Making a Breakthrough

What does it mean to make a "breakthrough?" Prying off a stuck cap on a tube of oil paint? Or getting your supplies all organized ONCE AND FOR ALL? Breaking in a new pair of TIGHT shoes. Maybe, heaven forbid, reading your camera manual first to last page?

I hadn't really thought about "breakthroughs," but Kat at Kat's Eye Studio has and she questioned us about our own personal break throughs. 

Now she was referring to photography, but honestly it can apply to anything that we do.. put our shoulder to the wheel type of work....and hope you come out on TOP!

Two things finally surfaced in my mind. One matches her own example.

Breakthrough one:

developing an interest in i phone photography, developing those teeny tiny photos

 into something eerily beautiful, spunky and funky, dark and mysterious or grungy, worn-like my tennis shoes.

Breakthrough two:

this is really the biggie.  i have been working hard at shooting in manual on my Big Mama.  so many things to think about: aperture, white balance, depth of field, shutter speed, lens size......  i read and read, checked out books, read my manual with a magnifying glass, suffered, fell apart, screamed and gave up a dozen times or so....but slowly, really slowly you know like the tortoise winning the race....it started to sink in.....hate to even think of all those shots I lost due to lack of understanding...there is always tomorrow I would tell myself.

This weekend we received an AWESOME snowfall...not piddly like the last one I shared with you patient readers....the real mcCoy.  I woke up early, the house shiveringly cold, the sun just peeking over the roof tops....BIG QUESTION?

Do I stay home, make hot chocolate and read a great photography or art magazine?

Or do I hunt for my rubber boots, find my gloves, hat, scarf, jacket and GEAR! and head out the door

knowing I will freeze to death and perhaps my camera, too.

Being a decisive person, it took me about 1.5 hours to say YES, get your body up and out and go 

photograph the snow with its deep purple shadows, quivering branches with clots of snow ready to plop, contrasts of deep green evergreens with dollops of white clinging to needles. 

YES...lets get on with it. Think adventure, time alone with nature and how ridiculous you look with rain boots, baggy jeans, 1920's cloche knit hat and camouflage backpack.... 

First hurdle:  the frozen car we leave outside as we have too much STUFF in the garage.  Second hurdle: finding that under the pristine snow was an inch of ice!  In Charlotte we don't carry around window scrapers, but my collapsible orange umbrella did the job, sort of. 

The cold air revived my sluggish brain and gave me the oomph to get to Squirrel Park...which is actually a bird sanctuary, kid's playground and walking trails.

Third hurdle: Could I do it. Could I take all photos in manual without a panic and HUGE hesitation.

 Virgin snow lay all about me, the first person at the park. 

And there I  stood, camera perched on tripod, feet freezing in rubber boots and hands cold as icicles (not easy to take photos with gloves on.)

Let's Rock.....

The photos I would like to share were shot in manual with an old film camera zoom lens.

This gorgeous day seemed like a Breakthrough to me.

Shooting snow presents a few problems to work through. Reviewing my photos I can see where some of my calculations weren't quite right. But probably the biggest factor was the glass in the lens. Today's lenses can shoot incredibly sharp images.  But I am happy with what I got....and in retrospect, realize there wasn't as much snow as I had imagined!!!!!  But some is infinitely better than NONE!

Enough Breakthroughs for Now....there are many more to come!