My Photography blitz

So over the past few months, I haven't been taking too many pictures because, well, face it: there's only so many pictures of the cats being stupid, the yummy things I bake and the flowers blooming, one person can take before you run out of ideas.

Roll ahead to Saturday: I participated in the 3rd Annual Scott Kelby Worldwide Photowalk day. This was my 2nd year doing it at the MN Landscape Arboretum. I have to say, I'm quite proud of how my photos turned out. Granted, next to some of the more seasoned photographers mine look mediocre. Some proved that I had the right eye, just not the equipment or editing capabilities to give it that extra pop.

Some of my favorites:

I only took about 1/2 the amount of pictures I took last year, but I think the quality of each image and composition was way better on the ones I did take. I used a more critical eye than last year. Also because I did the walk last year and got to see what other people focused on, I could work towards finding more creativity in my shots. I mean you can only see so many head on close ups of roses and lilies..... A favorite photo of mine that is absent from this is one I took of a dragonfly. It was a good photo on my end, but then I saw one of the ones from my group taken with a far superior camera and edited. Talk about blowing my photo out of the water!  So for right now I'm deciding between the dahlia and the squirrel for my final submission.....

From the arboretum, I headed onward to Harriet Island in St. Paul for the Red Bull Flugtag. 2.5 hours of watching human made flying machines crash off a 30' ledge? Count me in! Me and 90,000+ other people. I brought my camera along to that too. It was a bit hard in the beginning figuring out how to get the right shots but when I did, they turned out quite well, despite a few heads getting in the way. Selected photos from that event:

See, there were lot's of people.

Despite a pretty wicked sunburn right below my neck and being very tired, it was all worth it. I got to spend some much needed quality time with my camera. I've kinda missed having real things to take pictures of....