heycarrieann331's photostream  

Hello flickr friends! This is me!

I've been taking pictures since I was in high school (I guess since I was a little kid, actually.....I just didn't take any decent photos until I was a teenager. LOL And actually, I've put some of those here.)

I did some photography in early college but for many years after that, it kind of went by the wayside. NOW, however, I have my first digital SLR camera and I'm starting to get back into it again. High school and college were quite some time ago (I'm 40 at this writing in 2010), and I'm really excited to be getting back into the swing of things. I don't have a lot of technical knowledge (especially with the digital cameras!) I just follow my eye, really. I scanned and posted my earlier work. You'll see a lot of scanned 35mm pics towards the end of my photostream.

Photogging, for me, is a very meditative experience. I find when I'm looking through the lens, the rest of the world just fades away. I kind of "Zen out". And, I think in many ways, it's even a spiritual experience. Some people connect with The Universe by going to church. Some by running 5 miles. Some (such as myself) connect by communing with nature, in the middle of the woods. Taking pictures of those things is a way to bring that feeling home with me.

I purchased PS a while back, but I'm very intimidated by it. To be honest, I'm not big on altering images. I prefer to work with what's there to begin with. Maybe I'll feel differently once I start playing around. The most image manipulation I've done is using filters, and changing a color image to B&W or sepia tone. Maybe amp up the contrast or saturation a bit or reduce some noise.

I also bought a new macro lens and a new telephoto lens. So, hopefully I'll be having some fun with those!

I've already met a lot of really great people here, from my little corner of the world, as well as all over the world (which I JUST LOVE!)

Let's see....a little about me. I live in Northern New Jersey, about 10 miles from NYC. I'm an 8th grade science teacher in the same area.

My photography focuses mainly on nature, and statuary/cemetery. I have a penchant for mushrooms. I'm not sure why....the only answer I have is that it's an "Alice in Wonderland" related thing. And Alice is very near and dear to my heart. (Hence my buddy icon.) Dad used to read AIW to me (Disney version of course) every night, at my insistence. And I never outgrew her. Somehow, Alice is a part of me.

Because I'm a teacher, and because I generally like to do my photography outdoors, you will probably notice I post a lot more during the summer, and a lot less during the winter months. One of my goals is to try to look at things a little differently in the indoor universe during those winter months, to perhaps break that dry spell. I never seem to have any luck with that, however.

I recently put some of my work up on Red Bubble, so if anyone is interested in buying any of my work, go take a look over there! I will put the link on this profile page. If there's a shot that's NOT there, but is here on my flickr stream and you'd like to purchase it, by all means, drop me a flickr mail.

I make a concerted effort to comment on and fave other people's pictures as much as I possibly can. Cuz, ya know...we all want good flickr karma!!! :o)

Ok.....so I guess I'll see you out in the flickrverse! Happy photogging!