My Yearbook Skills

I did work one season for a company that had a wrap on all the Las Vegas high schools.
Can you believe I just wrote "Class of 2023"???? Does that make anyone else feel old? Or like, so in the future??

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Good-Bye Summer

Two days of nice cool weather is trying to convince me that summer is over. Well, school starts tomorrow anyways, even if it will still be hot until October. Hello, Fall. I love you.

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Need a Mother's Day Present? - Black Lab Puppies for Sale!

Only three males left! $400 each. Take home on Mother's Day! (It's this Sunday, in case you forgot) **** UPDATED 5/20/09 Now get your puppies for only $200!****

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Happy 1st Anniversary/What's in Your Kitchen?

One year ago today my home was burglarized. What did they get? The majority of my camera gear! The good news is I was able to go shopping for a new camera!! ;) The interesting part about the situation is that I had just decided to remodel my kitchen Trading Spaces-style. I thought I could bang out a new kitchen in two days. 1 can of Fudge Truffle paint (I could smell the chocolate, oh wait, maybe that was just paint fumes), 2 rolls of wallpaper, 23 black handle pulls, and 22 black hinges - how hard could it be?? So I tore apart the kitchen -which landed in the rest of the house. Midway through the second day of remodeling, I returned home from an errand to find my house in shambles, which was the way I left it, but with the lights on, which was not how I left them! Which led to the discovery of the missing camera bags.
The before picture (circa 2004). Does it scream rental or what? It reminds me of some of my college apartments. The combination of the off-white paint and the silver handle pulls made me want to puke. Finally after living in it for 5 years, I came up with a fabulous plan that I love and has totally worked for us.
Enter My New Kitchen:

I loooooove toile patterns.

Now I just need new lights, and the pulls put on the lower cabinets. The lower cabinets are metal and the holes are in different places so we haven't decided how to attach them yet. I suggested Super Glue, Liquid Nails, soldering or something of that sort. Anyone have any other brilliant ideas? (This is the main reason why it has been a year and I am just now posting pictures - it's not "finished" because the lower cabinets don't have the new pulls on yet!)

What's on my walls: Pictures I took in college. Train tracks in Pennsylvania. Recently a friend posted about taking food pictures to put on her kitchen walls. I also have taken food pictures for others, but for me my trains are totally rocking my kitchen. I love them. What's in your kitchen??

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A Day at the Farm

It is not pleasant when the first thing you think of on a frosty February morning is "Ah nuts. I'd better go outside and take some pictures before I loose that excellent light." Donning my coat and shoes, I ran outside in my pajamas. The cows were not so pleased. And so my photo safari was short lived. I needed breakfast anyways.

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Cardboard and Duct Tape

.....and tin foil and a needle......

....and a piece of black & white photo paper.

And TA-DA, you have your very own pinhole camera. The Cub Scouts came over to learn about photography and we did some hands-on learning. Alas, I forgot to take "before" pictures and "during" pictures, except for this one using my silly camera phone.

The finished product: negative on the left, poorly printed positive on the right (which is why I kept it and not gave it to one of the boys). They each went home with a copy.

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Perigee

Friday's full moon was also it's closest point to Earth, called the perigee. Since its orbit is not a perfect circle, the moon is not always the same distance from us. With the kids in tow, I was slightly late for the moonrise, but I manages to get this.
You had no idea you would learn so much about astronomy by reading this blog, eh? I still need to study up on astrophotography...

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Star Gazing

Literally. I haven't yet had much experience with astrophotography, and whenever I do, it's a last minute thing and I don't have time to research how I am supposed to shoot stuff. So this is what I came up with this weekend. This is the Moon, Jupiter and Venus at their closest encounter to each other this year. Jupiter is the higher spot, Venus the lower. This first image is Sunday at sunset.
Monday around 5:15pm. I think my neighbor's antennae is an excellent addition to this shot.

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Zion National Park

One week vacation from the "daily grind." One day at Zion Park. One one-mile hike perfect for three kids and two grandparents!

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Pumpkinman!

