Life Balance

Life Balance

Life balance using a chairHi, today I would like to share my experience with balancing. It began right after my car wreck. While taking showers it has become necessary for me to hold on to the rail as I turn in the shower. I hold my head up rinsing the shampoo from my hair, facing the shower head. During the rinsing I turn around to have the back of my head facing the shower head. During the turn is when I need to hold onto the rail. If I do not, I loose my balance. Have you ever experienced this? The first time I have ever had this sensation was when I did a lemon drop with my eyes shut. To do a lemon drop stand flat foot, squat down, wrap your arms around your knees and simply lean over the end of the diving board dropping into the water head first. Creepy feeling!

Originally I thought it was the brain injury I suffered from the wreck that was causing issues with my balance. However as I was searching on the internet I discovered balance begins to decline as early as age 50.

Getting dressed is another instance I have noticed my balance is not as good. Standing on one leg while slipping the other into a pant leg is not so easy now. I found when I sit down to put on pants and shoes this works much better. A chair is now part of my dressing routine.

Any chair will do. I follow these steps when getting dressed:

    Sit down;
    Slipping into underwear;
    Socks;
    Putting on pants;
    Shoes.

And I do this in the order listed. Yep, the socks before my pants. The pant legs are not in the way while I am putting on socks. And for shoes, I have found the Sketchers Slip Ons a blessing!

My goal is to age gracefully. I will still go to the beauty salon for my low lights and wear my makeup. What I will not do is worry about my wrinkles. Wrinkles are my smile lines and I sure like to smile and laugh! I will have another post on what exercises I do to assist me with my balance and staying active.

The image above is a chair from the library. When I write my posts, I enjoy going to the public library. Even a picture of a chair can look ‘professional’ taken with your phone. Just need to take the shot!

Best wishes, Debra
Gma’s photo

Remote Shutter

Newly found phone accessory, the remote shutter.

Hi, I found a new accessory for the iPhone camera. It’s a remote shutter. Originally I discovered a selfie stick that had a remote included. I liked it so much I found one independent of the stick.

Remote shutter

The AB Shutter3 was simple to pair to the phone. When I was searching Amazon, the description was vague. With the price less than 10 bucks, I decided to give it a try. Typically I do not write reviews, I did for this. I included my image above for others in case they had some of the same questions I had. I’m pleased Amazon approved my review!

Selfies remote shutter
Of course after the pairing was completed, I had to practice! The first picture I had met this young lady on a previous library visit. There was someone sitting at each table. She asked if she could sit at the table I was occupying. I was happy to share the table with her. It was a Saturday several weeks ago. In the times I have been to the library, I have not seen a same person a second time. Well today, I happened to look around and there she was! I asked her if I could take a picture of her and me, pleased she said yes.

The middle two I took a break from writing for the blog. And the last picture was while I was picking my grocery order up. Told the young lady I just got my remote and wanted to practice. She was a good sport and smiled with me.

The iPhone 14 ProMax is a large phone. Trying to hold and touch the shutter on the phone screen is quite awkward; almost dropping the phone on more than one occasion. The remote will definitely be handy in taking better pictures, especially selfies.

Take Care. Best wishes, Debra
Gma’s photo

Selfies, take part in pictures!

Selfies, take part in pictures!
Selfie picture Hi, if you are like me as you are looking back on the pictures taken, none of them have you as the photographer in them. One way to create better images for memories sake is being in the image. That’s why my post, selfie pictures.

As simple as this sounds, getting the best selfie is an art. My daughter said practice taking selfies and watch YouTube! There are lots of YouTube tutorials. My plan is first give you pointers today. As I add posts that include pictures, I will provide the techniques used to get that shot.

For example, this image of me to the left, I used my selfie stick. I am the grandma with a big purse! Actually the selfie stick folds up pretty small. Not only can I use it for selfies, it’s a tripod as well. I have been able to take pictures of a larger group of family and friends.

In addition to using a selfie stick, I have learned that having a ring holder on the back of my phone helps me hand hold the phone while taking pictures overall. PopSockets is another good option for stabilizing your phone while taking a picture.

Phone ring

In this next set of pictures, I was trying to figure out where to look and how to hold the phone for just the right pose.

You might be wondering why would you want a selfie? I like to have a picture reminding me of a fun time I shared with a friend.

Selfie pictures friend

We are our own self critics. And we are too critical. Just take the shot. Later you will be thankful for that! Here are just a few I enjoy looking at time again.

