all is well

My camera is back. 

I am very happy.

I felt like I lost my voice and someone just gave it back to me.

 

I could jump for joy.

Peace and love to you.
Happy Friday.
xoxo

this or that?

daisies or roses?

daisies

pumps or flip flops?

flip flops

make up or au'naturel?

au'naturel

royal treatment or camping?

camping

expensive date with hubby or movie at home?

movie at home

fruity specialty drink or water?

water

nick nacks or empty space?

empty space

more or less?

less

noise or quiet?

quiet

cramped book shelf or a trip to the library?

trip to the library

full calendar or wide open days?

wide open days

city landscape or empty horizon?

empty horizon

frilly frou-frou or earthy?

earthy

fussy or easy going?

easy going

crowded party or dinner with a few good friends?

dinner with a few good friends

ocean liner cruise boat or canoe?

canoe

bling or no bling?

no bling

complicated or simple?

simple

bouquet of long stemmed roses or just-picked yellow daises on my windowsill?

just-picked yellow daises on my windowsill

xoxo

A little challenge from little Scarlett

Dear blogger friend, let me do a little explaining:
Last month my art group leader gave us a challenge to do something with our art in a fashion that is not our typical m.o. She wanted us to challenge ourselves to move outside of the typical way we go about creating our masterpieces. Perhaps we would learn something about ourselves, discover a new method, or use a different part of our brain. (Really? There's more than one part of my brain that I use?) I spent time flipping through blogs of various photographers looking at their styles and perspectives and their editing techniques. Holy cow, there are a lot of photographers out there. I felt a bit intimidated for sure.
So when a sweet friend of mine, Jodi, had her third baby last week I asked her if I could just come over and challenge myself with capturing something outside of my "normal". When I arrived there today I felt totally clueless. Duh. I really did not know what I was doing, or trying to do. I took a handful of pictures, chatted, and came home. After some fiddling here, and fiddling there, I tried to go with the "look" of all that baby photography that is out there that is muted and pastel-y, with a hint of texture added for effect (affect?). All of which served to point out that the people who edit like that are crazy experts at it, and I have no idea what I am doing! However, it was a bit of fun to play with color and textures, all of which I love to dabble in.

So. There you go. With that all said, please let me introduce you to Scarlett...

Those lips are just so perfectly pouty and perfectly baby.

Scarlett's amazing miraculous entrance into this world is documented here.
After you read it you will all agree with me that her mother possesses super human powers.

Come back tomorrow and I will share a couple more that are more in the style of "me".

(Thanks Jodi for letting me "play" today.)

A little Hallelujah for the sun!

For a few hours today the clouds broke and a pocket of blue sky floated over our heads. It was wide enough to let the sun's rays rain down on us and our water-logged town. Shortly after the kids came home from school and I would not even let them inside. NO way! Go on and soak up the sun while you can!  So they scurried off to the field across the street to play "house".

Of course I was on their heels with my camera in hand and took so many pictures my fingers were so snap happy. Upon coming back inside I uploaded a gazillion pictures and grabbed the first two that caught my eye. 

The top one looked very contemplative and I felt it needed some editing to reflect that. I have no idea what she was thinking about, but gosh darn, she is beautiful. Below, if you look carefully, you can see that Bean's BFF is caught in my shadow (a nifty little trick I often employ when out shooting in full sun) smiling because she is technically in the "bathroom" that she and Bean built. It's connected to the "kitchen", which is off the main "hallway" of the "house" that these two mapped out in the field grass. 

I will share more of these two and their sunshine play later. As I type, the clouds have once again enveloped the blue sky and have continued their dump of rain. Zach just came in and promptly confessed to riding his bike through the mud--in his new shirt. Seriously? Okay. Deep breath...

The thing about the rain...

...is that it leaves the ground soggy and ripe for guys like these. You should see the carpet of them in the park across the street. I walked over during a break in the rain, camera in hand, praying for something at which to point my camera. I spotted a million little golden mushrooms poking up out of the grass and was about to walk toward them, when out of the corner of my eye I saw, what I first believed, was a stray piece of litter, or a lost softball, resting on one of the sloping hills. As I drew closer to it I realized it was a ginormous mushroom the size of my hand, standing alone...though a foot away a neighbor was beginning to push up from the soil in a very alien-like manner that left me with the creeps.
I know this picture does not accurately portray the reality of how huge he was. It was hard to give it context standing alone in the bland green grass against the backdrop of a bleh grey sky. I had to shoot from the hip from this one as I could not very well prostrate myself on the wet grass. (Totally came unprepared for finding a massive mushroom on the wet lawn.) I took a million pictures trying to get a good angle. And, once again, I was wishing for a macro lens.
I came home and tried to make it "more interesting." So there you go.

