Looking back series Framing Challenge.

Looking back at my work this last few days and realizing how much the 52 week challenge allowed me to grow…. Actually forced me to grow. I learned how to process the photos and actually use my processing program to make them shine. I learned how to run with an idea that maybe one of the other photographers suggested. I learned how to be a bit more patient
I admit this subject originally didn’t inspire me in 2022, and I had a hard time getting into framing.

So I went for the easy classic find a subject and frame it with some trees. I took the photos and moved on to something else. I didn’t do anything special with them I just posted them. I didn’t organize them in files other than the date I photographed them on. I hadn’t made friends in the group yet and at this point there were about 20 active photographers out of 100 who signed up. So the little sideline comments that spark creativity were not happening…. “There was Great Photo… Do you live near there?” It took a while for things to click with everybody. Trying to go back to that years challenge is hard I actually had to figure approximately what date /week the framing challenge was on and pick a couple photos that I thought I might have posted. They were terrible. I wasn’t using my processing program to clean them up with a nice sharper image. I didn’t remove or crop anything. for this post I did run them through the processing program. but first I had to copy them from the External Hard drive to the laptop, then into the processing program, then file them, download them onto a thumb drive and then put them into the file I have on the new computer. Remember that patience I mentioned? I used quite a bit of it this morning trying to find these photos.
And so we move on to the second year of the challenge 2023

By 2023 several of the photographers had clicked and we were inspiring each other. by this time I had set up a small table studio on my back deck and would go out into the cold set something up then pop back into the warm house to see what I had, and posted what I liked the best. The next day I came up with another idea and spent the morning photographing it, and posting my favorite from that shoot.

by day 3 of the week I was thinking of all the different ways I could photograph framing

and because I was now friends with the 15 or 20 photographers left in the challenge I could interject my sense of humor, wanting to know who put a rubber ducky in my cup of coffee… there were lots of side challenges going on and we crashed the site a few time.
The challenge was revived again for 2024 and the same photographers joined again.

This time because I had already done the challenge for two years. I was able to anticipate the challenge, I had been out thrift shopping and looking for things I could photograph for this challenge. the frame and the fake flowers were additions to my photo prop selection.

These swans were also a thrift store purchase that I thought I could use in symmetry challenge but liked so much I used them for framing.
By day three of that week I noticed the mountains framed by the clouds and fog and submitted that as well to the challenge.

Moving on to 2025, I was challenging myself to find a way to make a creative statement by using the processing and editing programs, include my sense of humor and some of the past ideas thrown out by the 5 or so members of the group that had a similar sense of humor.

At one point we had a frog theme going on during one of the challenge years, I had picked up this frog and this frame in my thrifting and wanted to make something with them.


The trolls were now being featured in my challenge shots as well as the dinosaurs.

although this shot didn’t make it into the final collage.
The question in my mind was how to make these three shots work in one shot that featured framing?

A simple shot of the frame on a white fleece background.
resize the photos of the frogs trolls and dino’s and paste then into the frame shot.


Then post those three shots onto the white fleece background

And crop.
So what started out as a challenge that I wasn’t interested in, in 2022 became one of my most favorite challenges.

Looking Back at my work series

In 2020 I bought a used reconditioned laptop. It had 1Terabyte of storage on it… Knowing that I take a lot of photos I knew I would need that storage… I had already bought, and used an external hard drive a couple years prior because my laptop before this one died. It was to protect my work should this reconditioned laptop die… Now in 2026 the laptop is in need of major repairs. I have managed to limp along with it for quite a while even though I had bought a new computer tower the summer before last. I was not happy with the windows 11 program and had it changed back to windows 10 then never activated it till now. I am finding all sorts of issues. My newer Computer tower will not communicate with the laptop, nor will my external hard drive, or my printers. Each thing is taking a lot of work to either make work or needs to be replaced just to get the drivers I need.
In 2022 I had joined a 52 week challenge, never imagining just how much it would inspire me and how many photographs I would go through in one year. I quickly filled up the laptop with photographs and had to download them onto the external hard drive. The first year I was not organized by the second year I knew all 52 challenges and was able to put each week into a file, by the third year and every year after I have preset up the challenge files. I admit last year the challenge did not hold my attention and I drifted away. So I now have about 3 Terabytes of photos just from this challenge over the years Most of them are on the external hard drive and I have not delt with them. Yet. What I have been doing is going through the photos that are still on the laptop and downloading them( again) onto Jump drives. 3 of them that hold 32 gigs each. Then taking each drive and uploading them onto the computer tower, and filling them up again. It is taking a long time to download them I am on my second round of filling up the 2 jump drives. So while I am working on getting photos transferred from the laptop I am looking at 2025’s photo work and the file for 2024 challenge work, thinking I need to do posts of some of my favorite challenges.

