Flowers, that’s the challenge. Ok, so how do you make flowers any more beautiful than they naturally are? I love flowers, who doesn’t but how do you to take a typical garden flower and make it look like something more?

There are these really pretty and unique looking pink flowers climbing over my backyard fence and in the morning they are just shimmering with dew drops as the sun shines on them. So I thought ok, these are the flowers I’m going to take photographs of for this challenge.

That meant getting the step ladder, trying not to fall off of it while trying to get the shots I want without blocking the direct sunlight or I’d lose the shine off the morning dew. All this while standing on a ladder on wet soggy grass. The things we do for the perfect shot.

Well not exactly. I took photo after photo hoping that one of them would at least be good enough to use.  Let’s just say I’m glad I took so many. That’s the great thing about digital photography, you can take a million shots to get one good one. Much cheaper than film. Do any of you even remember film? Ooops, showing my age. It’s ok I love film. I admit it.

So I’ve got my shots and go inside and upload them so I can take a better look. Umm, ok I don’t love any of them. I just couldn’t capture what my eyes saw. But there are some I think I can work with. This is probably one of my favorites though it’s not as nice as I’d like. The best of what I had I guess.

Hmm? It’s ok looking but it just doesn’t have that, oh I’m not even sure how to describe it, feel to it. What to do, what to do?

Is black and white an option?

I love black and white. I always have and I say it a lot. Trust me. But do I risk it and change the colors? Changing it to black and white is really going to change the feel of the photo which is bright and friendly right now. There’s only one way to find out if it’s going to work or not so let’s do it and see what we come up with. I’ve cropped it in a bit for a tighter shot and turned it black and white.

I’m torn. What do you think? I like the black and white one because you can see the dew drops better but I like the pink in the color photo. Asking your opinion now? Which one should I post as my Flower Photography Challenge photo? Maybe I should just start this challenge again? Practice is always a good thing.

So many times we second guess ourselves, so many times we hold ourselves back from showing what we can do, what we love to do out of fear I guess it is. But what happens when you step out of your comfort zone? Good things. Good things happen.

I love photography but always kept myself from sharing my photos. I guess I just had it in my head no one would like them. Those are those voices we have to keep telling to be quiet ’cause they are just doubts and fear and they can keep you from a lot in life.

You have to step out of your comfort zone

Why am I telling you this? Because not long ago in a facebook group I’m in we were offered a challenge. The challenge was to submit something to BlogHer’s Voices of the Year. BlogHer is a BIG blogging conference. I didn’t think I could face this kind of challenge. I mean really, I’d just be putting my work out there and hoping they didn’t just not hate it but actually think it’s good. To say it was not easy for me is an understatement. But I mustered up all the courage I could and I submitted a couple of photos. And then came the waiting game. Do you know how hard that waiting is?

And then the time came

Then one day when I wasn’t expecting it I got an email from BlogHer. Oh jeepers, I really didn’t need to hear, “thank you for your submission but…” but I braced myself for it anyway kind of expecting it. But to my surprise that isn’t what it said. It said this instead!

We’re thrilled to inform you that your photo submission “Week 22, my Daddy’s hands” was nominated in the Eye Candy category and . . . has been selected as a 2017 Voices of the Year Honoree!

The 2017 Voices of the Year Honorees will be celebrated at #BlogHer17 . . .  We hope you will join your place amongst our Honorees at the conference and ceremony this summer.

To say I was floored is an understatement. I am so honored to have my photo selected. And I must tell you there are some other amazing bloggers included in the list of honorees. I’ve known for awhile now but couldn’t let anyone know yet. That was sheer torture and here I thought the submission waiting game was hard.

The point of this whole post isn’t to brag, “oh look what I did” no not in the least. The point is, don’t let fear stop you from stepping out of your comfort zone. Good things happen outside of that comfort zone you’ve kept yourself in. But you aren’t ever going to experience it if you don’t step out of your comfort zone. Yes, it’s scary I won’t lie but boy it feels good when you get to experience the joys of the good that comes from stepping out of that comfort zone.

So tell those nasty negative voices in your head to be quiet and take that step out of your comfort zone whatever it is. Is it creating something you want to sell, opening your own shop? Whatever it is I just want to encourage you to do it. Push fear aside and just do it.