Finally, A Model!

My friend's son wanted to have his portrait made. He wants to begin a website to promote his singing and guitar playing. I was invited to join them on their photo session this past weekend.

We had fun and I'm happy with some of the shots. It was a beautiful day--it was great to be out. We managed to get to the beach as well, but I'm not happy with those images. These are a few of the ones I like.

Sunset at the Beach

Another sunset shift at the beach as Honu Guardian yesterday. I mentioned in a previous post that the volunteers are there to keep people from harassing the turtles. Well, we really do more than that. There's a large element of education as well. People have all sorts of questions about the turtles, and the volunteers are there to answer those questions, hopefully, or direct the person to where they can get the answer. So in addition to being on the beach at a beautiful time of day, there's a lot of interaction with the people who visit the beach.

Fact: these Hawaiian Green Sea Turtles do not mate or lay their eggs here on the beach on Oahu.

Fact: the turtles can stay submerged for between 4-5 hours before surfacing for air.

Just a sunset shot, and one of the surf.

I think I just might be in another part of the island in the next few days, and maybe I'll get some images other than turtles worth posting.

The Day of Orange and Blue

My friend and I spent the afternoon in Haleiwa. We had lunch first and then parked the car and walked around to "see what we could see". Along the way, she suggested that we each concentrate on a color. We pulled colors out of a "hat"--actually it was balled-up pieces of napkin with different colors written on them, and they were scattered on the top of a table. No hat available, but "necessity is the mother of invention". She laughed, but it worked.

She pulled blue and I pulled orange. "hmmmm", I thought, "that's not going to be an easy color to find, nor is it very exciting, sure wish I had pulled blue, but that's the luck of the draw".

From the get-go everywhere I looked I saw orange. Probably wouldn't have noticed it if I hadn't been specifically looking for it.

The sun was really bright and in most of the shots I took, the orange looked yellow. Her blues, however, looked good. So we managed to occupy ourselves for quite a while with this project. One of my first shots is this image below. It's part of a poster in a store window.

One of my favorite places to go for coffee or snacks in Haleiwa is called the Coffee Gallery. I mentioned it last year while I was here. They have an inside seating area, but they also have this outdoor area, which, when it isn't too hot (as, in the summer-hot) it's a really fun place to sit and relax. Very "Gilligan's Island" looking.

This is just a fountain as seen through the louvered window of a gift shop.

As we were getting ready to head home, we saw this VW bug. One of the originals. This certainly looks like an Island car, doesn't it? And it is "blue" and "orange"--how convenient for us both.

I Learned Something Today

What I learned today is that I'll probably NEVER be a surfing photographer.

Now, I've tried this before, and I've never been very successful. But "hope springs eternal" and I keep trying, thinking that I might get the one killer shot. Well, it would be a killer shot for me--have you seen some of those fantastic surfing photos out there???

Whether or not I get that killer shot, it's still fun trying and definitely awesome to be sitting on the beach, in January, wondering if I should have put on the sunscreen, because, maybe after all, the sun might be strong enough to burn me while most of my friends are dealing with snow, wind, sleet, cold temps and dreams of spring, back in NY, and other cold places.

So today I began my jaunt at Laniakea Beach--where I "guard" the turtles. when I'm on guardian duty. I wasn't on duty today, so I was free to wander around and try to get some different shots. Not too successful, but I definitely enjoyed it.

Then I drove along the North Shore to see what the other beaches offered. I arrived at the beach where the PipeLine surfing competition is held, only to find that the surf was BIG
and they were setting up a booth to (I assumed) accommodate the surfer's registrations. The beach was dotted with people watching the waves and the surfers practice. It was one of those truly beautiful days--blue skies, breezy, high surf, perfect temp. and surfers to watch.

I took about a gazillion shots, but considering my lens isn't anywhere near as long as it should be for this kind of activity and that I was hand holding the camera against the wind, I threw most of the shots out and I consider it amazing that I could keep any of them.

The first two images are just waves--if you look for surfers, you won't find them. I was just trying to document the magnitude of the waves, and the beautiful color of the water.

These surfers were much easier to photograph than the ones in the water trying to catch the waves. But since I love people watching, these were fun too.

The last two are the better of the bunch. I'll never be famous for these, but they make me happy.

ALL THE CLICHES

You know those cliches that talk about living in the moment? Like:

*Stop and smell the roses

*You only have one go-around in this life

*Don't save the "good" dishes, use them now

*Every day is a gift

*Don't go to bed angry

*You don't know what the future holds

*Live like you were dying (from a wonderful Country song)

*If life hands you lemons, make lemonade

Well...all the cliches are true. Don't take your life for granted, count your blessings, don't grieve the past, but don't live for the future. Cherish your friends and family.

Psalm 139:16--Your eyes saw my substance, being yet unformed. And in Your book they all were written, the days fashioned for me, when as yet there were none of them.

