Years ago when the girls were small I loved taking still life pictures. I was staying home to raise my family. In retrospect I think I was bored at times and also thirsted for creative outlets. So for lack of any other option I would create still life settings with muffins I had baked, children's dolls placed on bed pillows, candles in rain-spattered windows, antique watches on lace ... and on and on and on. I would even print the pictures and then create my own notecards. Since those days pre-dated the internet I wrote letters to family members and a number of those notecards got used for those letters. I have been amused by my self entertainment at times but when I look at some of those pictures I really do find some of them quite pretty. I still have many of them.

A few years ago while in a book store I was looking at bookmarks made from photographs and was inspired to go through my stacks of poor prints and take the best slice out of them to turn into a bookmark. THAT amused my family as I anyone who politely showed any interest in my bookmark collection, was invited to choose one of my homemade photographic booksmarks of re-cycled bad pictures!

Lately I am becoming interested in photographing food. I now have both the time and the means to cook for fun and enjoy the presentation of a dish that I have planned and prepared. I find myself wanting to preserve the beauty of the dish in a photograph before printing. I haven't done that yet but tonight I stopped all action on a bowl of popcorn until I photographed it.

We dumped in some trail mix and thought it looked pretty snacky! Then I shot it! The camera was poor and the light wasn't right but I might just start doing a little experimenting with the professional camera next time.