The first photographs I took when I bought my DSLR camera were of flowers and I am still doing it. It challenges me, relaxes and quiets me, and brings me joy as I look at the photos I post and print and hang on my walls.

I have a whole lot of flower photos in my files, but I have deleted a whole lot more than I have kept. I see the beauty, sometimes smell the beauty, but it has taken considerable experimentation to discover how to use light (or what light doesn’t work) and composition to capture the beauty. Sometimes I download some flower photos and remind myself that I had tried this angle, it didn’t work then, and the new photo is no better. But this doesn’t discourage me. I laugh and feel excited that I probably will never get bored with this challenge because new flowers are always emerging from buds and lighting is always changing. And I know I’m getting better at determining useful camera settings. Life is so much fun with a camera in hand.