How's everyone doing? 

This quarantine thing is really starting to drag on. 

I'm ready to get out there and get some photo jobs!

I'm also tired of video calls and FaceTime. I'm grateful for them, but they can't replace hugging my loved ones. 

My heart goes out to three of my friends who each lost a parent last week and couldn't be with them because of this nasty virus. It's so sad to not be able to be with a loved one in a nursing home or assisted living and then realize there'll be no funeral and burial either. 

I've said it before, and I'll say it again - I'm so glad my daughter came home from Chicago to work from my house when this thing started. It's been nice having her company. 

I'm also feeling a little antsy to get back to my social life, and I'm pretty introverted. I imagine some of you feel like you're losing your minds. 

Hang in there. 

Did you know today is the 50th anniversary of Earth Day? I think the earth is pretty happy about this particular Earth Day. Look at how many cars are sitting idle and have been for the last month or so. 

I read that India is experiencing the clearest air they've had in years. Good news for Mother Earth. 

I hope everyone is getting out and exercising. You've got to keep your endorphins up. Exercise reduces anxiety and keeps your immune system strong. 

I'm still walking every day and using my yoga app every morning. 

Bauer and I would both get depressed if we didn't get out in the sun and walk every day. As long as we're allowed to be outside exercising, I'll be getting my miles in. 

We went three miles yesterday morning.

Walking is a little comical here in the city now. As soon as I see someone coming toward us on the sidewalk, I go out in the street, or they go out in the street, or one of us crosses the street and then there's the little acknowledging wave. 

I pick less-traveled areas to walk, and I wear a mask, but living in the city makes it impossible to completely avoid people. 

Late afternoon yesterday, I left Bauer at home and went out with my camera. It was beautiful out. The sky was blue, the temperature was in the high 60s, it was breezy, and the sun was shining.

Not normally the conditions that I like shooting in, but not bad either. I'm feeling desperate to get out with my camera.  

I only went a couple of miles. I took my Lensbaby to have some fun. 

The Lensbaby is a manual-focus lens with lots of blur around the edges. I can move the front of the lens to point it where I want the focus point and the rest of the frame falls off and out of focus. 

It takes a lot of fiddling to get that little focus point in focus!

I use the Lensbaby on my Nikon and normally use Live View when I'm focusing. Live view shows me the framed area on the back of the screen so I can zoom in to see if the spot I want is in focus. 

It was too bright out for me to see the back of my screen well yesterday, so I had to use the viewfinder.

Not ideal, and the breeze was making it hard to get anything in focus because everything was moving so much. By increasing my shutter speed, which I could do since it was bright out, I managed to get a few shots I liked. 

The Lensbaby is challenging but I love it. I also love doing manual focus sometimes.

The first SLR cameras I owned were all manual focus. 

I had fun editing these flower shots. I'd get bored doing flower shots all the time but I love doing them now and then.

I thought it was a nice tribute to Mother Nature for Earth Day. I hope you're having a good Earth Day. 

I'm glad it's not raining here. Speaking of rain...

See you between the raindrops! 

xoxo,
Susan

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