On 1 January 2010, my friend Brenda challenged us to start a 365 Day Photo Journal. In the beginning there were only three of us: Brenda, Jill and myself. Brenda started her journal in the form of a Blog, while Jill and I started our journals in an album on our Facebook pages. After many serious hints, we convinced Brenda that she also had to post her daily photo on Facebook.
My baby Canon A480 proved worthy of capturing the finest detail on the tiniest insects – making insect macro photography my all time favourite. Most of my photos are taken in my own garden. It is amazing what you find when you start paying attention ….
For my birthday this year in January, Dennis and Len sent me a Canon Sx130is from Dubai. What a wonderful camera – she is called ‘Nifty’ – not only because she is so good, but also because it is an anagram of my age. (which is 21, in case you were wondering.... ha ha) I am filled with gratitude every time I use Nifty.
The Daily Photo Journal has been a remarkable experience – so remarkable, that at the end of last year we decided to tackle the next 365 days! We have made many new and dear friends along the way– some joined and lost interest, while others became serious daily photo ‘journallers’. Unfortunately the Facebook news feed started taking on newspaper proportions and I realized I was spending far too much time there, trying to find other daily photos to post comments. The decision to move my journal away from Facebook was not an easy one. I will miss my dear ‘fotofwends’, their ‘camera-derie’, their love, their humor and their support.
Not wanting to ‘throw in the towel’ completely, I decided to move my 2011 journal to a blog. This is my first experience at blogging and I hope to learn a lot as I go along. (Hints, tips and suggestions are welcome)Moving my journal photos has been a long and tedious task. After much trial and error, January and February’s photos were eventually posted as albums and not as individual photos. The photos are not yet dated or captioned – that task will have to wait until I figure out how to sort them into date order, if I ever have the time to do it. The March photos were uploaded one by one in date order and captioned. How I have wished that I had followed Brenda’s example from day one…..
After many hours at my desk I am now ready to start posting on a daily basis. Hopefully my Facebook ‘fotofwends’ will also pop in from time to time and leave a footprint in the form of a comment. (I have added a "Follow by e-mail" button for your convenience)
Enjoy the view @ maggiezlenz …..
Hluhluwe, Kwa-Zulu Natal, South Africa
March 26, 2011
July 10, 2012. ps: I do not know how else to add to this page, so a 'ps' will have to do it!
In January this year my credit card insisted that it buys me a Canon SX40HS for my "milestone" birthday..... well, who was I to argue?? After a lot of Internet research, I discovered an amazing set of tutorials on YouTube presented by a wonderful lady! Fatdragon100 - thank you for the time you put into something you believe in. You have made it so much easier for those who are less knowledgeable.
I still use the Baby Canon A480 for really close-ups of insects, and Nifty is always in my handbag because it is so versatile. "SixO", my new camera is MAGIC in the game reserve with its 35mm Ultrazoom lens.
Are you perhaps wondering why the new camera is called SixO? Did I mention it was for my "milestone" birthday...? Oh boy, I think my memory fails me. Old age? NO! Why so soon?
My sincere thanks go to EVERY viewer of my photo blog - from all corners of the earth - YOU encourage me - YOUR support motivates me. Thank YOU. I have recently added the Google Translate tool for those who would like to read the blog in another language.
Enjoy your viewing as much as I enjoy bringing it to you from my beautiful home country, South Africa.