More selfie pictures
Taken with the selfie stick.

Best wishes, Debra

Get Brain Farts?

Hi, did I get your attention with brain farts? Hahahah, maybe I should have said senior moments!

This is what I will be writing about for this post, forgetting. Thru my life journey, I had the pleasure of experiencing cancer. I say pleasure because I was lucky in the respect of an extended lifetime and cancer brought about changes that I would not have taken if I never had cancer. This can be another post. I mentioned this because I did experience the chemo brain. I had a very difficult time with remembering appointments and simple stuff. Prior to chemo my short term memory was excellent and long term memory ok. But boy, I sure had issues once in remission. As time progressed (like a year after remission) I still experienced the chemo brain. My father who is 20 years my senior said to me, “it could simply be your age.” Either way I had to do what ever I could to remember.

At that time I used many different colored sticky notes. Today, my phone! No need to dig for paper and pencil. Just whip out that phone. See what I mean in this illustration.

Brain farts

When I need to remember something I take the shot. Then I can look at the picture later to recall the desired information I wanted to remember. Or when the print is too small, take a picture of the print and enlarge the picture. This has been a handy one for me! Once I have taken action of the saved info, I delete the image. Here’s another example.

Brain fart

There are many different ways to help with recalling information on the fly. My daughter uses her refrigerator as a white board. She will have a few different to do list written on the front doors of the refrig. Well we have a few different things on our frig. The most common is business cards. There was an exception.

Brain fart list

I’ll keep this picture. My grand-daughter wrote this and now I can keep it forever. Don’t have to worry about loosing it or taking up lots of space. I have added it to my favorites folder!

Cell phones were not common when my kids were younger. Definitely the cell phone we did have back then did not have the camera capability like today. But I could have taken a picture with my 35mm camera, but did not.

Whether you call forgetting things brain farts or senior moments, remember you can take a picture of something that you want to remember. Think smarter, not harder!

Best Wishes, Debra

Take the Shot

Take shot

The best place to start taking better pictures is simply to take the shot. Any shot is better than not taking a shot at all.

Take shot

My goal is to take one image each time I leave my home. This may be when Kevin and I go for breakfast or lunch. Other times when I take a walk in the pasture, around the farm. This post image is my favorite entrée at the Aqua Mexican Grill and Cantina, the beef quesadilla.

The picture is straight from the phone camera. No editing. Image was cropped to make two images. Camera (iPhone) settings used: photo, 1x lens, Live Photo off. I let the camera’s auto function do the rest. While framing the image, it was necessary to move the phone to avoid getting its shadow in the picture.

Just because my phone is with me, I still have to remember to take the shot. It’s second nature for the younger generation. For us baby boomers, we have to train ourselves to take the shot! Taking the shot is better than not. Now I have a visual to add to my memory of my yesterday’s lunch date with Kevin.

What’s your favorite meal? Have you taken a picture of the food you like to eat? Please share!

This is the original image from the phone used for the collage at the beginning of this post. Here you can see a bit of the phone’s shadow in the bottom right side. I was able to crop the same image twice. Creating two different images for the collage. Notice in the collage the phone shadow is not shown. With simple cropping, I was able to make the picture look better.

Take Care. Best wishes, Debra
Gma’s photo

Grandma trying to take a picture with her iPhone.

Gma’s photo

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Hi, my name is Debra.  Proudly, I am considered a senior citizen at most of the local restaurants (which I take advantage of when I remember to ask). Some may say just middle-aged. Married for 36 years with two grown children and two grand girls. The grand girls is the primary inspiration for this blog.

I am a photographer that uses Nikon, Sony camera’s and various lenses. As time passes, I tend to gravitate to the easiest ways possible to complete a task. This is becoming more so with my photography. In my younger years I enjoyed taking my camera arsenal with me on photo shoots. Now it’s becoming more of a chore to gather the equipment, load the car and go. This is especially so when I am already carrying a camera with me, the iPhone.

As a member of the baby boomer group, the iPhone and digital era has me captivated. Wanting to do it all, surfing the net to taking the best pictures I can, I found myself at a bit of a loss. Well, this is my plan. To figure it out as I go and share with you here.

As I share my images, life experiences and just simple ideas, please feel free to comment, ask questions or share your experiences please comment in the reply section. I am truly looking forward to meeting you and engaging in wonderful heart-felt conversations.

Take Care. Best wishes, Debra
Gma’s photo