My first roller derby bout (with photos)!

On Saturday I attended my first roller derby bout, "The Mother Of All Bouts", featuring our local team, The Lowcountry Highrollers. A friend of mine is on the team and a group of us went out to cheer her on. I took my 6 year old daughter, who is obsessed with learning to roller skate herself, and we had a blast.

When I was in high school I was a photographer on the school newspaper and yearbook staff and I covered lots of school athletic events. I enjoyed photographing sports events in high school, but only because I was obsessed with getting that awesome action shot that the athlete would love seeing in print. That's the only thing I enjoyed about sports; I didn't care about the game at all. I assumed it would be the same for the roller derby. Yes, it would be fun to see all the derby girls in their sassy, bad-ass "uniforms", and it would be great to practice taking action shots since I hadn't taken any in years, but would I really care about the sport itself? You know what? I did. I will definitely be going back. And my daughter and I will wear our LCHR shirts and cheer the team on. Well, when I'm not snapping away with my camera, anyway.

Garden macro photography

I'm kind of in love with plants and gardening. I'm still in my first year of working with and learning about plants and landscaping, but it has completely sucked me in (and every now and then empties my wallet). I find pleasure in pulling rogue grasses from my flower and vegetable beds and in spreading compost and mulch. Instead of being grossed out by the dirt under my fingernails, I feel a sense of pride, accomplishment. When it rains I imagine my tomato plants drinking it up and I can hardly wait to see how much water it leaves in my rain barrel.

I've been having a wonderful time going out first thing in the morning to check on my precious plants, and I take my camera and macro lens with me. It's fascinating to watch them at all stages of development.

From top to bottom: Sweet alyssum; 'Emerald' southern high bush blueberries; Scarlet bottlebrush; 'Powwow Wild Berry' coneflower; 'Powwow Wild Berry' coneflower; 'Powwow Wild Berry' coneflower; 'Bolivian Rainbow' hot pepper plant blossom; 'Lady in Red' hydrangea bud