A Year With My Camera

   In my Facebook group CaptureYour365 someone posted about a year long class called A Year with My Camera. Wait, I thought, what is that? This sounds really interesting. So of course, onto Google I go to find out more about this class. And what did I find? I found an opportunity for Free Online Photography Lessons that will help me to take photos I'll be proud of. Well alright then. I'm in!!

   The class instructor sends out an email every Thursday with all the instructions for each week. There are Workbooks and a Planner that goes along with the course but you don't need these books. The emails will have everything in them. I like to have something I can review and write in so I decided that I wanted the books, so I ordered them from Amazon. The books and planner are well written and definitely worth getting if you're looking to step up your game with your photography, I'm really excited to give this a try. The fun part is that A Year with My Camera will build my skills for the Capture Your 365 project. Capture Your 365 is geared towards promoting more creativity and daily routine for photography while A Year with My Camera deals with the technical aspects of photography.

 

   The class doesn't officially start until January 4th but to get me in practice there's a pre-class assignment of Make 30 Photos. This is not a take a photo a day challenge and I don't have to complete it in 30 days. There is a list of 30 different prompts to help me to think about my photos before I take them. To get me out of the habit of just taking a photo and to start making my photos.  Many times I'll just grab my camera, point it at the subject and click the button. I don't think about what I'm doing before I do it. Yea, I'll check composition and try to stay with the rule of thirds but I don't always look at the background. What's going to show up behind my subject? I really hate when I have a great subject, take a photo then when I look at it I'm distracted by stuff in the background. That is so aggravating!! If it's not too bad I might be able to fix the picture in Adobe PhotoShop Elements. But that takes time and patience, two things I don't always have an abundance of.

    So far I only have about six of the thirty photos completed. But the exciting thing is I'm now looking for ideas. I'm looking around trying to find subjects that will fulfill a prompt. I always carry my camera with me but I don't always take it out of the camera bag and use it. It's not going to take too many pictures like that. The only way I'm going to become a better photographer is to get my camera out of the bag, in my hands and in front of my face. With that said, my goal for the rest of 2017 is to finish taking the photos for the prompts listed. I got this!!

 

4 - Taken at Midday

 10 - Food

 

30 - Texture

 

21 - Just Two Colors

 

19 - Wildlife (I may be stretching this prompt a bit!)

 

9 - Older Than Me (Established in 1880)

I hope you've enjoyed the pictures I've taken. Please feel free to let me know what you think. I would love to have feedback on my "work". I can't really call this work because it's just so much fun!!

Thanks for visiting with me at

Down Home at Dee's

 

 

 

The Good Samaritan - John Marrs

Wow!! I'm not sure how to describe this book. 

   I once was told that if a book invoked feelings when you read it then it was a good book. If the book invoked strong feelings then it was a great book. By this criteria, The Good Samaritan is a great book. Let me start with how the story made me feel. Sympathy, anger, frustration, claustrophobic, horror, empathy, and sadness are a few of the emotions that come to mind. The one thing I dislike are open ended stories however that  is a personal preference and a writing technique that doesn't affect the story content.  This book was gripping and the ending left me with so many conflicted emotions. Most of them disturbing. And questions.What happened next?

   The story begins with a phone call. As the conversation unfolds I realized that one person is encouraging the other, a man, to do something but I don't know what. He is resolved on accomplishing what he is planning.  Then he meets a woman but the woman is having second thoughts. I still don't know what the person on the phone is determined for these two people to do.  But after the person who is "in charge" calls the woman I, realize what the task is and I am horrified. How can one person be so evil and encourage others to take their lives for their own personal gratification? The end of the prologue left me stunned.

   Laura and Ryan are the two main characters of this book. The first portion of the book is about Laura. I learn Laura volunteers at a organization called End of the Line. End of the Line is a call center for trouble people to call and talk to people who will listen and help them. Many of these people are depressed and often suicidal. Usually they are looking for someone to offer them hope. The unlucky ones find Laura. Laura believes she is "helping" when she guides callers towards taking their own lives. Laura hides who she really is very successfully and is fully aware of what she is doing. She presents herself as the maternal type. Someone who is helpful, loving and kind. Because that type of person would never be considered a threat. That type of person can get away with almost anything. 

   As the chapters go on, I find that Laura doesn't like her life. She hates the house she lives in, her marriage is in trouble and there is a mystery around one of her children. The fact that Laura's childhood was difficult comes as no surprise but the events that she suffered through causes me to have sympathy for her. How awful for a child to have to suffer through what she did. Losing her mother to illness, her father and two sisters dying and then the things she suffered while in the care of a foster parent. So although I am horrified by the way she "helps" people in a way I do understand how she can justify it to herself. Laura truly believes she is helping people but is honest enough with herself to admit that she does not do it out of selflessness, she admits that she does this because she craves the control over another person and the thrill of hearing their last breath. 

   Laura is as deceitful and manipulative to her family as she is with others. Laura  does everything she can to make others do what she wants and to make situations turn out the way she wants. She has no limits to what she will do even if it hurts her children.  I  Laura because she is manipulative and mean but at the same time I admire her because she is honest with herself about who she is. How many of us can honestly say we admit who we really are? Laura disguises her true self to others but never to herself. 

   The second part of the book is when we meet Ryan. Ryan has lost his wife. She is found dead. Ryan doesn't want to accept the fact that his wife committed suicide until all the evidence presented by the police gives him no choice. He is devastated. He loved Charlotte and the baby she was carrying and  believed they had a wonderful future together. Ryan cycles through the stages of grief but as anyone that has dealt with loosing a loved one to suicide these stages of grief are not the same as loosing a loved one through an accident or illness. There's the added component of trying to understand why our loved one felt so desperate that they saw killing themselves as the only way to end the pain. We deal with the additional guilt of questioning our actions. Did we do anything that caused them to feel that was their only option? How could we not see how sad and depressed they were? Was there anything we could have done to prevent their death?  We try to find answers to the why they did it. It was during the stage of trying to find out why that Ryan came across Laura and The End of the Line.

   Now I find out to what extent that Ryan will go in order to find answers and to confront Laura to make her confess her treachery. I learn that even the "good guy" isn't always so good. That when faced with situations that the normal mind cannot comprehend, emotions take over and the resulting actions lead to fatal and devastating consequences. 

You'll have to read the book to find out all that happens with Laura, her family and Ryan. You won't be disappointed.

Thanks for visiting with me at

Down Home at Dee's