The thing about the rain, is that it pushes me to use my creative eye a bit. Maybe that ain't such a bad thing...


p.s. Oh, and you should have seen the little black slug munching away at the base of the mushroom--all sheltered from the drizzle and wind underneath his very own spiffy umbrella. Again, if I had that macro lens I would have gotten that shot for you. But alas, you'll have to use your own creative eye for that one.

When life hands you a mud puddle...

...you turn it into a Monet.

At least this was my philosophy today.

The Bay Area is, at this moment, being slammed with rain, thunder, and lightening. All usually very exciting, but not really for a cooped up photographer who thrives on outdoor natural light when using her camera. There was a brief break in the clouds so I stepped out onto my back doorstep to catch some rays and point my camera at something. The mud puddle at my feet was my only option people--I was not about to venture out further in my slippers. So I aimed my camera somewhere over the puddle and clicked a few off and then stepped back inside as the rain drops returned. What to do with a picture of an exciting mud puddle?

Tweak it into my own Monet.

Perhaps one day it will sell at an auction house for millions?

Thursday's Still Life: Cowgirl Boots

We arrived home in a heap of dust, smelling like manure and horse and saddle. (Love those smells.)
Bean plopped down in the door way and I pulled off her borrowed boots and dust caked denims.
The day was fading and the light outside was lingering. So we two, the boots and I, parked on my front step for a while.

It was a Thursday's still life painted in pixels on the sensor of my trusty camera.

FYI, I call this series: Cowgirl Boots

(That's just so y'all know in case my life should ever be taken before I get to publish some cool coffee table photography book or hang my pieces in the MOMA.)

Vintage Christmas

Every Christmas season I am drawn to the vintage-y cards and papers, glitter and tinsel. I am somewhat of a paradox: I love to browse through vintage shops and websites but I rarely bring something home. It doesn't quite match my modern/comfortable/California girl vibe. (If I could live anywhere it would be on the California coast in a modern beach bungalow that looked like something out of the pages of Coastal Living.)
Yet every holiday season I pull out my vintage advent calendar, and vintage ornaments and wish I could be back with my English ancestors celebrating with tinsel and candle-lit trees. I think it's the nostalgic feeling of it all--the throw back to simpler times when getting an orange in your stocking was a treat.
The little children in the fold of this advent calendar bring such a smile to my face...the children playing their instruments, the angel in the window with her flute, the little kitty...all dusted with glitter, celebrating the fact that the Christ Child has come.

I would love to join them...

Driveway residents

These little blooms have taken up residence along side my neighbor's driveway.

They have spread like an untamed wildfire, reaching out to lick your feet when you walk by.

Thought I would catch them in the fading light of the day.

Wow, I just realized that it looks I photo-shopped that bud right into the picture above. (His ghostly stem floating above the leaves.) I promise, I did not. I am not that skilled at Photoshop. :)

Just for fun

There's a nifty little website called Rollip.com that lets you transform your photos into polaroid gems. Of course, if you are a polaroid purist, and only wish to achieve such effects by using an authentic Polaroid camera, then this sight is not for you.  So, for the rest of us that just want to do a little fun faux polaroid action, then roll on over to rollip.com and play!

You can even add some text for fun.

Happy Saturday!

Dahlia Love

My very first post was a dinner plate dahlia found on my mom's back deck. 

It was one the first photos of a flower that I actually took, and liked.

Since then, I've learned how to spell dahlia correctly,

and I keep coming back to them.

A true case of dahlia love.

The last of summer

Technically speaking, we still have over a month of summer. Yet we are on day two of school and it is hard to believe we are already into the swing of school, homework, schedules, etc.

An after-school slice of watermelon is like a fading dream... 

a whisper of a memory...

as if we have one foot still in summer 

while the rest of our body races toward autumn.

You know it's the first day of school when you head out the door in your...

Other signs that reveal that it is indeed the first day of school:

we actually use the alarm clock

breakfast is eaten at 7am (not 10am)

hubby packs lunches (yea!)

new outfits are donned

pictures are taken

uninterrupted computer time

flip flops are put in the hall closet

quiet in the car--I'm the only one in it!

(and AM radio is dialed in!)

house stays clean for more than two seconds

early bed time!!!!

Oh, and...

I've shed a few tears over another summer gone

and the fact that my kids are growing faster every moment

that it makes me miss them more and more

and more that I think too much about when they will be

grown and gone and off on their own

no longer coming home from their first day of school.

It's just days like this that mark the passage of time so clearly for me...

the weight of  it is just too much.

Just before she fell asleep...

...I snapped off some of her on the floor with her blanky. 

I thought she seemed sleepy-- lovin' on her blanky, wanting to pile it on her face.

But she got up and went down stairs to watch her brother play some Xbox (his last day of summer video game time) and before I knew it she had gone quiet on the couch. 

