Some New Thoughts and an Update about my Retirement

Upcoming Plans for my Nikonians Blog and my

Bumming Around the World with Camera in Hand Blog

For a couple of years prior to retirement I followed a path of discovery.  That was a period when I pursued finding out what I wanted to do when I retired.  The things to do that slid down my “funnel of opportunity” were narrowed down to photography, travel, and writing.  My plan was to focus on developing those three key areas of interest.  That meant I would find the many things that I wanted to do under each category.  In brief, that meant learning photography and buying the gear I needed, traveling based on a list of places I wanted to see, and writing travel articles.

It was important to me that I not use the term “Bucket List,” which is so common today.  I felt that retirement was a commencement not an ending.  It was an opportunity to do things I hadn’t had time to do earlier in life, or never fully pursued.  For me, retirement meant that I would define the key areas of interest and then find how to make them satisfying in all regards.

As those of you who have followed my progress into retirement, I retired 20 months ago, and while I continue to succeed quite well in implementing my initial plan, I daily discover that my life is like moving in a boat as it flows along a river.  I had set the course of my retirement some time ago, but there are now many stops along the way and occasionally excursions up some unknown estuary.  Those stops allowed me to gather unexpected opportunities to enhance the plan.  For example, I now have two blogs and a photography website.  I attend camera club meetings and participate in competitions.  I even win sometimes.  I have traveled to places I never planned to go such as Cuernavaca, Mexico and Dominican Republic.

I am doing things in photography, such as digital post processing, that I never expected to do.  That work include a considerable amount of flower photography such as seen in my most recent blog as well as the two following images:

I now write about travel, but not for travel magazines as I had planned.  Rather, I write my own blog and feel quite satisfied with that endeavor.  In fact, this is part of one blog, and soon I will be adding to my photography blog (a series of articles on specific areas of photography that I want to learn more about and concurrently write for a local photography club newsletter to help my fellow club members.  Writing requires lot more time than I desire to embrace, since it takes away from my first passion—the photography.  However, I will still write some and it is a way to learn and share information.  My next series of photographic articles at my Nikonians Blog (www.blog.nikonians.org/jdroach) will be about color management, white balance, and how to capture the right color when making photo images.

Thus, with the blogs I can write when I want to and write about what I want talk about without the pressure of specific deadlines.  Furthermore, based on my many varied interests it will be a way to continue to tell my friends what I am doing, thinking and pursuing in retirement both regarding travel and photograph both locally and worldwide.

In closing this long overdue blog update, I want to briefly share with all of you that I have entered again the Union League Club of Chicago Annual Photography Competition.  The judging will occur April 24, 2012.  Of course, I hope to receive some consideration for my work.  However, it satisfied me greatly to realize that the work I submitted this year (see below) demonstrates personal growth in my chosen retirement “career/hobby.”  I observed that my studying during the past two years is starting to pay off.  I have progressed further along the path of becoming a good photographer.  I hope you enjoy the following images:

I will be following up soon with more photography articles on this blog also and continue the Vietnam Stories here at http://blog.jdroachphotography.com.  There will be a series of articles about Milwaukee including its architecture, Summer Fest, and many other interesting things such Street Photography along Brady Street and other areas of the City.

Copyright by John D. Roach, April 23, 2012