It's a New Year and I'm Late Already

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My last post was on Dec 30. It's been 5 days.  My goal for the new year is to post twice a week on specific days~~the days for this month being Thursday and Saturday.

Well, here it is Tuesday, so not only has it been a long time, but I'm late and it's the wrong day.  Hmmmm, is any day really the "wrong" day?  I guess not, but if one makes a schedule and then breaks it immediately by stalling and not following the schedule, does that constitute "wrongness".

Volumes could be written about that, so let's just move on.

By my sloppy calculations we've only had between 12-18 hours of total sunlight since before Thanksgiving.  That's about 40 days....  That's a lot of dreary weather.  I'm taking Vit D and have considered upping the dose.  So the other day (Sunday to be exact) I looked out the window and saw even drearier, foggier, cloudier and depressing-er (I know that's not a word, but it fit well with the sentence) conditions than previously.  I sighed and went about the business of getting ready for church. Then the lightbulb went on and I realized I should get some photos of it.

With very little time left, I stepped outside my door and made a few images.  I'm glad I did, I got a few keepers, even if they're just for the record.

Then yesterday, while I was in the midst of about 4 chores I decided to make myself a bagel with cream cheese and then I got the urge to photograph food.  It's ridiculous, I'm really bad not very good at it, mostly because I don't cook anything exotic enough to make a good image, but there's just something in me that wants to pursue food photography.

So I decided to photograph the bagel.  I dropped all the other half-finished chores I was working on, set up the table, ironed the placemat, made a cup of coffee, grabbed the tripod, camera, reflectors, toasted the bagel and attempted to Work-The-Subject.

The bagel and coffee tasted better than the picture turned out.  I once read the book "Art & Fear" that stated many times over that an artist's good work is born out of the artist's bad work.  I often feel like I should be creating some R.E.A.L.L.Y. good work pretty soon considering how much bad work I've done in my photographic career, hahaha

I guess I should cut myself some slack though.  If I had taken this picture 15 years ago it would have been truly pathetic.  Anyway, I will persevere!~!

Thanksgiving 2014

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There used to be many more of us.  When the kiddos were little there were about 16 gathering for family events.  Now the kids are grown and gone.  It's sad, but that's what kids do.  They grow up and often they leave.  That's the point for parents--grow them up and send them out.

It doesn't stop those of us who are left behind from feeling nostalgic about "the good old days".  But the 7 of us still had a good time yesterday.

Thanks go to Norman Rockwell for the inspiration for this image.

Thanksgiving Day Morning

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It's Thanksgiving Day, 2014.  There's much to be thankful for, the primary thing being that there's a God in heaven Who has everything under control even though it seems like this country and this world is spinning wildly into oblivion.  God has His plans and they can't be thwarted.  All that is happening is by His permission and design...

A couple of days ago I made some French bread.  This morning I had an epiphany and decided to make French toast with the remaining French bread. So yummy.

After I took a few photos of the bread cooking, it occurred to me that I could take some photos of the meal itself.  So I quickly got things set up (too quickly I'm afraid because after I was done and looked at the photos, I realized what I could have done better--but hunger was motivating me to hurry) and made a few images.

I finally had the chance to eat, and it was as good as I had anticipated.