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There are pros and cons to using a tripod in photography but there are times when it’s absolutely necessary to produce the type of image desired.

Several weeks ago I bought a new tripod. This is the third tripod I have owned. They are/were all inexpensive tripods purchased at a big box store.

People who know me, especially those who have known me for many years, know that I am frugal. Okay, I’m cheap!

Keeping up with the Jones or always buying brand name items has never been important to me. I was so excited to get my first transistor radio. I didn’t care that it wasn’t one of those expensive name brand ones that were all the rage. I was just excited to have ANY small, portable radio.

Saving money and putting emphasis on value is part of who I am and have always been. Yes, you get what you pay for – most of the time. However, sometimes when you purchase an expensive name brand item you are really paying for that name, not necessarily for a better quality product.

Also it’s important to consider how much and what type of usage an item will get before deciding on how much you are willing to spend and whether or not that big name will survive the conditions.

In regards to camera tripods there are also other considerations. For one example, the less expensive tripods and especially the very cheap ones are lighter in weight than most of the more expensive ones. That issue becomes even more important to me as I get older. I am probably not going to haul around a heavy, albeit quality tripod.

Those are the reasons why I have been buying inexpensive tripods from that big box store. Those nice, high quality, expensive tripods would have been heavier to carry and would not have survived my usage.

Take for example my first tripod. I left it sitting in the driveway while I went inside to unload the photographs on the memory card into my computer. I forgot to go back outside and put the tripod up before any vehicles drove into the driveway.

Thank goodness I had to take the camera off of the tripod to get to the memory card. My camera was sitting there on my desk when my tripod was run over by the truck that backed down the drive. Running over even an expensive tripod with a pick-up truck is going to cause unrepairable damage.

Traveling with my second tripod was also a disaster. Loaded flat onto the bed of a pick-up put the tripod in a position to have heavy items stacked on top. Another unrepairable damage issue on tripod Number Two.

That brings us to today’s featured image and Tripod Number Three. Without this new inexpensive tripod the images that I captured this week of hummingbirds would not have been clear or acceptable to post. I took many photographs, processed several and even used the three that I posted online to make a photo collage which is also posted on my site.

Money well spent and an intact tripod that can used again.

Well, until the next mishap!

Thoughts and comments are always welcome and encouraged.

Are you a worrier?

Do storms cause you stress?

Are those weather storms or issues in life that we metaphorically call storms that might cause you stress?

Unfortunately I tend to be a worrier and even the smallest life issue can cause me stress.

Last year I decided to participate in the Personal Art Challenge on Fine Art America that required a new work of art to be created and posted every single day. Normally that type of pressure would have caused me a lot of stress. But there were stress-reducing elements to the challenge.

In that challenge I could take off a maximum of 30 days for illness, travel or for any reason really. Those days could be consecutive or not, my choice. I could also use a different theme and a different medium any of those days. For example one day could be a digital creation of a snowman, the day after that could be a photograph of an indoor still life and the third day could be an abstract or even a hand drawn image. My choice every day of the medium I wanted to use and the subject matter of my image.

This week, after worrying and stressing over the terms of a new challenge, I signed up for another year long but very different one.

This new challenge only requires one image per week. We have an entire week to create that image. The caveat, however, is that we must use the same medium the entire 52 weeks. That’s right. No changing from photography to painting or drawing to digital. The medium we choose to use for Week One is the medium we will have to use the entire year.

It gets even more restrictive as there is only one theme the entire 52 weeks. The theme is The World Outside.

Now, all of you who know me know that I am basically an outdoor lover…as long as it’s warm or hot outside! I have also become quite the hermit not venturing out of this apartment complex. I suspect that I will be here in Northern Alabama in this complex throughout another winter and it will be anything but warm or interesting outside the majority of this winter.

I wanted to join the challenge but worried about weather and always having to produce an acceptable photograph that would be interesting. I stressed over not having the confidence to post acceptable traditional artworks, that is painting or hand drawing, every single week.

This new art challenge has presented itself at a time when I have also been struggling with faith concerning my future. A challenge to take place in the coming year, “the future”, and my concern, worry and stress about my faith in the future happening at the same time.

Co-incidence? I think not!

I invite you to follow me in the next 52 weeks as I look for eternal hope in the future by photographing The Outside World as I see it around me wherever I happen to be.

