Let it Glitter

Everything's a Little Better with Some Shine

Lately, it would seem that I have really gotten into macro shooting.  This photo is from a few months ago.  I really love the way it came out.  The colors.  The softness of the background.  Too fun. 

At the beginning of the week, I shot some more product type shots.  And finally today, after a very busy week with work, I got to play with them a little bit.  Oooooh were they fun!  Can't wait to share them.  And they inspired me to shoot some more macro type items.  So, hopefully, next week, they will be ready to share!  Something to look forward too - seeing what my mind has been envisioning. 

And, I will leave it at that . . .

Have a great weekend and see you all very, very soon!

The Climb

The Climb

I will apologize for a short post tonight, and for not posting at all last night.  Many of you have told me that you look forward to getting your emails either last thing at night or first thing in the morning.  And let me tell you, I truly appreciate that - more than you will probably ever know.  My "day" job as some would say has kept me very busy over the past few days. 

You see, I am very fortunate to have a job that allows me to work from home.  I love this because it is very flexible with my time and I get to perform probably about 80% of it in my comfortable jammies.  And the best part of all, I truly enjoy what I do.  But, every so often there are times when there is quite a bit of work that needs to be done.  And right now is one of those times.  And since I do all of my work on my computer, I am in no hurry to get back on it in the evening.  My whole body needs a rest. 

I was going to say I will be keeping this short, but I talked longer than usual.  (And many of you are saying - well that is nothing new - we already knew that about you.)

Power

The First Step

I just finished watching the 6th Harry Potter movie this evening with my family. I seem to never tire of this story. It grows with you. I felt the need to share one of my favorite quotes from the movie with you tonight.


It is a curious thing, Harry, but perhaps those who are best suited to power are those who have never sought it.  Those who, like you, have leadership thrust upon them, and take up the mantle because they must, and find to their own surprise that they wear it well.  ~J.K. Rowling, "King's Cross," Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, 2007, spoken by the character Albus Dumbledore

It Just Pulls Me Right In

The Tunnel

Well the pic for tonight has been around for awhile.  Some of you have seen it & some of you have not.  I really like the way it came out and wanted to share.  So, hopefully those of you that have already seen it will be okay with seeing it again, or maybe you don't remember seeing it before.  I don't know.  But, to me, it's one of those images that I could look at more than once.  It just seems to pull you right into the picture, don't you think?

Am I Making You Hungry?

Tasty Treat

With our weather a little bit cooler, it was time to start getting into the turkey and cranberry sandwiches.  Getting the ol' taste buds exciting for all the upcoming holiday goodies.  I was lucky enough to have eaten this treat last week.  Yum!

Coming At You

Coming At You

Different Intentions

Round and Round

Another from the buttons.  I actually shot these pictures for a completely different purpose.  I mean I really had a specific use for them.  And then I uploaded . . .

I fell in love as soon as I saw them on the computer screen.  So, here they are, being shared with you.  And so far, not being used at all for my intended use.  I love it when that happens!

Moment

It All Goes Round

Aahh.  Such a peaceful moment.  Looking at the beauty of one simple thing.  Enjoy this moment.

At Least I'm Still Cool, right?

Almost Out

Well, here we are on a Tuesday evening.  And it feels like it should be Friday already.  I know wishful thinking I'm sure.  We had the week off from school last week and I can sure tell it today.  I'm pretty tired out and will be calling it an early evening.  Well, that and I really want to get to reading my book for the evening - Cyberia by Chris Lynch.

My son loves to give me books to read.  And I love that he does that.  I love that he enjoys reading. It's such a good skill to have.  So, I have made references to the fact that I seem to have a never ending supply of books waiting in line to be read.  I mean literally (and I should take a picture of this, not sure why I haven't) I have large stack of books sitting beside my bed just waiting for me to read them.  And mostly they have come from one of three places.  My son, Ryan, my brother, Kelly, and my friend Diana.  And I am so glad that they recommend them to me.  It's great fun to read books and then talk about them afterwards.  And really all three of them give me very, very different styles of books. 

Well, the extra fun thing is that now my son is getting older and into a more advanced level of reading.  He comes home now with books that I have already read.  And I can tell that he thinks it's pretty cool to be reading something that I enjoyed.

I am very thankful that we can share that.  And . . . that for these moments I can be a cool mom.  Because those teenage years are approaching and soon I will be the uncoolest thing of all!

Bad Manners

That One Key

Good manners sometimes means simply putting up with other people’s bad manners. ~ H. Jackson Brown, Jr.

True so true, don't you think? And, in my way of looking at it . . . who am I to determine how someone else should behave. I mean, I truly believe that I have no right to pretend to tell someone else how they should live because I have not lived their life, learned their lessons or had their experiences.