My friend and sister in the Lord, Louise, very admirably lived out each and every day the Lord had fashioned for her. She went to be with her Lord on Monday, Jan. 19, 2010. We will miss her, and her memory and testimony will live with each of us until we're called to join her.

First Day at the Beach

So, I arrived in Hawaii last Tuesday, Jan 12. It was a good trip, and I felt like I had arrived home when I got off the plane.

During the next few days I visited with some friends, ran some errands and just slowed down and enjoyed the warm weather.

Today was my first shift watching the turtles. For anyone new to my blog, I'm a Honu (turtle) Guardian. On the north shore there's a beach that the Hawaiian Green Sea Turtles love to use for basking.

An entire group of people volunteer to keep watch over the turtles. Yeah, it's kind of like babysitting--only without whining, changing diapers or nap time. We stand on the beach making sure people don't sit on, move, feed, or, in any other way, harass the turtles.

The first time I visited this beach two years ago, my first response was, "well, I can see it's a tough job that someone has to do, so sign me up!" To be fair, I suppose it IS pretty uncomfortable in the middle of the summer, standing in the sun all afternoon, trying to keep one eyeball on the crowd while keeping the other on the tourist next to you asking questions, and all the while trying not to become dehydrated and fried by the extremely direct & hot summer sun.

However, in the winter, it's near perfect.

I always choose the sunset shift. Lovely.

The first two images are practically the same scene but I took my light reading off a different part of the subject.

This is the one and only turtle that graced the beach today, providing the tourists with their "turtle" fix.

And this is one group of tourists. I have as much fun watching them as the turtles.

Once Upon a Time

Once upon a time, in a land far away, Christmas dawned bright and clear. The snow on the tree branches glistened in the morning sun and the sky was so blue there could be no description for it. The fluffy white clouds hung in sight waiting for a breeze to move them along.

Briiing, BRiiing, BRIIING!!! Time to get up. (I really don't have an alarm clock--the "briing" is just literary license to make a point)

The dream went up in a poof of reality. Upstate NY. Christmas morning. The normal: gray skies, fog, dirty snow on the roadsides. Oh well.

Christmas is CHRISTMAS no matter what the weather--it's what's in our hearts that really counts. It's loving the LORD for sending His Son to earth for us. Awesome!

So I got out of bed and did all the morning chores: get dressed, make coffee, stoke the fire in the wood furnace, feed the animals, walk the dogs, hauling along my camera to document this less-than-stellar Christmas weather, get a last minute Christmas gift out of the car trunk and hide it, check my email, put the potatoes in the oven to bake so I can make potato skins later, print out a photo gift certificate that I was supposed to give to a client days ago. Okay, okay, so some of those things are not ordinary morning chores, but I did them anyway.

So MERRY CHRISTMAS to you all.

this is an early morning post. I may post another later tonight. Check back just in case I do.

I Was Really Clever

It is Christmas Eve, 2009. Another year has passed and is almost over. Wonder how that happened? I seem to be saying that a lot lately. Many years have passed since I graduated from college. How did that happen? My oldest child is that old but what's puzzling is that my youngest child is this old. HOW did that happen? Even more confounding is that my oldest grandchild is almost in high school. Good grief--there can't even be an answer as to HOW that happened? I swear I didn't blink, but it sure seems like I had my eyes closed a lot. Sigh.

Anyway, back to Christmas eve. It's also my daughter's birthday. I was really clever, having her born on Christmas eve, don't you think? We always celebrated her birthday as a separate entity (unlike those I've heard of who say on Christmas morning, "Oh, here's your gift--it's for your birthday and Christmas"), but there were times when it was really a stretch to fit a separate party into the holiday preparations.

Once she was older and married, it became a really pleasant situation, at least for me, even if she doesn't agree. We would all go to Christmas Eve service, then back to my house for her birthday cake and presents. It added a little pizazz to the evening.

This year we decided to do things just a little differently. We met for an early dinner at Ruby Tuesday's and had a wee birthday celebration there. Very nice--no cooking, no cleaning, no stress.

After dinner we all went to Christmas Eve service.

CHRISTMAS

The day Jesus was born to die

The day Jesus was born to die a horrific death

The day God sent His Son into the world to atone for our sins

Thank God for Christmas

I hope you all have a Merry Christmas as you enjoy your families and contemplate the amazing sacrifice that God made when He sent His Son to earth, and a Blessed New Year.

Not Much Motivation

I haven't posted much lately. This lapse, following on the heels of a year of daily posts , is discouraging (but if truth be told, I missed a few days during that year). For those who may be new to this blog, several friends and I committed to taking and posting at least one photo a day for a year. Several of them were so faithful they never missed a day, the others of us missed a few--mostly due to work constraints or computer issues. The challenge began on Oct. 1, and ended on this past Sept. 30, one year later.

One of my other friends, bless her heart, tells me that she still comes to my blog daily, only to see the same post for weeks at a time. She says it as a casual statement, not as an accusation. But I'm convicted, nonetheless.