As I type, she is fast asleep. It's 4:52pm. Tomorrow is her first day of school and I wanted to get her in bed early. That plan is not happening.

When I was taking a picture of her I told her she looked like a mermaid.

Then I couldn't decide if I liked it better in black and white?

Letting her sleep for a little while. Then pray for me as I attempt to wake her. She is a grouchy bug when she is awakened from her beauty sleep.

Catch a flower, catch a girl

Not sure if she caught the flower as she flew by, or if the flower caught her. 

Either way...these two are never far from each other. 

Happy Tuesday.

Giving in to the cone flower

Before I was really into photography I was not a big fan of flower shots. Just not my style I suppose...all that frilly flower stuff was "not me". But as I have been using my camera every day I have discovered that I am "one of those" photographers that is drawn to flowers. Ugg. I swear I am not frilly (though I did paint my daughter's room pink).

It's just that flowers are easy subject matter! I don't have to chase them around and I can work on my skills, playing with aperture and settings and angles and what not. I think I hovered over these flowers for quite some time and they sat perfectly pretty for me. No complaints. No "CHEESE!" No directing or posing...

And lately I've been sucked into another worm hole of post processing and textures and layers and, oh my, it is just too much. I can't get enough!

So. My apologies if you are NOT a flower girl (or boy). My apologies if it all just makes you gag.

I promise to keep the flower postings at an infrequent minimum. But for now, I am giving in to the cone flower and loving every minute of it! Thankyouverymuch!

Summer of Desserts

It's been a summer of desserts...the very best kind of summer when you are 6 and 1/2.

Today there were three. Here she is licking every last morsel of her cinnamon twist frosting off her mouth. I don't blame her--they were pretty darn good.

Just a shadow of its former glory...

We took the kids to the county fair tonight, mainly because I have been thinking about those authentic corn dogs they sell (not the soggy ones you get from the freezer section) and because it's summer and that is what you do in the summer--you go to the fair. I went to the fair as a kid with my family and then as a teenager. It was a grand fair, with the two headed animals, bearded lady, hypnotists, parades, cat/dog/quilt shows, 4-H animals, live bands, venders on the streets selling the "Chop-o-matics", toe rings, train sets, balloons. Oh and all the food food food and rides...need I go on?  

But I had heard that the fair was nothing like it used to be. I kind of surmised that it might be true when I went online and discovered that there was free entry and free parking. (Hmm...anything to get people to come?) We parked out in the dirt parking lot and walked right in and realized we were four people out of hundred visitors there. I felt like I was at a school carnival. It was like a ghost town...a mere shadow of its former glory. 

No lines at the ticket booths.

She was the only one riding the swings.

Thank you God...they still had the corn dogs.

And the silly, expensive games...

at which you could win random prizes.

Of course you can never get rid of the cotton candy.

Or the 4-H animals. This is a prize winning cow. 

Meet Osos and his owner. Sweet cow. 

His days are numbered. Next week he's being sold to a slaughter house.

(I will never look at a hamburger the same again. Could be Osos.)

The pigs were still there. Getting their beauty rest.

Hey, it's how you spend your last days at the fair.

And yes, the goats were there. Meet Cinnamon, the ribbon-winning dairy goat. 

Here she's waiting to be milked. It keeps her utter producing milk so that when she's being shown in front of the judges she's "plump". 

(You learn something new every day.)

Yes, a shadow of its former glory, fading away. Made me sad to think of the history that has gone with it, only memories, like lost snapshots, left to remind us of what it once was. My kids loved going and it was nice to have a quiet evening, but I think I would have rather taken them back in time to walk the fair in all of its sights, sounds, smells, and craziness that it was. 

p.s. Can't stop thinking about Osos. Can one rescue a cow?

Golden Light

This evening I went and took some family pictures for my friends, Brad and Piper. (I had taken pictures of their boys before and especially focused on one of their sons, Ashton, for my first art show I was involved in this past spring. Past posts of him are here and here.)  They live up in the hills of Gilroy and I could not ignore the beautiful hills and setting sun, so we walked up the street to climb the small trail by their house and sit under the oaks. The light was golden, the sun washed over everything like a fading dream. The cows called to one another in the distance and the air was perfectly cool. It was a golden moment.

I think I'll post more pictures tomorrow, it's late and my own light is fading...

Processing

I asked her if she would stand in the shade of the tree so I could point my camera up at her and aim right into the sun. I love trying to catch flare and bokeh and I love a touch of sun splash in pictures when they evoke that dream-like feeling. She was so patient with me, my sweet Bean. As I was doing my own bit of post processing I was drawn to her eyes and wondered what little bit of her own processing was going on?  Does she know how beautiful she is? Does she know that I love her with a depth that no words, or picture, could capture?