My Photos are the Heart of my Blog

Holly berries offer winter color. 

The photo of the Holly above was taken at Lacamas Lake Heritage Trail, when I lived near Camas, WA. Even in winter the trail was a pretty place to walk with lots of evergreen shrubs and trees. Lots of birds and berries. I think living in the suburbs has resulted in taking a lot fewer photos for lack of inspiration.

I've never purposely created a standard format for my blog posts, but I am noticing a few habits. One is that I always choose photos first, then let them dictate the topic. I like photos in a blog and will usually only skim a text-only post. Since I won't use others' photos without permission I use mostly my own. Another thing I've noticed is that I tend to ramble a bit at first.

It is winter, everyone is either looking back fondly at our garden photos from last summer or counting down the days until Spring. I take a lot of outdoor photos and usually have plenty to choose from. But, right now, unless you want to see photos of my cat, that supply has been depleted. 

This morning I found an article about 5 ways to organize your digital photos. I was a little surprised that I already do all of these steps. I have folders for my iphone photos and folders for Blogger photos. I even have one folder called "Photos to Use". I opened that up today and realized that is mostly depleted as well.

I decided to go looking for my older photos, ones taken before I considered writing a blog. I found two huge directories with folders that are not even identified by date. I had saved all my photos to the camera software and relied on it's numbering system. When I started this blog two years ago I had copied several of my better plant photos, that's where I found the picture above. Now it seems that I may be going back to create a Favorites folder by looking at thumbnail images.

I have most of my favorite photos on my Flickr page: http://www.flickr.com/photos/valerie_hogan/

You can also get there by clicking on the pink button at the top right of the webpage, or click on my name at the bottom of my Flickr photostream in the right sidebar. Let me know if you are on Flickr too.

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My word of the year is Gratitude

Today I am grateful for:

a decent coffee house with comfy chairs

wearing a new top I got on sale last week

vitamin c and zinc lozenges

recipes from the Gluten Free Goddess

words of wisdom from my  Louise Hay Calendar

a flowering plant for my birthday last week