I just don't have much motivation. Maybe I need to challenge myself to another year of daily photos--even if I use photos I've already taken. Maybe I have to stop playing Bejeweled on facebook. That's probably more the issue.

Anyway, I went shopping with a couple of friends the other day. It was one of those "desperation" shopping days. You know the kind--"I haven't done any Christmas shopping YET, and there's only 10 days until Christmas, so if I don't do it now, it will never get done. Let's get going! " We were on a mission, that's for sure.

Well, the mall wasn't very crowded, and by golly, we got it done! Whew. The first thing we saw when we entered the mall was this beautiful Christmas Tree. The photo doesn't do it justice.

After our marathon shopping spree, which only took us a few hours, we treated ourselves to lunch at the Olive Garden. Everything there is very, very delicious, so the decision was almost more nerve-wracking than the shopping.

Alice was done deciding, Jean was still thinking.

My choice: Chicken Parmigiana. It was as good as it looks, especially since I didn't have to cook it.

So all in all, it was a very productive day. So thank you, my friends, for the company and the laughs.

So Who Does It?

So we live in upstate NY. It gets cold and it snows in the winter.

It snowed yesterday. Not much, but enough that there's still snow on the ground and trees.

My question is: when you live in upstate NY and it's winter and it's finally time to put the snow tires on the car, and your husband is still recovering from a back injury, who gets to change the tires, Who Does It?

The answer is: Me!

Okay. Now I've changed tires before. I learned to do that a long, long time ago because I never wanted to be stranded on the road, or dependent on calling home and waiting to be rescued. Back in those days I couldn't afford Road Service.

But, multiply that by 5--yeah, I know a car only has four wheels, but my husband needed one of his truck tires changed too, and add to it that there was snow on the ground and that it was cold (but mercifully not windy).

Frank made it a little easier by giving me pointers on how to do things more efficiently.

I decided that I'd make the chore as tolerable as I could. I found my "Blue Crush" cd, put it in the car cd player, opened the car windows, turned up the volume and danced my way through the job. (okay, it might be a little pathetic that I love "Blue Crush", the movie, but I do)

Okay, the job's done and now I won't have to hyperventilate the next time I have to drive in the snow. I still won't like it, but I'll feel safer.

Check out the post below. It's a new one too.

Beauty From Boredom

Last Friday I attended a dinner with my husband. I didn't really want to go, but he wanted me to, and he still needs a little company on his jaunts while recovering from his back injury.

I didn't expect that there would be anyone there I knew. All the stars lined up that night because in walked the one person, in a room of about 80 people, that I knew at all, with her husband.

Whoo hoo.

So we chatted, then dinner was served. Then one of the members of the group began playing some music which was actually pretty nice. But I started yawning and wondering what I could do to occupy my mind.

Back up a bit.

When we left the house, my mind had a discussion with itself. "Are you going to take your purse?"
"Nah, Frank's driving, I won't need anything in it or any identification."
"But you always need identification--you never know what might happen."
"But dang it, I don't want to haul that thing around."
"Hey, don't forget, your point and shoot is in it, and you might want that."
"Oh, all right, I'll take it!"

Back to the dinner. Sitting there, wondering what to, I remembered that I had my camera. So I got it out and started fooling around with some items that were still on the table. I didn't want to use the flash, and even at a high iso it was at a very slow shutter speed.

"Guess I'll have to take all the pictures with the camera flat on the table," I thought.

Within a few minutes my friend and I were moving dishes around, rearranging ice cubes, laughing (very quietly I might add), and making everyone else at the table shake their heads in wonderment.

The following images are a few of the results. No one is going to knock down my door to get their hands on them, but I consider them beauty from boredom. My camera saved the day (or evening in this case) once again.

It Started Out Okay....

Today dawned (if that's what you want to call it), grey and dreary--no surprise for upstate NY--but around 34 degrees, which is really quite tolerable for winter. I had to go join some other folks at church this morning to help decorate the sanctuary for the winter/Christmas season. I left the house wearing only an extra sweater, carrying along another layer just in case it got colder later in the day. So it started out okay.

After decorating, I had to do some shopping. I had all afternoon to browse, so I took my time wandering throughout the store. But when I reached the cashier at the front of the store, all I could do was stare and I began, mentally, to count the days until my plane leaves for Hawaii.

It was SNOWING!!!!!!!!!! Aaaargh. Fortunately it wasn't sticking to the roads at that point--obviously we don't have the snow tires on the car yet, that would be too sensible. So I finished my errands and returned home.

It kept snowing, hmmmmm.

As I was getting ready to write this post, it occurred to me that snow is kind of like art. Remember I mentioned that one man's art is another man's junk and vica versa? Well, one man's (or woman's in this case) dreaded weather is another's joy. I know people who actually like the snow and count the days all summer until they can ride their snowmobiles or go snow skiing again. And I'm sure the ski resorts are rejoicing too.

So, go ahead and smile, those of you who have been waiting for this. I'll just keep counting the days...