Fiesta...

Karen and I had our weekly Disney day- something we do so we can talk about planning and to build aniticipation for the trip. Since Cinco de Mayo is this week we chose the movie The Three Caballeros and had a Mexican fiesta. As usual the girls didn't watch the movie but we still had lots fo fun!

Spring revisited...

This is the very same snowball bush that was barely budding in my first entry on this blog. Then spring was barely a promise and now it's in full bloom.

I suffered for my fun yesterday! Not only did I run yesterday morning for the first time in a week, but then I drank copious amounts at the sip & savor and THEN ate a ton of stuff last night I shouldn't. Needless to say, I didn't feel much like picking up the camera today, I considered taking a photo of the Aleve bottle. I made myself go outside and take some though and this is what ya get!

Sip and Savor

What a great day! We had fun at the wine/beer tasting...well, I think they had fun, I don't remember. Just kidding! I had a hard time trying to get shots and tasting wine at the same time. It's hard to take good photos with a wine glass in your hand, but Hope seemed to have no trouble with it!

Purple marks the spot...

Karen, our friend Summer and I went to a local wine festival this afternoon. I'm always grateful to find these little things that remind me I can find fun and culture wherever I am if I'm willing to look for it. These purple and white banners where placed around the downtown area to let us know which business where sponsoring wineries so we could go in for a tasting. There was also live music in various places and it was just a generally fun and relaxing atmosphere. All in all a good afternoon with good friends.

Woot! It's back in my loving care...

I got my camera back today!!! I was so happy and relieved to have it- I'd starting having dreams that I got it back but it still didn't work. :-O

Unfortunately it didn't stop raining long enough for me to get out and really look for some great shots. I ended up on my front porch because I so desperately wanted some well metered outdoor shots. I have a wind chime and a wind spinner out there that I enjoy a lot and I didn't want to choose so today you get two. Heck if it's sunny tomorrow you may get twelve!!

Ahem

Hope, you know I'm waiting for your picture! POST ALREADY, I'm going insane!!!!!!! LOL

dark friday

ramble mode...

Friday's have become a day I dread. Payday...or lack thereof. There's hope on the horizon, Rey has a new job and things are better, but I was thrown into that same friday desperation when I looked to see if he got one last check and it was yet another letdown. So, I pulled up my big girl pants, like I've learned to do recently, and decided to enjoy the day. The day was broody, clouds and storms looming, and I wanted to capture that feeling, but the rain never came (until NOW) and the clouds weren't dark enough. So what did I do? I took pictures of flowers. LOL. Flowers in my yard, flowers at clients houses. When I went to look at my shots, I found this one, that I think looks just how I felt today. Darkness, but so much hope and light. :o)

Hold my drink please...

edible texture

and I had a couple of these bad boys too! Wonderful day, wonderful friends, even wonderful cookies!

Tasty texture...

Meh, I couldn't really capture the detail of the texture in the mushroom cap that I was going for. However it's too late and I'm too tired to try for another shot tonight. This shot is going into my mental file of things to retry when I get my camera back.

We had a fun day, it was the last day of co-op and we all headed to the mini-golf/go-cart place for an end of the year party. I had fun shooting for a bit and then rode myself. I think some of my shots were overexposed, I need to work on that. Higher aperture for sure. We had a great day! This evening we headed to Hope's house for "book club" and we did actually talk about books for a little bit! It was a really nice day.

Welcoming texture...

A new word of the week always helps me find new shots. I don't think I would have noticed this shot if I hadn't been specifically looking for texture.

texture

this is the best you'll get from me today, I snapped it sitting in the car while Dallas was in his guitar lesson. Going out to the lesson, petsitting, and the store today was all I did and it really wore me down. Darn this cold! I'm ready for it to be over. Hopefully tomorrow?!?!?!!!

All that glitters...

It's getting more difficult for me to stay motivated with my point and shoot. A new word of the week would help because I always seem to do better with some direction. We didn't get to talk about it today but I'm sure we'll come up with something.

still sick

snapped this when I went to petsit this morning again and then just laid around. Made me think of the churches I was in search of shooting this past week when the word was architecture...what IS our word this week Hope? Sick? LOL

Star light...

sickday

I'm not feeling well, it started last night with a stuffy head and I've just been laying around all day watching Buffy on Netflix. LOL. I would have taken a picture of that (I may still tomorrow if I'm not feeling better!) but luckily I thought ahead this morning when I was out petsitting and snapped a few shots. Literally, I only shot 13 pictures, that's a record low for me, so that will tell you how well I felt! Anyway, I'm lucky my clients have a lovely house and this table caught my eye in the morning light...

Architecture of a story...

rainy day architecture

It was a rainy day and I grabbed the cards on the way out to get Rey & Dylan's hair cut. I got the shot I liked, but I also wanted to share a shot Dylan got. He wanted to catch a card dropping and when I explained that the shutter speed was too slow b/c it was dark inside, he put on the flash and messed around until he got the shot he wanted! I think it came out really cool!

