I must admit that after 40+ years of taking photographs, I’ve been resisting fully entering the digital age. I knew it was coming and did buy a Nikon D70 about 7 years ago. At the time I was finally serious about showing my photographs. I specialize in color photography and was using a sweet Canon 10s with the fabulous Fuji Velvia 100 slide film. One of my photos, Paris Rose, was even accepted to the very first juried show I entered and at the prestigious Art League in Alexandria, VA. What a thrill that was! Just walking the halls with other artists as we carried our framed images made me glow with pleasure. Then seeing my gorgeous image hanging on the wall with all the accepted art was almost as good as graduating with my doctorate. No kidding.
So I have taken thousands of photos on that D70, which have been accumulating on my iMac and its predecessor ever since. I know I have a gold mine waiting for me so I am finally at a place in my life with the time to learn how to make full use of my digital camera. I took a fundamentals class in January then this weekend I’m in a two-day Adobe Lightroom class. Wow, Lightroom is a great image file-management tool. This Thursday I start the all-important Photoshop course and I can hardly wait.
I am taking the classes at Midwest Photography Workshops in Farmington Hills. A terrific place for those serious about taking courses from professional photographers who are also good instructors. I worked with the instructor to select a series of classes to bring my technical digital skills up to what my film skills were and then some. It’s a pretty steep learning curve yet i find myself walking around smiling. So stay tuned as I begin to process, post, and offer my images for sale on the Photos page here. I even bought a lightly used Nikon D7000 a few weeks ago with an amazing 18-200 mm lens so I am also transitioning to that.
It’s a new world, and a wonderful one at that.
Karen Vigmostad 
Hello…I saw your comment on Ellen Airgood’s blog this morning, and then followed the link under your name, which led me to your nice website. You really have the beginnings of a beautiful site. I’m an amateur, but serious, photographer too and appreciated your comments about the learning curve to digital. I also am thinking about making a photography blog, so I’m interested in viewing various sites. I’m a Canon 7D shooter who uses Lightroom also, and agree that’s it’s a wonderful program. I’m currently satisfied with what it can do and don’t think I’ll progress to Photoshop. All the best as you work towards expanding your photography and editing skills. Karen Casebeer
Thanks, Karen, for writing and the well wishes! After a weekend course in Lightroom, I agree that it can do at least 95% of what any photographer needs. Amazing, isn’t it? This is especially if you are like me and spend the time to get the image just the way you want it when taking it. I know I want to spend my time taking photos and being in the world rather than at my computer tweaking images.
Hope you stay in touch and let me know your progress. And please share your website when you get it set up :-).
Karen
Hi again, Karen…I can see we have the same philosophy about picture taking and editing. I too try to getting the best picture out of the camera that will need little to no editing. I want to be known as a photographer vs. a photo editor. Lightroom really suits that philosophy I have. I’m still in the incubating stage of developing a photography blog. I’m concerned that it will be difficult to balance maintaining a blog with other areas of my life, mainly music and writing. I would want a blog to feel joyful vs. an obligation. Right now I’m trying to focus more on maintaining my Flickr stream as preparation for doing a blog. My photostream link is below. As you will see if you visit it, I’m not being regular enough! All the best, Karen.
Beautiful wildlife photos! What camera and lens are you shooting with? Seems like you are very close. Did you have on tripod? I just bought a very lightly used (500 actuations) Nikon D7000 with 18-200mm Nikkor lens. I haven’t had fixed lens in awhile, but plan to get the equivalent of a 50mm and 105mm with macro, plus some extension tubes.
A blog does take time, but once I got used to WordPress I found it really fun. I just created karenvigmostad.com, but I’ve been blogging a couple years for the RVing Women chapter I belong to, the Great Lakers (http://glrvw.wordpress.com/). I’ll probably be winding that down because the national organization has improved their website and has many features built in including a blog and way to send newsletter. However, some chapter members really like the blog and hope I keep it going. Have to see. Life is getting more and more busy especially as I head to Lake Superior early August for the first of the 5 lake circle tours I’ll be doing.
Thanks again, for sharing, and I wish you much joy (!) in photography and life. I get to Frankfort quite often (had house there for 5 years and one of my best friends lives there) so perhaps we can meet for lunch or a photo shoot 🙂
Karen
Hi again, Karen…I am a Canon shooter. I recently upgraded from a beginner DSLR Rebel model to a 7D, which I love. Most of my wildlife shots were taken with my 100-400 mm lens. It’s my longest lens; I would dearly love a 500 or 600 mm lens, but they are WAY pricier than I can afford. I do have a tripod, in fact, two of them. I use them all the time with my lenses because I get so much better results vs. hand-holding. I just got a mono-pod and am finding that is a good middle ground.
I checked out your RVing Women website and your RV and dog are very sweet. I have several friends who belong to RVing Women and do a lot of that kind of camping. Many of them winter at a resort in Superstition Mt., AZ. While I never enjoyed tent camping, I’ve considered the RV type. I have two big Golden Retrievers, however, and am not sure how that would all shake out, especially since one is aging.
You say you get to Frankfort. Are you Michigan-based? I’m in Northport, at the tip of the Leelanau. It would be fun to have lunch sometime. I saw on the RV website that you were nearing retirement and you mentioned having a PhD. I am also retired (still teach online) and have an Ed.D. in Counseling. Is my email visible to you? Feel free to use that gmail account. Karen
Yes I see and will send you an email. I am Michigan based and hang out in Benzie and Leelanau counties often. Your goldens would love to RV and I have RV friends who travel with even 3 dogs and some have cats. Anyway, where this is a will, there’s a way! It’s so worth it, although the learning curve (at least for me) is steep to manage and maintain a RV.