It has been a while since I posted, and I’m sorry, but things have been busy. I’ve also been doing quite a few videos on YouTube and I will share them with you.
My Photography
Over the last 18 months, a lot of things have changed for me. You know that as I’ve talked about it a lot here. Photography really took a back seat for a long time, and you know I’m not even sure if it will ever be my main obsession again. Though having said that I do still love doing it and want to continue taking photos. The business aspect of it, I’m not interested in at all.
I guess the big thing now is really about me sorting out where I go and doing what I enjoy and what makes me happy.
Caught Midway
This is a term I came up with quite some time again, a couple of years ago I think. I think it describes me perfectly and I’m sure many of you can identify with it as well.
I feel like I’m too old for many things, I will never be an Olympian champion now, not that was ever a possibility, and my child rearing days are long gone. Perhaps in many ways, I’m too old to think I can have a new career. It is what it is.
However, having said that I also know I’m too young to just lie down and get ready for death. I feel like I’m caught midway between two worlds. Sometimes I’m not sure where I belong or what I’m doing.
So I’m going to sort it out and see where I end up.
Gardening
My grandmother was and mother is an avid gardener. I always thought the gene missed a generation, but if given the right conditions I love it. Those conditions seem right now. The garden has given me a great sense of joy and I love being out in it. Though lately, it has been a bit hot out there, but with summer coming to a close I’m looking forward to autumn in the garden.
Baking
I’m still baking all my own bread. It has become a sense of pride for me that we haven’t bought bread for almost a year. That feels great.
With my mum down at Christmas, we have been talking about how I have always enjoyed baking. I thought she did too, but apparently, she did it because she had to, while I loved it. Though she always encouraged me.
YouTube
This is something new that I am loving. I think part of the reason I haven’t been blogging is because I don’t like typing as much as I prefer just talking.
I was also testing some theories and I think this post will help with that. Something I will go into another time.
Speaking of YouTube videos I have three for you below, from the last three weeks. I hope you will watch them and enjoy them. I know they still aren’t great, but hopefully, over time they will get better.
Fujifilm X-S10
I’m experimenting with the Fujifilm X-S10 at the moment. A great small camera and perfect for videoing. Though, the last video I did with it the IBIS was turned off somehow, so the next one will hopefully be better.
I used it along the Great Ocean Road and all the photos in this post were taken with it.
I want one I think, but Dave is playing hardball and I don’t think I’m going to be allowed to get one. I will have to keep saving.
I will give a full report on it soon.
I’m going to leave it there for now. Take care everyone.
Thanks for sharing the details
You’re welcome.
Hey Leanne …yes definitely lack of water with the cucumbers .. But try not to water the leaves as this can promote powdery mildew. I’ve had that happen to my corn too, although only the odd plant. I find that deciding when they are ready to eat is a bit of trial and error. Love seeing all your flowers and that lovely kitty!
Oh good, I’m glad I was able to work that out. I just water at the root with it, though we have had such a wet and humid summer that mildew is on everything just about. I did see a trick for getting rid of it, but haven’t tried it yet. Maybe will see if I can use it next year. Our summer is coming to a very fast finish and I think the garden is winding down now. Time to plant seeds for winter. Thank you, my daughter likes Susie being in the videos so I try to feature her when I can.
Really good to see some of your photos again. I enjoyed the road trip too. Small comment: Music was a tad loud 🙂 Do you have a link to the article in the mag?
Thank you Sherry,I enjoyed it too. I can give the link, but I think you have to subscribe to it, unfortunately.
I look forward to watching your videos. I hope you find your spot in this world. I think I know what you are referring to. Hugs
That is good to hear Cindy, I hope you enjoy them. I am sure I will, though I love the spot where I am now and want that to continue. Thank you.
As always – your photos are beautiful. I am going to watch your videos when I have a little more time
No problem Nora, thank you.
You’re not alone on the in-between worlds. Love that you’re keeping some photography because I’ve enjoyed yours for quite a few years now. I think it’s amazing, but understand wanting something new and different too. Keep the videos. 🙂
It is funny place to be really, in some ways freeing, but in others constricting. It has been good to get back to taking photos, which I will be doing more of I’m sure.
I love doing the videos and I really want to keep doing them and, hopefully, get a lot better at doing them.
Thank you Peabea.
Your photographs are always wonderfully well composed, beautifully executed, and recognizable from afar. You have a gorgeous style. So here is my challenge to you: Do something totally different for a month or two – high key. Yes that other end of the scale. I bet you’d be fantastic at it!
Thank you Ludwig, it is nice to get back to it. Though I did do the challenge last year when I was trying to do food and still life. Now I’m trying to get better at doing video, so I guess that is my new challenge.
Well, the videos are charming. I.m sure, next they will be works of art.
Thank you Ludwig, I’m having mixed feelings about them, I’m trying to decide if I am good enough to do them.
Sure you are! True, video is a different world from still photography. I appreciate it, admire it, but for me I’d still rather tell my stories in “a hundredth of a second”.
Thank you Ludwig, I keep hoping that I will get better, so fingers crossed. I like that too, taking photos, you can hang those on the wall, which is nice.
Love the photographs of the sea. Just where I would like to be now. I think that life has it’s seasons and each makes it’s own contribution to who we are: an ebb and flow like the sea. I wouldn’t say it’s exactly a new career but here am I in my seventies blogging and selling my patterns, who knows where life will go from here. Wishing you all the best in your future endeavours.
