69/365

Abandoned Firehouse Side Door

The side door of an abandoned firehouse in a small town in Texas.

312/365

Hat on Table

I was in a cowboy mood when I took this pic.  

This week has been crazy busy:  

getting ready for Election Day on Monday, 

working the polls on Tuesday, 

returning the election equipment on Wed,

 spending time finishing last minute details on Thurs before leaving for Ohio on Friday, 

photographing a rehearsal dinner Friday night, 

then the wedding on Sat, 

then traveling back on Sunday.  

Sheesh, I don't want to rush my life along, but I'll be glad when this week is done...

All good, fun things and this craziness is an anomaly in my life

I"m grateful that:

life changes on a dime sometimes and it's fun to just go with the flow

78/365

Sunflower Trio

One of the images from the still life flower session I did a couple of days ago.  

Today was church with a fellowship meal following the service.  

Ran a couple of errands on the way home.

Meeting a friend later to see

"Jesus Revolution" again.

My heart is grateful today for:

colors that brighten up the world

67/365

Garbage Can

Saw this on my walk around town.  I just love the shadows of the bare tree against the cement wall.

My heart is happy for:

a full tank of gas

66/365

My Sneakers

I was wandering around downtown the other day looking for photo ops.  I decided to take a break for a few minutes and sit down.  I looked down at my feet and, voila, there was my next pic for the day.

It's not an award winner, but just a tad interesting.

My "happy" for the day:

I was able to go to the movies to see "Jesus Revolution" for the second time.  What an inspirational and humbling true story.

64/365

Just a Bouquet of Blue Sunflowers

Someone was done with a bouquet of colorful flowers even though they still looked pretty vibrant.  I boldly asked for them and spent some time trying to get a good shot.

It was fun and I didn't feel as exhausted setting this up as I did the other day.  There were some pretty yellow sunflowers and some Chinese asters but for some reason I liked this one best.

I'm grateful today for:

clean drinking water at the turn of the tap

61/365

Revisiting the yellow roses    Past.  Their.   Prime.

I finally had some time today to concentrate on photographing these dying roses.  

I don't really have a good place to set up for still life, so everything is a Major Effort and by the time I get around to actually making the images, I'm pretty exhausted.  Maybe I should set up, take a break and then do the photography.  Hmmm, I'll have to try that next time. 

One of these days I'll have to bite-the-bullet, pay for some blooming/vibrant flowers and spend some time with them.

I'm grateful today:

that yesterday I was able to pay off a car repair bill ahead of time

53/365    

Decor

I was visiting a photographer friend of mine in his studio today.  He has several of these camera statues scattered around and then I saw these mini-albums that he offers his clients.

I did a little reorganization and voila.

My heart is grateful today for:

the smiles and laughter my "group" shared around the table after our

exercise class this morning

40/365

Still Life

A couple of years ago I tried my hand at still life with the few items I had around my house, which wasn't much since I had just moved into a smaller space and had seriously purged my belongings. 

It was fun, it gave me something to do and I learned a little more about lighting.

I'm grateful today for:

my sewing machine

37/365

Still Life

I had the chance to get into a large Baptist Church in downtown Abilene today.  There were about 5 of us who took advantage of the opportunity.  

The sanctuary is beautiful but as I was walking around the building, I came across this scene in the entryway.  

Today I'm thankful for:

the good weather and warm temps in the middle of winter

15/365

Ceiling Fan and Flower Print

I decided to take a short lie-down this afternoon and I was mulling over what to take a photo of for my daily post.  I looked up and thought, "well, why not?"

It's not a very exciting image, but I enjoy having a ceiling fan even though I don't use it much and I totally LOVE the grey, white and black flower artwork.

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!~!