My interest through the years

I have always had a serious craft (hobby).

I began photography when I was 11 or 12. As a teenager I learned to knit and crochet. Late teens I started ceramics, and did that for about 5 years. During that same time frame I learned to embroidery. Then I moved to x-stitch, doing x-stitch from 1983 to 2005. When Jimmy and I married (February 1996) we both started bird watching from our back screened porch that Jimmy built. Being a photographer I had to try to capture them on film as often as I could. We moved from that house in 2000, and seemed like we doubled our bird population by moving one mile.

Jimmy and I both took a stained glass class in 2005. Something he had always wanted to try. He has not done any stained glass since the class. In 2006 we built a new house (30 miles to the east) and I made lots of stained glass for the house. The largest piece is over the claw foot tub in our master bath. I finally made all I could for myself so I setup http://www.heirloomgoods.com/ at that time. Before the economy did it's nose dive I was selling some stained glass pieces. Maybe I will be able to again someday.

Then my 35mm Canon AE1 saw it's last and I switched to a digital camera in June of 2007. I first bought a Fuji point and shoot, but it could not capture those birds like I was used to with the AE1. About 6 months later I went to the Canon Rebel XTi digital SLR. When I got the D-SLR my macro photography went back to what I had been accustomed to with the Canon AE1. I had done photography all through all the other crafts, but digital opened up photography at a new level. I had always taken lots of photos. A week's vacation could be 6 to 10 rolls of film, easily. With a special trip being up to 20 rolls of film. I filled 4 albums when we went to the Badlands and Yellowstone in 1998. Sometimes I felt like the film developing cost as much as the trip itself. But now there is no restriction on how many photos I can take of that butterfly or bird. It does seem that everything else has been set to the side as I have gone back to my photography full force. I photographed my first 'real' engagement and wedding in 2008. Really had a blast doing it. Also, had some photography assignment work in 2008, with some more coming up soon for the same company.

What you see in my photography is still what I capture with the camera. Photoshop is way above my head, and am not even sure what I feel about it. The old saying 'pictures don't lie' has gone out the window. Now when a person sees a photograph that seems unbelievable it makes us stop and think that it probably is. But not from this photographer, my pictures still do not lie. The enjoyment I feel is the capture from behind the camera, not the computer screen.

I hope you also get some enjoyment from my photographs. I have expanded to this second blog to separate my everyday photos I want to share with all the friends I have made since starting the blog. I transferred all the post from my original blog to this new one. I then transferred all the post from my blog I had just for weddings, engagements,and portraits and merged it with the others at http://www.photographybyleedra.blogspot.com/ and then deleted the blog I had been using for the weddings, engagements and portraits. So I actually have the same number of blogs I had to begin with. I will be working on http://www.photographybyleedra.blogspot.com/ to move it back to what it was started for to begin with. It will have photos that I think are worthy of framing and using in my greeting cards. The greeting cards can use any photograph and I think it will be easier for the person looking for photos for the greeting cards to pick out the right photo when they are not sifting through all my everyday photos too.

I hope to see all my 'old' blogging buddies on a daily basis, just like before. Your comments will help me to know which photographs I should include at http://www.photographbyleedra.blogspot.com/ so please let me know what you think.