Are you familiar with the 'Meetup' Groups?  Jim and I joined the local Tampa Bay Photography Group headed up by Raymond Black and several other wonderful photographers.  If you have an interest in photography, this is definitely a great way to expand your knowledge and meet others doing some of the same things you love to do.

So why do I bring this up?  Well, one of those wonderful photographers came up with a neat idea of a "24 Shoot Challenge" where we pretend that we are back in the days of film - and I do remember those days for all the new 'digital newbie' photographers out there.

I took this challenge and I learned quite a bit.  First, I do look at that lit up LCD!  I look at it to see if I like what I captured or if maybe I should do a slight change on the composition.  I look at it to see if I like the photo or not.  I look at it to decide if I should try some other shots or move on to something else.  I like seeing that LCD - but with this challenge, it's a 'no peek' just like when we used film - you really never knew "Did I get that shot?"  Second, I don't miss those days of film. I like being able to shoot 20 pictures of the same thing and not having to pay for each one of those shoots.  I like not having to be so careful about how many pictures I can take. I like being able to download them off the camera as soon as I get home and look at them.

Yes - I do like the world of digital and No - I don't want to go back to film. 

Here's a few of the photos that I took during this venture to several different places and these are 'jpeg' photos that were processed by the camera - they haven't been cropped, haven't been modified in photoshop - just straight photos from the camera.  The first few photos for this challenge were taken at the local park along the Hillsborough River.

Dollar weedDollar weed growing along the cypress knee Riverhills Park

Virginia Creeper

Drainage ditch water flow

If you're local to our area, check out the Meetup group - it's a great group of people that will welcome all levels of photographers.