No, not Halloween hauntings, it's the Pumpkinman Triathlon! I parked myself at the top of the bike climb (for the view, of course) and here comes my sister. Smiling. Strange, indeed. Anybody who tackles this hill on a bike deserves definate awesomeness points!
As you can see, we had some patchy clouds. Great for my sister. Not so great for her husband.

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Making a Picture

My husband glanced over at what I was doing last night and says, "Oh, are you making a picture?" I didn't even have my camera gear out yet! But he can tell!! This is the latest assignment of the week: Painting with Light. Kind of moody, isn't it? I used an emergency LED flashlight. I love the blue cast it gives!
ISO 200, 6 seconds at f/3.2, 50mm lens, and the flashlight

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A Saturday Around Town

We have more car show here than anybody I know. OK, well, when it's not 120 degrees. Now that it is cooling off (slightly) the hot rods are coming out! Today's occasion was "Wurstfest." For a town that boasts no significant German heritage, I'm not sure why we have a Wurstfest, other than brats go with beer.... I guess when it gets to be Oktoberfest time, everyone is German. Just like St. Patrick's Day and Cinco de Mayo.

And the dance studio was having a costume sale. What fun!! Some were hideous, some were actually wearable. Halloween is coming up!
This one is my submission for the weekly photo challenge: Over-exposed!

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Sheer Luck

I am not an early morning person, even though I really do enjoy that time of day, I just can't separate myself from my bed unless I absolutely have to. So this week's theme of "Sunrise" was a dreadful thought. Luckily, my baby randomly woke up at 5:30am Thursday morning. I put him back to bed, grabbed my camera, and ran out the door. There I was hoofing it around downtown in my pajamas, trying to find perfection.
Aaahhhh... Right place.... Right time... I couldn't have planned it better. (Again this was not what I had "planned" but I am so glad I stumbled this way)

ISO: 400
Aperture: f/7.1
Shutter: 1/125
Focal Length: 55mm
Color Adjustment: NONE!
Time: 6:22AM
Light: Sun just barely pooped up over the mountain!

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Something Blue

Yet another assignment where things didn't go as planned. (This is not at all what I was intending on for this week) Oh well, these turned out cute anyway.

I think my personal favorite (of my own photos) of this series was my "Something Borrowed" even though it didn't go as planned either.

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Something Borrowed

I did have a most excellent idea for this week's photo challenge, however.....I was quite busy as were my models of choice. So I will go with this....

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Cherry Tomatoes

Assignment of the Week. Theme: Something New

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Assignment of the Week

Theme: Games.

I love chess. I love how complicated it is. I love planning my checkmates and getting all my pieces in their perfect spots. I even love when I miss something and it's not really checkmate at all, and I have to rework my plan all over and think harder. I focused on the Queen because, well, she is the most powerful piece on the board. But she is partners with the King. We all know if you don't have your king, there is no reason to play. The queen can't just be playing offense, she has to play defense, too. I love how they work together.

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Homework

I've decided to particpate in a weekly photo challenge, an assignment for the week, if you will. I thought "Maybe this will help me think outside the box" - of portraiture, that is. So what was my first idea for this assignment? Something involving people! I also wanted to participate because it reminds me of college. I had an amazing, fun teacher - Megan Martindale - and I would like to get back to the feel of the shooting I did then. Maybe it was the film and the chemicals, and digital has killed that... Maybe having significantly less free time did....

Moving on. Topic for the week: Something Old.

In these days of Shabby Chic-ness and Vintage Inspired, what is "old" anyways?

So, yes, my first idea involved people. What shows age better than skin? My grandmother does not know I am using her hands as a symbol of "old"ness. I will probably get in trouble for this :) My nine-month-old, who is named her maiden name, did not want to cooperate. But alas, I waited until the last minute to do this assignment, so he had to tough it out. I was going for the youthful baby hand delicately holding the aged grandmother hand. What I got was a baby foot. At least, Grandma cooperated...

My other thought was, "Well, I should do something without people in it" even though this is not a face portrait. So I'm sticking this barn on here too.

And my new header for the blog is a shot from 2000. How's that for old? Film all the way baby! I hope you feel something from this shot. I love it.

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Horses!!

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