and I know I’m not going to stop taking them.

At Christmas I made up a bunch of Christmas cards using my photos instead of buying the mass-produced kind and they were a real hit. That got me thinking. Maybe other people would like cards like that.

So I searched online and looked in stores and got ideas and decided it was worth a shot. So I am announcing my new venture:

dustyroadsphotos.etsy.com

I have a few cards in the shop now and it is open for business. I will be adding more on a regular basis. I even have a Year at a Glance calendar.

A couple of cards round out my beginning inventory. And yes , Rocky and Smokey will be on some upcoming cards too. My furry little models.:)

I hope some of you will stop by the shop especially as it grows. you never know, maybe something will catch your eye!

365?…not!

Posted on December 29, 2011December 29, 2011 by Dusty Roads

Everywhere I turn lately someone is throwing down the gauntlet for a 365 challenge. Doesn’t matter if it’s a challenge to upload an entry a day, a photo a day, a recipe a day…you just have to say I’m going to do such and such every day for 365 days and then plan on sharing it on a blog or something.

Doesn’t sound too bad in the excitement of the New Year and goal setting but having just completed a 365 project I can tell you it WILL GET OLD!( This is my link to my 2011 project: http://project365challenge2011.blogspot.com/)

Last year when I heard about a 365 photo challenge I enthusiastically embraced it. I was puzzled by the number of people who said they started it and only lasted a few weeks. My thought was that it would be a piece of cake.

Well, I have just about finished the challenge. Today being December 28, I only have 3 more days to go. That’s not to say all of the shots have been uploaded. The last one I uploaded was Monday’s. I’ve taken one for yesterday and one for today but both are still in the camera. I’ll probably wait and upload the last of them all at once on Jan 1, 2012.

I didn’t have a problem taking pictures. My camera travels with me all the time but lots of days I took many, many pictures. Sometimes over 100 so to sort through them and chose just one for my photo of the day, well sometimes it seemed overwhelming and I would procrastinate.

Right now I’m cleaning off my hard drive so I can start 2012 with a clean slate. I think I must have 5000+ images. Sort, delete , copy, label disc…I need a better system in place for next year or at least not wait til year-end!

But back to the 365 challenge. I enjoyed it but got frustrated at times. It definitely improved my camera skills. My photos are much , much better than back in January 2011 still I don’t want to commit to that again, at least not right now. I have too much going on in my life between my full-time job and an upcoming project launch. (More on that in a future post)

I am thinking a 52 week challenge. Instead of posting a picture a day …good, bad..or awesome…I think I’ll continue to take daily pictures but I’m going to push the envelope. Snap shots need not apply. I want really good quality shots suitable for gallery prints (those are big enlargements for the non photo bug). If I complete the challenge then I will end the year with 52 really nice photos. To reach that quality I will have to improve my skills even more and that’s really the reason to take on a challenge like that.