Join me as I learn to have more faith in my future, more faith in my photographer’s eye and more faith in my ability to be vulnerable to show you even the crappiest of my creations if I experience an entire “off” week.

Kathy is not in the Kathy From KeppenArt office this week.

Be sure and watch for a new blog post next week!

In last week’s blog post I talked about salt being used as currency in different parts of the world since ancient times. The featured image for that post was one that I had created for a Fine Art America Personal Art Challenge with the theme being Wealth.

Today’s featured image was also created for that challenge. This image depicts many small seashells piled up on a beach with a framed inset showing a zoomed in view of several different types of seashells.

Shell money has been used by native peoples all over the world as currency. Archaeologists believe that shell money could have been in use as early as 1200 B.C.

Although they are not as common today there are still countries that use particular shells as currency, including Sri Lanka, Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands.

The Monetaria moneta, also known as the money cowry, these small sea snail species were extensively used as currency in various countries in Africa, Australia and Asia.

In many areas of the world seashells were used to make jewelry that was then traded or bartered as a form of currency, including the Eastern United States when jewelry called wampum was traded between the Native Americans and the European settlers.

I certainly feel wealthy when I am standing on a pile of seashells at the beach. Not because those shells are worth money but because being on the shore of an ocean, surrounded by sand, seashells, dune grasses and the sound of breaking waves informs my brain that I am at peace in my happy place.

What makes you feel wealthy?

Do owning many or expensive material possessions make you feel wealthy?

Are there locations that make you feel wealthy when you are there?

Please feel free to share the answers to those questions in the comment section.

I participated in yet another personal art challenge on Fine Art America this past weekend. The theme for this challenge was Wealth as stated in the challenge discussion: Images should portray wealth in some format. How is up to you.

There were many definitions both online and in the challenge as artists were interpreting the concept. I used these definitions for the three images I created:

An abundance of valuable material possessions or resources; riches.
The state of being rich; affluence.
Goods and resources having value in terms of exchange or use.

I researched various forms of currency using the first and last definition above.

There were the obvious concepts of money, health, spirituality and family but the most creative concept and title the first day was an image of an overgrown plot of land called “A Wealth Of Weeds”. How creative to think of weeds as wealth!

What comes to your mind when you hear the word Wealth?

Do you also think of things in abundance?

What is wealth to you?

Feel free to share your definition and thoughts on this theme by commenting below.

At the end of June I wrote about the Dog Days of Summer. The last sentence of that post was: Let’s hope that this year’s Dog Days are short lived and people around the world are able to find relief from the heat until those stars realign and cooler temperatures arrive.

Well, this year’s Dog Days have not been short lived and people around the world have struggled to find relief from the heat.

For years my husband and I would beat the heat by taking a boat on whatever river was close to us at the time and find sandbars to hang out on. Sometimes we fished but mostly we picnicked, listened to music and relaxed.

The rivers that we frequented were often wild, spring fed rivers with cold water even on the hottest days of the summer. Too hot even in the shade? Take a dip in the river and allow that cold water to cool your hot skin.

Shade. A valuable commodity on a reflective, white sandbar. Large summer umbrellas were always stashed in the boat for such outings.

This year we don’t have those white sand, cold water rivers nearby. We will beat the heat by staying inside in the air conditioning whenever possible.

How have you dealt with this year’s oppressive heat waves and how has that differed from former heat waves that you have lived through?

Please feel free to comment below and share your Dog Day experiences.

How do you choose a new hometown?

Maybe you are moving out of your parent’s home and want to relocate to a different city or state or even country.

Maybe you are starting a new life or career and want to do that somewhere different than where we are currently living.

Maybe you are retiring and want to move somewhere that is not dictated by your job location.

Where would you go?

How would you decide where to go?

My husband will be retiring next year and we have been discussing the location of our future home. We have moved around the southeastern United States for the past forty plus years, from Virginia to the Mississippi Gulf Coast and several locations in between. All of our “new” hometowns were dictated by my husband’s work. We made those moves in order for him to advance in his chosen career.

This next move will be very different. Our choice will be dictated by criteria other than employment opportunities.

What factors would you need to consider if you were in a position to choose a new hometown?

