As Baby Boomer Victoria Herring thought about the next chapter in her life, she decided to set aside time to explore her creative side through photography.

This year, Herring has carved time in her schedule as a civil rights and employment law attorney to take photography workshops abroad and explore foreign cities with her camera.

“As you get older, you start wanting to do more of what you are passionate about,” said Herring, who is 59. “It’s not that I don’t have a passion for the law. As a lawyer, I work a lot with my left brain. With photography, I’m fulfilling my right brain requirement.”

Herring has tried other forms of creative expression in the past. She used to paint, but she said she got to the point where the blank canvas would “stare” at her and she was out of ideas for what to put on it. So a few years ago, she decided to focus on photography, something she had always enjoyed. When one of her photographs was selected as a winner in the Greater Des Moines Partnership’s Focus Your View Photo Contest a few years ago, it encouraged her to dive deeper into the hobby.

“The nice thing about photographs is that you start with something, with light coming into the camera,” Herring said, “and it’s your job to find an image that’s different from what everyone else has done.”

Knowing that Herring loved photography, Amy Worthen, the curator at the Des Moines Art Center, encouraged her friend to visit Venice in January, gushing that “the city is gorgeous that time of the year.” Herring took Worthen’s advice and spent a week in Italy in January. While there, she attended a two-day photography workshop.

After her first photography trip, Herring set out in May for Bhutan, where she enrolled in a two-week photography workshop. After Bhutan, she spent a week in Beijing, China, to take more photos. Then she traveled to Ecuador this past summer with her family and shot more photos there.

Just a couple of weeks ago, Herring returned from her most recent photo expedition, her second trip to Italy this year. Once again, she again spent two days in a photography workshop with the same instructor. This time, she focused on photojournalism and “life in Italy” shots, which included spending time with a violin repairman and watching people getting on and off boats in Venice’s famous canals.

Now Herring is trying to find time to go through her photos. It’s a daunting task; she has 2,500 from her most recent trip, 4,000 from Bhutan and another 1,000 remaining from her first Italy excursion. She is under a deadline to get some framed and ready for two upcoming art shows: the Metro Arts Two Rivers Art Expo on Nov. 11-12, and “Three Women in Italy” on Nov. 30. The Italian-themed show is one she will host with two other Des Moines women, Jacqueline Stoken and Beverly Westra. The three met at last summer’s ArtFest Midwest and discovered a common thread of Italy in their artwork. Stoken, a physician, also takes photographs in Italy, and Westra, a psychologist, makes jewelry from Venetian glass and sterling silver. Their show will be held from 5 to 8 p.m. at the Des Moines University Student Education Center. For more information, visit http://web.mac.com/victoriaherring/iWeb/ThreeWomen.