July 2021 - Peggy Nield

 

 

Sun City has been my home for seven years, going on eight. I initially came to explore if I wanted to make it a permanent move after two retirements – the first as a clinical nurse researcher at the VA West Los Angeles Medical Center and the second as Associate Professor at the University of Hawaii in Manoa. It was the enticement of friends – Jane and Joel Arnold – to give retirement living a go here in the Hill Country of Texas. Being single – my husband had died 11 years earlier – it was a bit of a challenge to find my niche. But I did, with photography. I came here with an Olympus Point and Shoot camera, dipped my toes in the water with a Panasonic bridge camera, then iPhone 7 plus, and recently graduated to a Nikon mirrorless camera. The progression happened because one of my new friends suggested we join, truly novice that I was (she was not, as it turned out), the competition sig. She reasoned that one of the best ways to learn is to surround yourself with experienced photographers.  So I wish to acknowledge Jim Newkirk for his encouragement as a co-leader of my first competition sig, Wes Odell for his classes and guiding me in my first hanging of an exhibit photo, showing me how to best place the screw eyes and allowing adequate slack in the wire, Randall Best for running the novice group and Elements Photoshop, Allen Utzig for his classes on Photoshop and co-leading the competition sig with Jim via Zoom this past year, Sue Putz with her hands-on help with Lightroom, Peggy Reed for guiding me in my first photoshoot, and Bob Maher for actually helping me shakily take my Nikon camera out of the box the first time and getting it set up.

My interests in photography are eclectic. The photos in the Gallery were taken with the camera I had with me at the time – my iPhone, my point and shoot, or the Nikon Z6. I am drawn to angles and shapes and light and shadows and bright colors, whimsical themes that result in a smile, or generate an emotional response. I delight in finding the simple pleasures of nature. Photography has become a very satisfying hobby for me, especially during the Covid-19 restrictions of these past months.  

Please visit my gallery, located here.