Travel Tuesday. Learning a New Skill

I've been  tossing around ideas for today's post all week. It's been awhile since I've traveled or even made a deliberate effort to seek out an adventure 'at home'.

There just hasn't been time. Or, if I was totally honest, any real interest right now.

I'm too busy learning a new skill.

I love learning new things and for a long time this primarily revolved around gardening.

Which I'm still crazy about.

In the last two years however, a new love has overtaken me. It suffered a set back when my bout with cancer got in the way, but lately . . . it's been full steam ahead.

About a month ago Morgan made a trip to B.C. and was able to bring back a very special gift.

Back in the 80's my dad got into photography. He did portraits, weddings and what ever else caught his fancy.

 When my dad got interested in something he plunged in heart and soul, immersing himself in any way possible. (It's possible he may have passed that on to a few of his kids . . .) Over time he set up a studio in his basement, collected photography books and magazines galore,  and experimented with a variety of equipment and different types of photography.

COPD snuck up on him, making holding the camera steady first difficult and then impossible. He packed away his things and they stayed in storage for many years.

This past summer I visited my step-mom and youngest sister along with her sweet new baby and lovely husband.

Dad's been gone for two years now and they are trying to find new homes for all his many, many treasures. Linda wanted to gift some of them to me. She lead me to the garage, showed me two trunks filled with studio lights and then began digging through all the accumulated photography paraphernalia. There was a lot.of.it. He was most active in photography during the film years so much of it I couldn't use but what I could? Filled the truck, back seat and passenger side of Tamara's Jetta.

Good grief! I flew to B.C.! How in the world would I get this home?

Enter Morgan and his trip to B.C. Somehow, ( and I'm not quite sure how), he managed to squeeze everything into his vehicle, along with two friends and their luggage and brought everything home..

Which changed my dream. As did an empty room.

New possibilities opened up.

This room is TINY people!

 At it's longest it's 11 1/2 feet. It's full of odd jogs. My blackboard wall  nook is 4' 8'' wide. Some of the room is 8' wide another little bit only 6.

I had first thought I was working with around 100 square feet. Math is not my strong suit, but as I thought about it, I realized that would suppose my room was 10' by 10'. Which it isn't. I could ask Henry to figure it out because math is his strong suit, but I'm afraid the reality might dampen my optimism.

Holly and Jesse pitched in and helped me paint everything but the backboard wall creamy white and Jesse did a fantastic job putting in new baseboards.

I am now the proud owner of what is likely the world's tiniest photography studio.

My studio lights are from the 80's and I can not find any information on them nor find replacement bulbs.

I have a window, but it faces my driveway and the side of the neighbor's house.

I am beyond excited. I believe that limits and challenging circumstances are what lead to creativity and uniqueness.

Which is good. Because I have a few of those . . .  (smile)

I have lots of plans for this tiny space and I was given the chance to try a couple out in the last few weeks.

First, my nephew needed a babysitter at the last minute and I was seized with inspiration the night before.

This is what came out of our hour together:

I had such fun I decided to look for someone else to practice on, so my friend and neighbor Theresa and her sweet dog Diesel dropped by. Jada was thrilled to see them as they are two of her favorite people/dogs in the world.

Here's what came out of that:

I still have this winter scene set up so if any of you have small kids and are willing to come over and let me practice on them, let me know.

Later this week I am going to travel for three days, but virtually as I attend a three day workshop on pregnancy and newborn photography that's filmed on the west coast in the US.

I am my father's daughter. And proud of it.

I miss you Dad.