You’d like to be beside the seaside, great song. That is great to hear RJ, so glad that you are finding your way too. It is an important thing. Right now I am loving doing the videos and planning what I’m going to do.
Thank you so much RJ, and the best to yours as well.
Lovely Leanne! Your talents as a photographer has definitely spilled over into your videos. 🙂
Thank you Zelmare, I am hoping they will look good, but who knows. lol
Wonderful set of images Leanne and now that (hopeful) Covid restrictions are easing I can go out and take some images. A few days ago sent you an email for the 10 steps to Long Exposure Photography. Which is a genre I am starting to get into. At this stage I have not received the tutorial.
We are lucky with the restrictions and we are on fairly light ones now, which is great. Oh I don’t know what has happened with that, you should have got it. Did you check your spam folder?
Leanne, you are too good a photographer to just stop doing it, not to mention the amount of knowledge you have accumulated over the years. Baking bread and doing gardening are all good things but surely you can do more than that. Good luck in finding your niche!
Thank you Svetlana, I won’t give up photography but my focus with it will change. I am going to try and enjoy it just for doing it, if that makes sense.
My experience with change came with illness. At 65, retired and in a relatively place I wanted to get back into the photography I loved so much inn y teens and twenties, when life got in the way. It was not to be. I became ill and lost a whole year to paralysis and then rehab. Six years later I can walk to the end of the block and can no longer drive.
I’ve taken new hobbies but with this COVID going round I get out every six weeks to the hospital for my treatments. The library is closed (it had a workshop) so I am getting better acquainted with my Bride and computers in general. Also I am getting interested in radio (another old hobby).
There is always something new when I awake each morning.
Personally I hope you continue to photograph, you have a great eye. Do it for the love of it,,,
As for your other interests, whatever you chose, do it for the love and the inner smile you feel in your heart when you’ve completed your task, even weeding will give you that smile. 😀
Whatever your choice, I’m sure you’ll be the best.
Life getting away is something that happens to many of us. Sorry to hear about your illness, it sounds like it was tough.
Covid has changed so many things, it has made it tough for so many people. Radio is an interesting hobby.
I think having something to do when you wake up is a very good thing, whatever it is.
I will continue my photography, but it will become more of a hobby I think going forward.
Thank you so much. I have to say I am much happier now than I was just over a year ago.
Leanne, this post reminds me of when I was at a crossroads. When I was 65 and closed a 20 year partnership business, I didn’t know what to do. I stupidly started another business that I closed down 5 years later. I wish I had started shooting then. So, while I was older than you are now, I do understand your quandary. I’ve been missing your photography so please keep shooting for pleasure. Friends ask me if I will sell my pictures. I tell them if anyone wants to purchase one they can contact me and we will arrange something. I don’t want to make this into a business. It would ruin the joy I receive. As far as writing, which was my business, I do write a human interest column for our monthly community newsletter. I do enjoy doing it, but if I were writing for a newspaper or a client, I wouldn’t enjoy it at all. Take you time, you are still young. Find your new passion.
Thank you Anne, lots of kind words. I think right now I just want to enjoy going out and taking photos, baking, looking after my home and my garden. I love the more environmental aspects of my life and doing what I can to save the planet.
My husband always says if you turn your hobby into a business you won’t be happy. That it becomes a chore and I think that is to true.
I am just going to go with the flow and do what I want. That sounds like a good plan.
What made your passion for photography dim? Was it the business side of it?
Yeah, I think it was that definitely. Like I could never do enough to get people to want to pay me to teach them. I think the business side often controlled what I did as well. Now I can do whatever I like, and who cares. I hope that answers your question Rhonda.
Leanne–the Fuji looks like a really good camera. Tell Dave we think you need that camera!! 😉 You have one huge garden–and all the veggies you are growing….!! It sounds like you are enjoying what you are doing–baking, gardening, a little bit of photography. Thanks for the road trip, too. I really enjoyed myself!
It is Lois, I really like it, great camera for walking around and such. I told him and he just laughed.
My garden is a good size, good for me to handle. I love being able to do a whole meal from it, which I can pretty much do these days. Means not as many trips to the supermarket, though it would be good to get fruit growing. I love what I’m doing, life is more fun now. That’s wonderful that you enjoyed the road trip, we had a lot of fun too. Thank you Lois.
I completely understand about feeling caught midway. I can really identify with that, and I love this post. Your road trip video is especially nice. I am in the U.S., but just over 50 years ago when I was in high school I was a Rotary International exchange student and spent a year in Adelaide. I had the opportunity to travel on the Great Ocean Road with one of my host families, and the highlight of my 17th birthday was seeing the Twelve Apostles and Loch Ard Gorge which I found to be absolutely magical. Lately I’ve been very nostalgic about a lot of things, and your video brought back some wonderful memories of my time in Australia so long ago.
I knew there would be others who would feel the same way. That is great to hear you liked the post.
Does the Great Ocean Road look the same to you? I think a few of the Apostles have fallen over. Adelaide is a lovely place, I haven’t been for years. I know what you mean about the nostalgia, I’ve been feeling the same. Thank you.
The Great Ocean Road scenery looks much the same (I had heard that at least one of the Apostles has fallen), but the road looks much more modern, and there seem to be a number of nice lookout areas that I don’t remember.
I think they have had to make lots of changes for the huge number of people that go there now. So some would be the same and some different. I think two or three of them have fallen.
it sounds like you are on your way to a wonderful new life chapter
I hope so, after getting so depressed from the business side of photography, I’m really hoping my love of taking photos will come back. Thank you Beth.