Architecture of Creativity...

Not my greatest effort but considering I nearly FORGOT to take a picture I don't think it's too bad, lol.

cabin architecture

I'm a petsitter, but have recently offered to do some extra side jobs for my clients. Today I cleaned up a really cool cabin that had sat all winter empty. Messy job, but it gave me something to shoot and a little extra cash, so well worth it!

Architecture in Bloom...

Earth Day Architecture

We had a fun day at the local college celebrating Earth Day! I wasn't very inspired to shoot today, the sky was gray and not pretty to take pictures. As I was sitting there enjoying, I looked over and realized that they had a booth showing people how straw bale houses are made. I knew right away I had to get up and get motivated! I had a bunch of different shots and angles I liked, but I chose this one b/c I thought it captured the day a bit too b/c the girls had their faces painted.

Architecture of the American Dream...

I don't have a white picket fence but I do have a white spindled deck railing. I guess we took the dream and tweaked it to make it our own. :-)

Till death do us part...

Today is the Anniversary of our first date, 19 years ago! I thought I wanted to do something artistic and enlisted Rey's help since he was home. It didn't come out quite as I envisioned it, but we had a really nice time walking around the cemetery and taking pictures. Morbid that on the 19th anniversary of our first date we had a mini-date at the cemetery. That's just the way we roll sometimes. Here are 2 pics, I think the one with the flowers only is best, but the shot I went to the cemetery for is the one with the gravestones in the background.

The Architecture of Play...

readers architecture

My favorite used book store in our town (ok, it's the ONLY book store in our town!)

Primitive architecture...

Just when I'm about to give up taking pictures with this camera it forces me beyond what I think I know and pushes me to get a better picture. This little shack is up the road from my house and I've taken pictures from afar of it before but nothing stellar. Today I noticed that the gate was open and at first I just drove on by. I was out on the four wheeler and knew I was going to take pictures of the little church up the road for our new word of the week. But on the way home, after not getting any shots that I just loved, I noticed the gate was still open. I don't really know the neighbors who own this land but my parents do and I figured if they happened along and wanted to know what I was doing I'd just explain- thankfully that didn't happen!

I took a few shots trying to frame the house just right but was very unhappy with the colors I was getting. The lilacs were barely noticeable, the field was dull and the sky was too white. Instead of giving up I decided to get down low and forget about the sky because it was useless to try to get blue sky with this camera. As soon as I saw the first picture I knew I'd made the right choice! The auto settings on the camera (that's all there is so I have to rely on them) metered for the grass instead of the house when I got down low and the colors became richer and the sky was no longer an issue because I just made sure it wasn't in the shot.

The thing is that when I got home and looked at the pictures not only was the exposure of this picture better than the others, so was the composition. I was forced to look for a better shot for technical reasons but came out with an artistically better shot as well. A small victory with the little point and shoot, but I'll take it. :)

Architecture-New WOTW!

Hope & I spent the day walking, having our "movie day" (this will be in quotes forevermore since movies are rarely watched! LOL) and talking photography naturally! We decided on the word ARCHITECTURE for our WOTW. We also decided that when Hope gets her camera back, we are going to involve our readers a bit, but you will have to wait and watch for that! ;o)

So, I didn't have lots of time this evening to get a shot, this is what I chose when petsitting. Yes, this is a MAILBOX. I don't know why, I just know it is. It's nearly as massive as it looks, taller than me, probably 6+ feet. I've never seen anything like it, so I suspect my clients were looking for something unique. They succeeded!

working on it

So, I'm working on trying to get a great reflection in the eyes when I take my shots. I would LOVE if you could actually see ME (or a tree or clouds or whatever) reflected in the subjects eyes, but this seems to be out of my reach. I can "kind of" see myself taking the pic in her right eye, but it's not what I was going for. Nonetheless, it was the shot I was working on this morning and it turned out a beautiful pic (how could it NOT be with such a subject??!!) and I want to keep track of how I progress when working on this.

A seasoned perspective...

Grilling season, flavorful seasoning, dinner prepared on a seasoned grill.

me and my shadow

After the rain...

two weeks in one!

Last week when we had yellow as our word of the week, I envisioned taking a shot on the ground, of the yellow line in the road. I wanted to get it right in my town, but the time never arrived, there were always too many cars. Fast forward to this morning and I saw my opportunity and jumped on it! Mainstreet was fairly quiet and I ran out there and got down on the ground to get the shot...just as a very friendly sanitation worker walked in front of me and started emptying trashcans on mainstreet. So, the shot didn't come out quite as I thought it would. So, I'm heading to a petsit, driving down the outer road of the highway, when I see the sun rising in the rearview mirror. I pulled over, checked that that road was clear and dove into the road to get the shot. I admit, this is just my first attempt b/c I was nervous of getting run over, practically laying in the middle of the outer road, but this one was my favorite.