So this post is simply some of my favorite collages I made for the various challenges, that were still on my laptop, and easily available for this blog series idea.

The Gnomes Have Returned

I was looking at my woodpile and thinking I needed to move more wood up to my deck, when I realized I was hearing tiny voices. Voices that sounded familiar, and then I heard “Yep, this is the place… I wonder where the Troll Family is?”

Then, “Boy is this garden going to need some work, Will probably have hire Hector the Garden Gnome. Big, Big Job….
All of a sudden I heard a clattering on the back deck steps.


And here comes the Trolls

Hooping and a Hollering that their Gnome Cousins have arrived safely. Photos needed to be taken to record the grand occasion.

Soon there was a tour of the garden area

I heard ” Tsk, Tsk, Tsk, Much work to be done….”

And then ” Yes, We will be happy here….”

Apparently, the Gnomes are moving in and taking over the gardening. And I have no idea who Hector is… I guess I will see when he arrives…..

Inspiration Sea Glass Stones

I have mentioned in a couple of my posts the sea glass inspiration stones I bought several years ago. I knew there were more sayings and I wanted to have them for my photography. The original 5 stones are repeated with the new 12 that I purchased, and I realized that the new stones had bigger bolder print. After this shot, I brought out my feather collection and set the smaller print stones aside.

I really love how the blues the green and the white are repeated in the stones.

I love what each word says, and tried to photograph each stone on the feathers, by themselves and as a group. I got most of them but missed a couple. Easy enough to go out and photograph them. Which I just did. Plus, a few more shots.

After all, with Serenity you can have Wisdom and the Strength to do your project over.

Attending the church of the Juniper and Sagebrush

This morning a friend and I both shared a post on Facebook about mother earth being a church. I have always thought of the forest as a church and a place to rejuvenate. A place to talk to the trees work through issues and in general calm my restless soul. Plus, the trees never tell your secrets. When I came to Central Oregon, I lived near a place I could hike in the pines. And those pines heard a lot. A few years later I moved a few miles east and my hiking place was in the Junipers. Honestly it took me a few years to find the right place that calmed my soul.

This area is big an open it has canyons and buttes I can climb up or go down. I hike the area so much I am not likely to get lost because I have many visual landmarks that guide me. I call this area Sage Ranch rd. butte and canyon, I also refer to it as my church of the Junipers and sagebrush.

This area has ancient history, it holds secrets since the beginning of time in Central Oregon.

Today’s hike was not to calm my soul or to vanquish things that anger me. It was simply a good winters day to get out and enjoy the old beings that have lived here for 500 -1000 years or more. My original plan was to hike down into the canyon climb up the canyon wall close to where the Sage Ranch canyon, Deep canyon, and Fryrear canyon seem to meet. Those plans changed when I noticed someone parked in the parking area for the main trail. I drove a few yards further and parked across from the butte, deciding to climb it instead. It doesn’t matter to me which direction I go in this area it is so big we can all enjoy it. I can let my German Shepherds run without bothering anybody.

You will notice in most of these photos large piles of cut juniper. For many years we have let this land go natural except that we put out all the fires. So natural wasn’t natural and the area is overgrown with dead sagebrush, tall bitterbrush, and young flammable juniper trees. At one time I had found a plan for this area that BLM had been working on. It involved making a new trail head closer to Fryrear road and adding more horse trails. It wasn’t specific enough for me to determine but I had hoped that it included this area. Because lets face it My Church of the Junipers really needed a make over. A rejuvenation. This year is the year for that to start, and I hope next year these piles are burned.

in the mean time I am enjoying all of the views opening up that I couldn’t enjoy because there was a tree in the way…

After an hour up on the butte it was time to work my way down into the lower area and the main trail.

Time to go back to my car feeling refreshed by a good hike in the Junipers

My Original Plan for this Blog…

The purpose of this blog is to share my work. It is a many pronged process where I plan on sharing my hiking adventures, my photography visions while out and about, my creations in my little photo studio, and the notecards I had made several years back when I was planning on retiring from retail. It is a way to keep my photography going and to keep me going. And hopefully a way to sell my notecards, on eBay.

It starts with the camera a simple tool used to record things around me in this world. I started with a simple to use manual camera, as my experience grew, I went up to the much larger and clunky 6×7 camera to supplement the much smaller 35mm SLR camera. Then I quit for 20 + years. I got too busy.
My photo journey started again when I got a simple digital SLR 35mm camera, and on my days off from work going hiking with my German Shephard.

That simple digital camera only survived 2 hikes. It was too simple, I couldn’t use my many, much loved vintage lenses, and I accidently spilled some Gatorade on it, short circuiting the electronics. But I was hooked on photography again. I bought another used digital camera that was more advanced. I photographed anything and everything to share on Facebook. A power outage was an opportunity to get out and take photos of my dilemma

After a couple years I decided to step up my game and I had some notecards of my favorite shots made. I knew that I would be retiring from retail soon and wanted to have an avenue to support myself.

