patricia emerson mitchell photography
the way I see the world
I took a short walk today — not even three miles — but it was good to get outside after being in a pit so much this week. The wind was blowing and I only stopped once to attempt to make a few images. This is, as the title says, the first shot out of the camera. There are many kinds of Tradescantia, and I’m not certain what this is, so I’ll leave it genus level and not guess the species.
First Shot: Tradescantia, 4.12.19
I’ve not been using my camera much at all. Between getting ill, a bad knee, opera and symphony, and my teaching schedule, photography has had to take a distant back seat. Today, though, I managed a two mile walk (thank you ibuprofen!) and I’m hoping to continue doing two miles until I’m completely healed.
I can’t blame only the things I mentioned above, though. I’ve been in a photography slump. (I’ve not been in a processing slump: I have plenty of photos from past years to work on!) Slumps happen, and I know not to worry. I wade through them and eventually my eye will be back to seeing things to shoot, I’m sure.
Of course having written that, I DID manage to take a few photos today. Here is the first shot. I continue to try and find “that” shot of these blooms. I’ll get there … eventually.
A funny thing about this image is that I’m using the 4:3 ratio rather than my typical 3:2 and I rather like it. Dan uses 4:3 nearly all the time. Go figure.
First Shot: Magnolia, 3.4.19
The last time I used my camera, aside from iPhone shots, was January 4. That’s the longest I’ve gone without doing one thing with a camera for a very long time! First it was due to a bad foot. Then it was a bad cold. Now I have a bad knee but I was not going to allow that to stop me getting out for at least a short walk. I didn’t do much, but there’s always a first shot.
I can’t imagine doing anything big with this image, but I’m delighted that I got out, and this was a lovely plant. And of course a first shot is a first shot! I do hope I’ve identified it correctly.
First Shot: Euphorbia trigona, 2.11.19
The rosebush was one of those that had me pondering, even while looking at it, “is it red or deep pink?” I never could decide, and it depended upon what the sun was doing. The older roses had definitely faded to pink, but it seemed as if the flowers wanted to start out red. (If flowers get to choose.)
First Shot: Rose, 10.2.18
First Shot: Rose, 6.22.18
Sometimes even the blurs are kind of fun. For me this captures the life of very active bees. And wind. Because yes, it was too windy to bother using a camera.
But still I did.
First Shot: Blur of Bees on a Poppy, 6.1.18
My nearly seven mile walk didn’t result in a ton of photography: the wind was pretty nuts most of the time (and continues to be so). But there were brief moments of respite and I managed a few things. I simply had to stop when I saw the bright yellow Coreopsis and blue Nigella damascena!
First Shot: Yellow Coreopsis, 5.21.18
A friend and I headed to Nola’s Iris Garden today. There weren’t as many in bloom as there were when I last visited (was that one or, more likely, two years ago?). Still, it’s an amazing place.
This is just a first shot … I haven’t had time to look at what I have that will be printable yet. It was breezy, so we’ll see if anything is really in focus!
First Shote from the Iris Garden: Silverado, 5.11.18
I try to walk two miles before I pull out the camera. Note the word “try” there, though? I didn’t make it even close to two miles when I saw some Echium and, well, I couldn’t just walk on by. This is the first shot of the day.
First Shot: Echium, 5.9.18
Today’s walk wasn’t as long as I’d prefer, but I knew pacing was important: I have two rehearsals today and need to be able to focus well on those!
Still, there are always flowers, and today I saw a lot of lovely things. Here is the first of them.
First Shot: Rose, 5.3.18