The first steps of my creative journey started in my garden. For one year, I documented as many macro flower and insect details as I could. I wanted to know my plants in a different way, looking at them with the eye of a developing artist. I started in my garden and then expanded into the nearby woods and fields and ponds and streams.  At the end of that time, I gathered my favorite images into three photo books that I self-published on Blurb. I selected photos that illustrated the key components of design that I was learning---line, shape, color, form, repetition, texture, scale, and space. Each book is a record of my on-going studies. Nature has always been my best teacher.