Hobbies – do you have one?

I was thinking about a client of mine today and recent conversations we’ve had. I worry that their focus is always on business and nothing else. Even on weekends.  I know that many who think they know me probably think that’s all I have on my mind too, but the reality is that while I can quickly change into ‘business’ mode no matter where I am, or who I am speaking to, I do spend time doing other things.

My family is important to me and when we lost our daughter Miriam late last year it made me even more aware of how precious time is with our other daughters.  We are in constant contact with each of them every week, whether by phone, txt/sms, email, Skype, Facebook and face-to-face.  We want to be always aware when they have needs and Graham and I have always spent time talking about the girls for years but somehow it now seems to have more importance placed on those conversations.

But I digress. I was speaking about not working all the time and wonder if you have a hobby?  Not something you think you should do for the sake and benefit of your own health or family (such as keeping fit, attending a gym or doing family activities) but something you don’t have to do but like doing and so make time to do.

My husband is a keen cyclist and loves it. He doesn’t have to cycle to work every day but much prefers it to the train and other forms of transport.  He started out to keep fit but now really misses the cycling if he doesn’t get his daily dose. He’s even out on weekends in the hills and mountains, mountain biking – this weekend he has a race at Mt Beauty.

I have two things I really enjoy doing – writing is one which is why I blog a lot.  But photography is another.  As our girls were growing up I was always taking family snaps on outings, birthdays and other events and hubby says if it wasn’t for me, we wouldn’t have many family photos.  Suppose that is true. But now they are grown and away from home my focus has been on photography itself, learning how to use my camera properly, starting to learn the terminology like aperture, white balance, RAW and all those other things that photographer speak includes.  I’ve even joined a photography club.

Graham gave me a Nikon D90 with a zoom lens and other accessories for Christmas.  I felt totally spoilt and so I should be – I know it cost him quite a few $$.  So I’ve been using it a lot to make sure he know just how much I appreciate his wonderful gift to me.

Recently I shifted my amateur photoblog at Blogger to something that looks more professional in a great new template in WordPress and I now have it hosted on my server.  I thought I’d share it with you and you can view the pics at http://www.kathiesphotos.com.

Over time I hope you will see for yourself an improvement in my photos and how I present them.  The photography club has competitions so I’m looking forward to participating.  And naturally at Graham’s mountain bike races I tag along and act as the team’s official photographer doing videos and stills of their events.

When you pop over to my photoblog you will see evidence of those pics overtime but you’ll see that I also couldn’t resist doing something that has a business touch to it and I’ve set up a Cafepress store with some of my Australian imagery available on caps, tshirts, mugs, clocks and other items.  You didn’t think I’d completely forget did you?