Tina’s challenge is Live and Learn. Tina reminds us of the importance of continuing to learn new things as we age. Here is her challenge: “Show me some of the things you’ve learned about photography or any subject you choose. Do you learn by doing as I do, or are you one who learns from classes, or online, or through working with others?”
I’ve never taken a photography class. I learn by doing and by experimenting and by making plenty of mistakes.
Some of the most important things I’ve learned in my photography journey is to always be prepared with batteries charged, space on the memory card, and a clean camera and lenses.
One of the most important editing techniques I have learned is how to crop. When we spotted this bear on the side of the road I didn’t have much time to frame the shot. I cropped the photo and edited the colors to achieve the final image shown here.

One of the reasons I keep participating in the weekly Lens-Artists challenges is because it helps me to learn new things about photography. These photos illustrate some of the photography tips and techniques I’ve learned.
The featured image uses a Bokeh technique. I learned from one of Sofia’s challenges that In photography, a Bokeh is the blurred or out of focus background in a photo. I frequently use this effect when photographing flowers.

When photographing wildlife, always focus on the eyes
I learned about Zooming from one of Anne’s challenges.


Fill the Frame
Leading Lines


Rule of Thirds
Last week Egidio took us Into the Woods for some Forest Bathing. I enjoyed all of the wonderful responses. Be sure to check back on Saturday, August 2 at noon Eastern Time when John will be hosting our next challenge.
Many thanks to Tina for this challenge Lens-Artists #358 – Live and Learn
For information on how to join the Len-Artists challenge please click here.
Every Day is a Gift.

Beth. practice makes us great, and mistakes are important part of it. Love learned lessons here
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Thanks Ritva! The practice is the fun part. And I’m still learning!
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Beth, your comment about having learned some techniques from our challenges is so heart-warming! Over the years we’ve had followers come and go and it’s always great to hear things like that. And now here you are leading challenges! Kudos to you for your enthusiasm and passion for photography as well as your skill. This week I was especially drawn to your zoom and your egret. Terrific post
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Thanks Tina! Thank you for this challenge. At first I didn’t how how in the world I was going to respond to it. It was a good one because it made me think about how much I have learned over the years.
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Photo challenges are such a learning experience. I really enjoy the times I have to reach out to try something I haven’t done before. Your egret is beautiful, but that’s not to take away from your other photos here!
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Thanks John! I love photographing the egrets and other wading birds around where I live. I’m glad you enjoyed this one.
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Beautiful, Beth! Practice makes perfect!
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You’ve learned wonderful lessons Beth and your images shine. I’m so glad you’re zooming because of one of my challenges. It’s just another way to have fun with photography.
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Thanks Anne! Learning these new things help me enjoy photography even more.I’m so glad you introduced me to zooming!
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Practice makes perfect. I too learn as I go.
Great photos, Beth!
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Thanks Nancy! I always enjoy your beautiful photos!
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I have learned a lot from photographic friends. They are generous with their advice. I think the most important thing that I have learned is that you see what you are looking at, but the camera sees everything in front of it, so you have to learn to look like a camera not a human.
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Many thanks! Learning to like like a camera and not a human is great advice!
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I still don’t manage it as often as I would like.
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Great post and photos, Beth! I enjoyed your clear examples for each feature you had learned.
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Thanks Egidio! I’m so glad you enjoyed the images. I still have a lot to learn!
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Wonderful photos – the egret is a personal favorite!!
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Thanks Nora! I love seeing the egrets and I am always happy when I have a chanch to photograph them. I’m glad you liked this one.
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A great blog Beth. I enjoy the Lens-Artist challenges for the same reasons as you 🙂
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Thank you Steve! I’m so glad you enjoy the Lens-Artists challenges and you are learning from them! I always enjoy your responses to the challenges.
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Cleaning the lens! How many times have I rued not doing it before setting out
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I’m glad I’m not the only one who forgets to clean the lenses sometimes!
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Beautiful pic 💯
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Thank you!
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GREAT photos. Lessons well learned! 👏
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Thanks John! I’m still learning’!
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Beautiful images as examples of the various techniques!
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Thanks Pamela! I appreciate your kind words
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Beautiful examples, Beth – and lessons well learned! Cleaning the lens…I always forget…
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Thanks Ann-Christine! I’m learning new things. the time. I hate it when I find dust spots when I am editing a photo.
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Haha, yes, dust spots or rain spots…Sometimes I think I have removed all of them but when posting I find a new one…
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Seems like you’ve learned some important fundamentals of photography. Well done! 😊
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Pepper, thank you so much! I have fun learning and hope to always keep learning more.
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Thanks for the tip about focusing on the eyes when taking photos of animals.
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Karen, you are very welcome! That is one of the most important things I learned about wildlife photography.
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