A sunny perspective...

Today was not a good day with the point and shoot. I've managed to get decent pictures by sticking to outdoor pictures during the 'magic hour' around sunset. But today I had plans and knew I'd be inside at this time. I tried to get some pics at other times of day and not only were they completely blown out but since I have to use the LCD screen (this particular camera has no view finder) I couldn't even really frame the picture up because it was too bright to see the screen. I'm trying to just think of it as a learning experience- I know I get the best pics with this camera around sunset so that's what I should stick with. For today, this was the best of the bunch so in the spirit of the project I'll post my less than perfect picture.

upsidedown perspective

a swinging perspective?

Reflective perspective...

A soft perspective...

When I'm in my head, trying to decide what I should take pictures of I can never think of anything. But with camera in hand, not over thinking, just letting the ideas come to me instead of me searching so hard for them they come without fail.

Self Perspective

Let me preface this with saying how difficult it is to post pictures of myself like this. I'm doing it though b/c I think it's important for me to step out of my comfort zone and be brave, especially when I'm trying to grow in so many ways...

I had somewhat of a flashback this morning. Long story short, I was out running and a guy (grown man) made fun of me and laughed at me while I was running. I spent my childhood being laughed at and teased for my weight, it shaped who I am, but I really don't feel like I did back then. I thought I was over it. I tried to just get angry, but before I knew it I was back there in that place of shame and feeling every bit of pain that I did when I was younger. I had a good cry (ok, a couple good cries) and realized that I'm not that person anymore.

I'm not going to believe you when you tell me I'm fat or ugly or whatever judgment you think you have about me. I KNOW who I am, I'm beautiful inside and out, and I thought that it would be some great self therapy to shoot myself today and find that beauty that I know I have. It was good for me and I needed to see myself for what I am now and who I am now. I liked both these shots. I can see beauty and flaw in myself and really just love who I am. I don't need to be perfect, I am who I am and I'm working my ass off every day to be even better. I guess all those classes for my psychology degree gave me a boost today...there's nothing like some self perspective thrown in with self therapy! ;o)

A lovely perspective...

Once again I found myself uninspired today without MY camera. I wandered around the house, my yard, even ventured over to the neighbor's yard. In my mind I was writing a post explaining that I just couldn't do this with a point and shoot. But I found myself drawn back to the house. First I took some shots of the small wooden lawn furniture the kids have outgrown. I didn't really like them but I did notice that the sun was setting and that I like the pink-white light bouncing off the white wood. Then the the wooden planter in my garden caught my eye. Just when I'm about to give up on finding a shot, one finds me.

Mulan

Today we had Disney movie day, so my picture was pretty easy thanks to Hope. She got all kinds of fun stuff for our movie day and they made for a great picture. I'm going to ramble a bit here b/c this is what I do... I'm having a little internal struggle with my photography. I FEEL like a photographer. I have no interesting in being a "professional" photographer. I don't want to charge people, so therefor I'll never be a professional. Does this mean I can't get as good of a photo? I don't think so. Does this mean that I don't know what I'm doing? No. It means that I LOVE photography, it means I love it just for what it is. I don't have to call myself a professional, I don't have to charge, I just have to love it for what it is. I could whip up a website and start charging people and this would magically make me a pro. It's not what I want, isn't that ok? I want to take the best pictures that I can take and I don't care if you think I'm professional or not. Does this make any sense? Probably not, but I needed to get that out. I'm spending a YEAR taking pictures every day in manual mode, reading and learning all I can b/c I LOVE photography. I love my camera. I don't need to be a pro to be validated, I can take a great shot without the label.

Karen plays photographer

Well THAT was a learning experience! Savannah & Leslee agreed to play models for me this afternoon and let me play around with getting some different shots. First off, I had this image in my head of them wearing bright eyeshadow looking really artsy and quickly realized that not only can I not put makeup on, but it would have been better with paint, not eye makeup and women, not girls. We washed most of the makeup off and they put on what they felt comfy in. I used a sheet and clearly had the wrong lens b/c you can tell it was a sheet and my bokeh wasn't what I wanted. There were issues with the edge of the sheet showing, the girls completely not wanting to do what I wanted, and bees flying all around us! LOL! Still, it turns out that Leslee wants to be America's Next Top Model b/c she sat long after Savannah was done and let me take shot after shot. I supposed I should have gotten a better shot then if I had such a willing participant, but it was my first shoot and I'm not going to be so hard on myself.

Bird's eye view...

One of my favorite things about spring is the return of the birds. I am lucky enough to have birds fill my lawn. At times the yellow of the goldfinches descending is so thick it looks like leaves fluttering to the lawn. I also have robins, wrens, bluebirds and some that I don't know their names. Soon the whippoorwill's will begin their song at dusk and the hummingbirds will zip, zoom, and dive. Today we set up the bird bath and we anxiously await more springtime visitors.