I had a website created and hoped to blog and sell my photo notecards maybe even my photographs. I left my retail job a couple of years earlier than I had planned. It opened me up to explore and enjoy. Everything was paid for, and I didn’t owe anybody for my work. It was freeing…. but my cards were not selling on eBay, or Etsy, or even on my website. I heard from many people Why should I buy notecards when I can use e-mail or Facebook? My website got hacked and I was constantly removing scams, I had pulled my notecards from eBay and Etsy. Tried relisting them again and nothing was selling. I became frustrated and angry, and the blog was reflecting that. Then Covid hit. I let the blog go because I didn’t feel it was doing what I needed.
I was following a photographer whose books I had read, and in one of his articles he mentioned another photographer that was a local to Oregon. I soon started following her and at the end of covid she offered to Do a 52 week photo challenge. I jumped on it and did some of my best most creative work over the next 4 years… I also wore out 5 cameras. Pretty easy to do when you are trying to come up with new ideas for the weekly challenge, and there are no limits… taking 100 photos a day was not unusual. I put together a small photo studio on my back deck where it was protected from the weather in the winter. If I had an idea, I grabbed the camera and started putting it together…. It didn’t matter that it was 25 degrees outside or 85 degrees outside…. While working on the challenge I ran across this troll doll with pink hair and he became a major influence on my photographs and the challenges.

Meet Pinx whom I have mentioned in the earlier blogs as my alter ego.

After a while there were 3 Trolls

and a few plastic dinosaurs they called lizards.
And Now

there are 8 of them and a whole bunch of dinosaur lizards

My whimsical side has evolved and maybe, new plans for notecards. But first I need to sell the older note cards, and the two new notecards I had printed this last summer.

So if you are interested in my notecards you can find them on eBay at deannedementphotography

And Thank You for taking the time to read my post.
Deanne

Things that bring me joy

These are things that are sitting on my desk that bring me Joy. But frequently are buried behind stuff on my desk.

So Today I unearthed them and took them out to my studio, I really only wanted the inspirational glass stones, but everything needed dusting so why not photograph them and then concentrate on my idea.
A couple of years ago for a photo challenge group I photographed the inspirational glass stones with some peacock feathers… I liked it so much I used the photo for my phone screen. Today, I felt it was time to rephotograph them especially since I had replaced the peacock feathers this last month.

This is similar to what I shot a couple of years ago but different because I now have more feathers… and a studio area to work in. From this basic shot I began to add things.

I started simple with dried bracken ferns and pine needles. things that bring me joy in the forest.

Then I added a little chartreuse moss that brightens up a drab juniper forest.

Added some fairy lights

Then got some closer shots.
My plan for these shots are, to pick a few of them have them printed by a local printer into Notecards, and eventually try to sell them on Ebay.
It all starts with an idea from things that bring me Joy

The End of 2025 Making plans for 2026

For the last three days the Troll family tribe has been on exploring trips. Poppa T, Pinx, and Aqua have been taking Lime, Pumpkin, Gemma, Blew and Pinky on tours of a couple of their favorite places to hike.
Monday it was Reilly Ranch Preserve.

They enjoyed the views towards the mountains over the meadow.

The different views from the overlook.

and the lizards wanted to see the views too


There were views of the Deschutes river below,

Pinky and Blew were assigned to make sure Aqua didn’t decide to go swimming again.
After their tour of Reily Ranch they decided to explore the area closer to home. So Tuesday it was Sage Ranch Canyon and Butte. they decided to warm up with a little rock climbing in the parking area.

Soon we were on our way down into the canyon a bit so we could do some more rock climbing up

Poppa T chose this route because he likes the view of the mountains as they climb the rocks to the top of the canyon. Because this area has coyotes, he also hired a couple of guards…

Well truth is that Nova and Aurora insisted that we were not going hiking without them.
After we got to the top of the canyon we headed south up to the top of Sage Ranch Butte.

There were a lot of trees to climb, and every snarly snag had to be checked out, soon though we were at the top of the butte.

After they climbed some rocks and checked out the flat areas it was time to head home. We chose the path that took us down the easy slope and overlooked the canyon wall we climbed up earlier.

For today Wednesday, Poppa T wanted to go to the mountains…. Yeah Right…. I simply explained that I had other plans and was going to the pool…. They thought that would be a good trip, but I said that they didn’t have swim passes and couldn’t go… Plus we had to clean up the photo area so we could start the new year with a fresh blank slate…..

So Good Bye 20….
Hey wait What are you all doing???

What do you mean we are not done photographing???

All right one last portrait session for 2025
Good by 2025…. Time to make photo plans for 2026