February 10, 2010 at 11:14 am (Goals, My new life, Work)
Maybe it seems like I’m not doing anything over here.
What’s really going on is that I’m rapidly filling my head with information, learning new software, learning old software, reading 4 different books at once, setting up the new laptop, learning more about photography, making plans, daydreaming, learning, learning, learning.
What I’m not doing is pushing the button on my camera. This week is for study. This weekend is for clicking. What I’m hoping is that all of this learning and watching and discovering will translate into some pictures I can be proud of. This weekend I will take my tripod (piece of cheap crap that it is) and try my hand at the HDR thing. This weekend I will shoot in RAW. This weekend I will have fun with my camera!
And the daydreaming? That is totally productive too. I am making surprising connections and leaps with what I’m learning even while I’m not trying. Somehow the daydreaming is swirling it around and making it all fit somewhere. I can even see bits and pieces starting to form into something I’ve wanted for a long time but had no idea I could really have.
I’ve also daydreamed up a somewhat expensive list of tools I need for this photography thing. Sheesh, this stuff is expensive. One thing at a time, right?
I’m gonna make it work.
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February 2, 2010 at 9:05 am (Just for fun, Photos)
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January 31, 2010 at 8:32 am (Kids, Photos, teens)
And they showed both sides of her.
The soft, beautiful, calm, sweet girl/woman she can be…
And the wild, tie-died hippie rock star that lives inside her too.
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January 30, 2010 at 12:28 pm (Cross post, Droid post, Home, Moving, Things I don't like)
Ask me how much I like moving furniture. Go ahead, ask.
What I’ll tell you is that every time I move (over 25 times now) I swear that next time I’m just going to burn the house down.
Actually, next time I’m taking two suitcases. That’s a different story.
Today we didn’t move houses, just a little furniture. One bed in, one bed out.
Somewhere in the grumbling, complaining and grunting there was light.
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January 25, 2010 at 12:32 pm (Home, Kids, teens)
My girl has grown tired of her loft bed and has been hinting around that she would like something more her style. Meaning something more grown up and less like you might find in a frat house.
It’s her birthday tomorrow. My first baby will be 16 years old in exactly 23 hours, so today we shopped for her gift. Time for that new bed. During the drive our cell phones were working overtime finding furniture stores, directions, and prices.
Also calling her brother and asking him to measure her mattress at home because I forgot to do it and couldn’t remember if she had a full or a queen. Oops.
It was a frustrating trip, and neither of us were really having fun for the first couple of hours. After five stores we finally found what she wanted, and she fell in love with the bedding on the display too. She’s now thrilled to have a new, purple, fancy grown up room. Well, she will have a fancy room once we move out the old bed, paint, hang curtains and assemble the new bed.
Not my little girl any more, but always my little girl.
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January 18, 2010 at 2:55 am (Goals, Home, Photos, Work, jpegge.com)
I got my camera out today, along with the manual and my extra lens attachments and held my own little class. I think I figured out the benefits and drawback of the lenses, and I got one step closer to weaning myself of aperture priority (my favorite) and shooting in manual mode.
I’m on a mission. I want to get better every time I go out shooting. I want to nail at least one great shot each time, then remember how I got it and do more of that the next time. I want to turn this camera and this computer into tools to bring in some income eventually. For that I need to be really good, and much more efficient, rather than experimental. Luckily, to get there, I get to play with it all.
So, play I will.
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January 17, 2010 at 11:26 am (Family, Home, Kids, teens)
Clearly, I need another photo walk. I’m all caught up on my editing and don’t have anything to post. I think tomorrow I’ll try out the macro lens I forgot I had and play with it in the back yard.
To sum up my weekend so far?
1- Sick kid. I knew it was bad when he poured himself a bowl of cereal and then didn’t eat it. Normally he can eat enough cereal per day to feed a small town. He also only ate one piece of pizza during movie night tonight. That alone makes me think he might need medical intervention.
2- Because of sick kid, I got to go back to bed this morning instead of chauffeuring him all over town and back. Hooray for that.
3- Shopped with teen daughter. While sounding scary, she is remarkably as tight fisted as I am. I nearly forced her to buy another pair of yoga pants for the gym and that was it. Unless you count the buying frenzy we fell into at the book store. Books are our crack.
4- Movie night at home. Is it bad that I watched “The Hangover” with my teenagers? We cracked up, and even sick boy laughed, and then moaned because laughing hurt his stomach, then he laughed some more.
To sum up…A peaceful day with them. Tomorrow brings out the camera, and the users manual for the boy’s calculator so he can figure out how to finish his last chapter of algebra, and a possible trip to the mall. I really need to find some new jeans that fit and that is not nearly as easy as it sounds.
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January 13, 2010 at 9:41 am (Droid post)
Sometimes you take your beauty where you find it.
Today was just another regular day, with no big highs or lows. Just me getting through the day at work, and laying down a chunk of my paycheck on groceries. And then, on the way home…
The sky lit up.
It only lasted for about 30 seconds.
I’m always grateful for these reminders that even inside the boring, the pale, the ordinary, there are moments that are absolutely brilliant.
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January 11, 2010 at 9:14 am (Houston, Just for fun, Photos, Texas)
One of the reasons I love my photography groups is because they let me know what’s going on around town and we get together to shoot photos of cool stuff I may have missed otherwise. Combine that with spending the day with my Girl, and this was a really good day.
Freezing cold, but still a good day.
Once we bundled up with coats, scarves, gloves and lots of shivery complaints, we were good to go. Funny how hot chocolate can make even the coldest day feel better.
Ice carving turned sport. I’d only seen demo’s before, not competitions, and these guys meant business. Discovery Green was covered in ice chips, chainsaws, blowtorches, chisels and water. Not to mention the testosterone level. I think we need some women out there sculpting to balance it out.
We spent most of our time watching this guy. He was serious. His sculpture turned out to be the biggest, and most delicate. Very, very cool.
I have more pictures up on Flickr.
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January 10, 2010 at 12:39 pm (Holidays, Photos, Seeing the world, Texas, Travel)
For about the third time in my life… Wait, maybe the second? I was out on the town with the crowds at midnight on New Year’s Eve. Pete’s Piano Bar in Austin was fantastic, and somewhere I have wanted to go for quite a while. My heart was smart enough to suggest it for the weekend. We stayed in the Brava House bed and breakfast, which was another smart move on our part. Loved it!
New Year’s Day started out with a loooooong walk all over town, a visit with great friends, and a trip to Gruene to watch Guy Forsyth belt out his own style of great Texas music. I loved all we did, but loved even more that I had my heart with me every step of the way. That is a good way to start a new year.
I’d love to spend another day in Gruene, poking about in the shops and buildings. Cute little towns like that remind me of the little mining towns around northern California and are a good mix of feeling like home, and finding a new little place.
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