I live in Puyallup, Washington with my husband of 32 years. We have 3 children and 4 grandchildren. I am a Registered Nurse and a Licensed Massage Practitioner. We like to backpack and hike deep enough in where kids can’t carry a case of beer (long story).
I have always enjoyed taking pictures and over the last couple of years have done scrapbooking. Don’t enjoy the scraping much but the end products turn out really good. My cameras have mostly been the disposable ones. I purchased a Kodak point and shoot digital about 5 years ago and really liked it until a day of wet snowshoeing killed the LCD screen. If you ask me what kind of car I drive, I will tell you it is a champagne colored car. If you ask me what kind of camera I now own, I will tell you it is a black one. The reason is because my husband bought it for me. 3 summers ago we were planning a backpacking trip into the Washington wilderness that was to last 2 weeks. No phones, no TV, no kids! A perfect vacation. Well, 3 days before we were to leave, my husband tripped over a landscape brick in the front yard, fell and broke his collarbone. He couldn’t carry a pack, which meant a change of plans for the vacation. We went to Yellowstone and spent a week in traffic jams and crowded campsites. So, he felt as if he needed to kiss up and suck up (which I let him do…lol) and he bought me the camera as a make-up. Ummm let me look…It is a “Pentex ist D” digital camera with an 18-55mm lens. Along with that he purchased a 70-300mm tele-macro lens. He also bought Photoshop Elements 5.
Due to life’s circumstances I had to work an average of 50-60 hours a week for way too long. So during that time I took lots of pictures but always on the auto settings, as I had no energy to try and learn anything. But now!!!!! My husband is working (YEA!), my children have all moved out (yea!!!), their spouses and /or significant others have all moved out (YEA!!!) and all the grandkids have moved out (boo). I am now working only 24-30 hours a week and am ready to try to figure out what aperture, shutter speed and ISO mean. I don’t really know how to use Photoshop either but that is also on the list of “to learn”. I went to Boarders today and bought some books and am looking for some classes.
I found this site and was excited but am also very intimidated. I think I will just lurk for a while like some of the others and hopefully by the end of summer be just a tad more confident.
