My Travels With Max Featured On The PhotoShelter Blog

What a nice surprise to learn that PhotoShelter wanted to feature my story on their blog! 

Sarah Jacobs started following me on Instagram, learned that I belong to PhotoShelter, and then wrote about my journey on the PhotoShelter Blog today.  

She did a wonderful job at summarizing the past few years and each time I read about my journey, it seems hard to believe that this year will be my fifth year on the road. Even more hard to believe that I lived out of a tent for two years!  I think the pop up van has spoiled me.  My only  wish would be taking photographs earlier on, but everything happens for a reason and I am just thankful that I made the decision to get lost, get sober and pick up a camera.

Thank you to the new followers and for the ones who have been here from the very beginning.  I look forward to sharing another year of travels with you!

Click HERE to read the article.

Etsy Fridays

I have slowly but surely decided on a few pictures to put up for sale on Etsy. It's not easy sorting through 30,000 pictures to find one that I like enough to offer to you.

Each Friday, I am going to post new pictures that I have put up for sale on Etsy that week. I will put them up throughout the week but will send you a notice on my Facebook Fan page each Friday on what is new so you don't have to check back on the ETSY page if you are looking for something. I always welcome suggestions so if you love a picture but don't see it for sale...let me know!

You can always take a quick look on the right side of the blog to see what's up for sale. I am new at this, so thank you for your patience as I work out the kinks. To get updates, please become a Facebook fan by clicking HERE

So, it's a goal completed on my 39 things I am going to do in my 39th year list. Now it's off to discover new things and places to talk about! Keep exploring! :)

Lifeguard Chairs

I love lifeguard chairs.

Maybe it's because I used to be a lifeguard one summer a long time ago. It's not a glamorous job. You sit there hours on end watching people play in the water. At first it's fun, but after a while it can be a bit boring and annoying.

Perhaps I just didn't master the art of making sure people knew how to swim when they jumped in the pool. I figured that they would have some sort of life preserving skills before they took the leap. Not always the case.

I appreciate the fact that the life guard chair is always on duty even though the season has ended. It reminds me of summer days and gives me hope that the warm weather will come back soon. On most of their off duty days, people climb on them to get a better view of the sunset, relax from a run, do a photo shoot, or snuggle up together for a quiet moment. They serve a purpose even during the off season.

It's no wonder that I enjoy taking pictures of them...just sitting there, waiting for the season to start again.

On the East coast, they put away the chairs after Labor Day, but they are usually out all year long here on the West coast. Here is a collection of chairs I've taken on my travels. For more, click HERE

You Can Do It Too - Photographs

As I travel, I want to encourage you to take a road trip of your own and I pointed out some ways you can do it too in a previous blog.

As with traveling, you can take some beautiful pictures without spending a fortune. There are several cameras out there that are affordable and you can snap away hundreds of shots without spending any money.

All of my pictures on my blog are taken with a Cannon Powershot SD1200 digital camera. I get a lot of questions on what equipment I use and this is it. Sometimes the information is taken with disbelief that all shots come from this point and shoot, but it's true. I take it as a compliment. I don't use the auto function and it took a while to play around with all of the settings but sometimes I get lucky. I do take a lot of pictures to end up with a few "winners."

Even though all pictures are taken in a compressed jpeg format, they still pop when printed on a quality printer.

As the ad says, "go ahead, have all of the fun you want"...I certainly have. I haven't made the leap to a SLR camera and there are a few reasons for that, beyond the obvious reason of cost. First of all, I think this little camera takes some nice pictures and secondly, I can take it anywhere. I put it in my pocket every time I go out just in case I see something that I need to capture. Lastly, I tend to drop it a lot. It's my third replacement camera. The first one (a lower model) fell to the ground when Max pulled on the leash when I was walking him in Yellowstone. The second one was dropped in the ocean in Cape Cod when I was taking it off of a tripod. Third time's a charm! I've dropped it a few times but it's still holding up...so far.

I'm not an expert, but I do have fun with it. I tend to take a lot of pictures. I can shoot over 200 a day and like only 3 or 4 of them. Of course, I have a problem with the delete button that I need to get over. For some reason, even if I don't like the shot I will keep it. I will work on that. Someday.

Thank you for enjoying my photographs. I enjoy taking them and I love looking at what you take as well. Feel free to share your pictures with me on my facebook page. It's been fun seeing winter where you live. I am suffering in the California sunshine for now. Max and I are leaving soon for another journey. We look forward to sharing it with you.