If you live in a northern part of the world, you understand the urgent need to take care of all outside repairs before the snows fall. The woodrotted lintel above our garage door was an excellent example. Last spring we'd contracted with our carpenter Tom to replace this rotten crossbeam, but we'd heard nothing from him all summer. Now winter was knocking at the door and we could wait no longer. When Ed called last week, we were relieved to learn that Tom was finally ready to tackle this onerous job. He admitted he'd been putting it off. With good reason. On the first of two days of dawn-to-dusk work, Tom and his brother Scott had to remove the roll-up garage door and temporarily support the roof with four wooden posts. Definitely not a job for the faint of heart! They completed the job on the day that snow flurries were first seen around Detroit. Ed and I are now deeply grateful to have a structurally sound lintel, especially after hearing that the old one was sagging 3/4 of an inch (1.9 cm)! I shutter to think what might have happened to my precious wheelchair-accessible van if we'd had a winter of heavy snows and ice. But, thanks to Tom and Scott, now she's safe and sound no matter what weather comes our way.

Regarding my use of a composite photo, I am now feeling ready to reopen the door to ALL types of creative post-processing. Since discovering Phil Douglis' instructional cyberbook--Expressive Travel Photography -- communicating with pictures early in August, I've focused almost exclusively on straight photographs that I have hoped would evoke emotional responses in the viewer. And that focus has served me well. My artist's eye has been honed in ways it never was before. Before immersing myself in Expressive Photography, I was hooked on Photoshop manipulations. From March to May 2007, I'd taken a series of classes called "Photoshop for Photographers" that was offered at a local art college. Until August I was like a madwoman playing with those tools! And now I'm ready to integrate the two.

Isn't photography a fascinating artistic medium? There are countless paths to follow, and if one keeps pushing the envelope, there might come the day when you find yourself in a place that no one has been before. It could even be that we focus on just one subject our entire career, but within that place we'll want to find new ways of doing and seeing things. If we allow ourselves to get too comfortable with the tried-and-true--even if it has met with popular acclaim--we'll be at risk of repeating ourselves ad infinitum. Creativity, like life, requires large doses of derring-do. It is definitely not for wimps!