Journey Around the Pink Ribbon: Eye Spy with My Little Eye and/or Better Later than Never

FLASHBACK November/December 2003: In all the insanity of doctor's visits, surgeries, mammograms and fires and rescheduling of conferences I was also deeply rooted in my first ever training for the Breast Cancer 3-Day Walk. I had signed up for this wacky, insane adventure way back in the spring, never knowing how close to home it would really come when the walk weekend actually arrived this same fall. I had been supporting The Komen for a Cure Foundation previously as a host of their Lee National Denim Day-a one once a year work style event in which company employees are encouraged to donate a minimum of $5 and in return have the privilege of wearing denim to work for a day-a luxury for many out in the business world. However a commercial most likely sparked my interest and I dragged my adventurous friend Janet along to an orientation meeting. Let's just say after some giggles, and definitely some tears the two of fools signed up to raise $1500 each and then to top it off walk 60 miles in three days...What were we thinking? Both Janet and I had family ties to breast cancer so we had not problem supporting this crazy event. Since the time we signed up things changed and Janet became one of my two biggest supporters that year. I did manage to raise my money and was working hard on training-that meant a lot of very long walks on weekends, say 15-18 miles at shot. I picked up a new teammate, Kristen, along the way and she I got very close, seeing as how we spent so much time together walking and talking. As with many others parts of this time some things are hazy, but two things I can recall clearly-one Kristen went away to a conference during this time and came home to me telling my teammate that we had a new reason to be walking-for me. And two that that first walk was HELL! I vowed NEVER EVER EVER to walk 60 miles in a weekend-it was insane!

Ok with that being said, and if you know-you know that I went on to complete my treatment(more on those adventures in another post to come) and after I recovered from that walk and with Komen being the marketeers that they are, they were running commercials for the 2004 Breast Cancer 3-Day Walk. I suddenly realized one day that anyone who goes to cancer treatment has it WAY WORSE than I did when I walked 60 miles...and believe me it was not pretty-between blisters and a calf cramp that made my entire left calf into a solid brick for a day and causing me to actually miss 11 miles of the walk, cancer treatment is still a million times worse. SO I strapped on my blister guard and since walked in 6 more 3-Day Walks(San Diego and San Francisco) and Crewed one event as well. Over the last two years I have been a volunteer with my two teammates, Karen and Dany, carrying on a tradition, that started the very year, of bringing homemade cookies and milk to the walkers along the route. Our team continues to look towards the future for at least one more walk to celebrate another milestone as the 3-Day Walk is home to us all. Their is a sisterhood amongst the walkers that can never be explained only felt and witnessed in person along the route...so in 2014 we will once again be putting on our walking shoes and strolling through San Diego...because everyone deserves a lifetime.

FLASH FORWARD May 2013: I love to take photos! I love to take photos of nature, flowers and non-humans really. And I have been told I have 'an eye'. But for the last several years I have been lucky using the auto mode of my DSLR camera. Occasionally I venture to manual mode but it was always luck and never skill that got that one photo. With my upcoming trip to Yosemite(my most favorite place to photograph, and well just be) I treated myself to an AWESOME photography class this month. I have been trying for years to master the 'triangle' of photography-Aperture(f/stop), Shutter Speed and ISO. This is no easy feat since it is measured in fractions and bigger means smaller or wider or larger or faster or slower, depending on what you are trying to manipulate. I had purchased a deal on Living Social from a place called PhotoCreatures http://www.photocreatures.com and signed up for their Amazing Photos in a Snap workshop. It was 3.5 hours on a Saturday and it rocked! Jake our fearless instructor had it worked out-he broke down that mysterious triangle into three parts-giving us(ten or so of us in this workshop) the background information on each individual aspect of the camera. He carefully explained what it could for us in our pictures and then we got to play. We had our own cameras and Jake gave simple directions-giving us time to see what worked and did not work and why. He answered everyone's questions and kept the workshop moving along too. Once we all had time to practice each concept separately we put it all together-viola` I think after several tries at mastering this concept I GET it! I have been out and about playing with my new found understanding of my camera. I even set up the rental of a special lens to take with me to Yosemite in order to widen my horizons so to speak now that I understand, mostly, how to work my camera. I am signed up for a future workshop with PhotoCreatures and if you are looking for some advice, a workshop or even a photographer you should definitely check these guys out!

Here are some photos I took during my practice:

Learning to stop/show motion with Shutter Speed~Above

Working with Depth of Field and Aperture/F/Stop (in this shot I got to borrow a lens to really see what can be done with this technique)~Below