Saturday 10 October 2015

A New Hobby

ME is a life-altering illness, and because of this hobbies that once gave much pleasure often have to be dropped.  However this is not a post about loss, rather it is about a new more ME-friendly hobby that I have found!

Recently I won a Panasonic GX7 camera through a National Trust competition.  The idea was to take a photograph of a sign saying "Thank You Nature" and then share it with the National Trust on social media using the tag #ThankYouNature.

My husband had previously suggested I might enjoy photography, but I had balked a little at the cost of setting up, not sure that I would really take enough photos to justify such expense.

So when this competition came up, I entered (several times actually) and won with a funny little image with wild flowers between my toes!


The GX7 camera I won, ended up being ideal for me as it is so very light and yet has almost as much photographic ability as a full DSLR.  New lenses for it are also much cheaper than for DSLR.

So I bought an extra lens or two and started to take photos of the birds on the feeders here at home. I've also got a bit fascinated by scenery.  Anyway as a new, and less energetic hobby, I find there is much to recommend it.

Here are a few of my favourite shots to date:












 



Still so much to learn, but a great excuse to sit still outside for extended periods of time. :)

PS I've just got started with Flickr - You can view more of my photos here.

6 comments:

  1. Some of those photos would make great postcards. I especially like the top one, looks like a magical landscape, and the ones with the birds.

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    1. Well I have to tell you N.Ireland is a magical landscape! ;) This is looking towards the Mourne Mountains from near Annsborough.

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  2. love your pup jumping...he's got an intent and happy look on his face. Well done on the win! It looks like you're already having a great time. The weight of the digitals is a big plus....I can no longer lug my manual SLR and lenses about (and with the demise of film and ME, getting to the few places that still do processing is prohibitive). Photography is a wonderful way of looking anew at the world.

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    1. Thank you. The GX7 is a micro four thirds camera so really very light and compact. I love it, and am quite surprised by how addictive this new hobby is becoming. :)

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  3. I absolutely love your photography, especially the animals!
    Since getting ill, I can relate to having to give up hobbies which is understandably quite irritating. I've tried my best to throw myself into blogging as much as I can and improve my photography too :)
    Maeve // Thrift O'Clock

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    1. Sorry for not replying sooner Maeve. Yes - finding a new out let is important, and certainly your blog seems to be going from strength to strength - and you always seem to have good images to accompany your posts.! You are also much better at keeping up with regular posts than I am. :)

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