Would finances and the cost of living be your only concern?

Would you need to consider how far your new hometown is from other family members?

Would you choose your new hometown on the basis of weather?

Please share your thoughts in the comment section below and let us know (1) if you have chosen a new hometown before and how you chose that location or (2) if you are considering a move now and what criteria you are using to make that decision.

We were visiting St. Mary’s, Georgia (USA), a small coastal town on the St. Mary’s River. The river separates the states of Georgia and Florida in the Southeastern United States.

Although it was late spring the sun was high in the sky and had heated the asphalt paving on the streets and parking lots.

I had been taking pictures in a riverfront park and was walking back to the pier where my husband was watching boats come and go.

I don’t know why I looked down at the ground as I approached a recreational vehicle but when I did I spotted this wad of chewing gum stuck to a tire.

There was no way for me to know how long the sticky gum had been on the pavement or how long ago the vehicle ran over the gum. But as heavy as the vehicle was, when its tire rolled over that wad, the gum refused to give up its hold on the pavement even though it also stuck to the tire.

The gum between the tire and pavement had a string like appearance and for some reason it fascinated me. I captured three shots of the scene and walked off to meet the hubby, grateful that I had not stepped on a wad of sticky chewing gum.

Had I stepped in chewing gum that was as sticky as the gum on the tire, I would have literally found myself in a sticky situation. However, sometimes we can find ourselves in what we call a sticky situation when in reality our situation does not literally involve sticky or gummy substances.

What situations have you found yourself in that was a sticky situation?

Did it literally involve chewing gum, some other sticky candy or glue? Or was your sticky situation one that was difficult to deal with but not literally sticky?

Please feel free to comment and share one of your sticky situations, whatever that means to you.

Earlier this year during the first week of May, my husband and I were in southern Georgia (USA). Georgia is known as the Peach State and those fruits were coming into season while we were there.

We knew there were several farm and produce stands in an unincorporated community not that far from my husband’s hometown where we were visiting.

It had been years since we had visited Barney and we were excited to go purchase some fresh peaches to eat and to share with our Alabama neighbors when we arrived back in Florence later in the week.

Although there are several farms with retail stands in that area, we stopped at the first one on our route, which was the Burton Brooks Orchards.

What a feast for our senses!

There were antique farm implements, cars, trucks and other memorabilia from the past. An old covered wagon was placed in a grassy area next to the road and the canvas cover of the wagon was painted in bright peach colors advertising the orchard.

The smell of fresh peaches, watermelons and other fruits and vegetables filled our sinuses with the seasonal odors of a summer garden.

However, the old fashioned churned ice cream was absolutely the highlight of our visit. Awesomely scrumptious peach ice cream. Chunks of real fruit in a mix of natural ingredients reminded us of long, hot summer days whose evenings sometimes included that favorite summer treat of homemade ice cream.

Local farm stands and urban farmers markets are treasure troves of regional culture. They are filled with not only fresh produce but also local jams, jellies, handmade quilts and other items you won’t necessarily find on Amazon.

Have you been to a local market recently?

Were there items there in addition to the fresh produce?

Do you stop at these local venues when you are traveling?

Be sure and share your experiences in the comment section.

In the image featured with this post we see a small statue sitting on top of a refrigerator and in front of the upper cabinets in a kitchen. The statue is made to look like a large, jolly cook. He wears a chef’s hat, an apron in a black and white checkered pattern and large, black shoes.

The statue chef is holding what appears to be an iron skillet. Kitchen Is Closed is written on the interior of the black skillet with white chalk.

This chef statue actually sits on top of the refrigerator in our apartment. It was given to my husband as a gift for completing a program at a local café.

I had written Kitchen Is Closed to indicate that I was not cooking one particular evening. However, the words written in chalk were never erased.

Normally, leaving those words on that skillet would indicate that I was retired from my domestic engineering work, on vacation or simply taking a break from cooking.

However, I have actually cooked more in the past few years than I had in all the other years prior to the appearance of that statue.

Since I am not particularly a good cook and it is not something that I enjoy, it may be time to retire from cooking.

Maybe tomorrow I will take the chef statue down from the top of the refrigerator and set him on the kitchen counter and truly “close down” our kitchen!

Please feel free to share your kitchen or cooking stories in the comment section below.