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

1/365

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 Day Morning

32/365

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.

Two-In-One

Here you'll see my posts for Friday and Saturday. (this is for Friday)

Friday morning, four of us went to Friendly's for breakfast. The retreat didn't officially begin until around noon, so, as our custom, we headed off campus for some time together. While we were waiting for our order, I decided to take a shot of me and Cindy. So, as I was preparing to snap the shutter with the camera held out in front of us, my friend across the table reached out and helpfully said, "here, I'll take the picture for you", and so this is what resulted since Cindy and I weren't ready.

This next image is entitled, "The Irony of It All" (this is for Saturday)

When I arrived home from the retreat on Sat. afternoon, my husband told me a package had arrived for me the day before. Looking at it I realized it was my lens, you know, the lens that I didn't have for the last 8 weeks I was in Hawaii. On the Friday before I left I went to the camera shop to see if it might just have been there, and they assured me, "no, it hasn't come in yet". But either it was there and they just didn't see it, or it arrived within a day or two because it was delivered here just three days after I got home--exactly one week after I checked for it at the photo shop.

Hopefully it's good as new and I'll get to use it soon.

By the way, as you can see, it's a Tamron. Now I know that Canon and Nikon manufacturers say that you should only use their lenses for peak performance. But for any of you out there who might be looking to buy a very good, very affordable lens (who can't afford Canon or Nikon lenses), Tamron is great. AND, their lenses are guaranteed (or waranteed--can't keep that straight) for 6 (yes six) years. So even though I purchased that lens over two years ago, I didn't have to pay a cent to have it repaired. Not a bad deal.

More Haleiwa

Today Jackie and I got up before dawn to drive to Haleiwa, thinking that we could get some good images of the town before it got too crowded with people. Well, we were only about an hour early. To use up some time, we drove to the beach--no turtles--then drove back. After stopping at the harbor and then at a coffee shop for some breakfast, we began walking around town. I took way too many photos to post here, but these are two that I really like. MVPers, you'd be proud of me. After asking this guy permission to take his photo, I then returned and asked if he'd sign a model release!!! Hi Five!!! He said yes, and I'm now the proud owner of my first ever, model release from a stranger.

This bridge is very fun to look at and photograph. If any of you have seen "Blue Crush"--when the local girls are going to teach the football players to surf, this is the bridge they drive over to meet up with the guys. (I think it was probably cleaned up a little for the movie....)

Posted at 3 pm on Sat., Feb 21, 2009