But . . . that doesn't mean that I should have to endure their behavior. I can't ask them to change to suit my sensibilities, but I also do not have to subject myself to other's bad behaviors.

Now, how is that for confusing?

And, I'm not really sure what it has to do with the French horn key, but there it is, my share for the evening.

The Pumpkin

The Pumpkin

Swinging Good Time

Untitled

Flying Airplanes

Flying Airplanes

Let's hope that this ride didn't really go that fast.  Although, that would be a sight to see.

Keep that Positive Energy Flowing, okay?

Reach For The Sky

I do believe this is the last of the corn fields.  Are you gonna miss them?  I think I actually will.  But, I'm pretty excited for the upcoming pics from the festival, so I think I will get over it pretty quick.

We must always have old memories and young hopes. - Houssaye

Ooh.  I really like the quote for tonight.  And, I guess I should because I'm the one that picked it.  Sometimes I am fearful that I am too much of a serious thinker.  That maybe I forget to have fun.  And then I have a great laugh and forget to be serious.  It seems that the trick should be finding that balance between seriousness and lightheartedness (is that even a word?).  For me, I think that it comes down to spending more time, and ultimately energy, on the things that inspire me.  And sometimes that is as simple as listening to a good song (even as I'm typing I'm listening to Kings and Queens by 30 Seconds to Mars).  And spending less time worrying about cleaning that toilet.  Something I do not enjoy doing.  Just do it, be done with it, spending less time thinking about it and wasting energy on it.  Then move onto the good things that you enjoy.
 
I'm telling you that negative energy is such a drag.  Literally.  Sometimes it's like you can physically feel it in the room dragging you down and taking away all your desire to accomplish anything.  So, let's keep that positive energy flowing, shall we?

Symmetry is my friend

Coming down the Row

Easy is the path to wisdom for those not blinded by themselves - from Star Wars The Clone Wars

One of the things I enjoyed looking at in the corn field was the symmetry.  I guess I never really realized how much I look at the world in shapes - that is until I started getting serious about photography.  I wonder, had I never started to explore this interest of mine, would I have ever figured it out.  Would that part of my brain found some other way to become known to me?

Light bulb moment . . . I had to take a drawing class once.  It was one of the single worst experiences of my life.  For you see, I absolutely can not, in any way shape or form, draw.  It was torture for me and for the teacher.  But, I had to take it because for some reason that I do not understand, drawing is a part of the required curriculum for a photography degree.  After that experience, I came to the very tough decision that I may have to pursue this love without a degree, because there were many more drawing classes I would have to endure.

Anyway, the one area that I actually had fun at, and didn't do too bad at, was when we learned how to draw perspective.  Now that I could really get used to.  And for those of you that do not know what that means.  Basically you take your object and draw it using a grid of sorts.  And that just made sense to me.

So, here I am on a Friday night with my family heading into a corn maze.  I'm not sure what everyone else had on their minds, but me, I was too busy looking at the symmetry of the rows of corn and the shapes that were created by the bits of corn plant that crossed those empty spaces between each row.  And of course, that meant I just had to photograph it.

Cornfield

Cornfield at Dusk

This weekend, my family and I attended a Pumpkin and Chili Festival.  And of course that means lots of photo opportunities.  So, for the next few days I will be sharing the photos from that event.

I hope you enjoy them.

To share my thoughts...or not?

Boo




This is my new favorite picture.  I'm trying to decide if I should go into the reasons for that.  Or, if I should just let the picture speak for itself. 
I think I will leave you with a quote and let you decide what you think about this picture.

. . . people rarely succeed at anything unless they have fun doing it. - Dale Carnegie



Rolling In
























Wow, what a storm we had the other day.  I quickly snapped a few pictures of some of the aftermath and thought you wouldn't mind if I shared them.  I know this is a little different from my norm. 

Just check out all that debris on the road and sidewalk.  And all that water flowing in the drain!  I've lived in this area for almost 15 years and have never experienced a storm like this one.

Oh, and since I almost forgot, the picture from yesterday was not a part of this storm.  It was actually taken several months ago early in the morning as the sun was rising for the day.  No storm.

Is It a Storm a Brewing?

Silver Lining

So, what do you see?  Is this a storm brewing?  Or is this that one moment, just a single breath away from the sun escaping from behind the clouds?

I know that this may not be a fair question given the timing.  For those of you that do not live where I do, you will not have just experienced one of the most amazing, spectacular, brilliant storms to hit our area.  Wow, what a show.  It was scary, and chilling and absolutely invigorating to watch.  And, I can say that because we had minimal damage.  (Although, I don't think my husband will agree with that after he spent the better part of two days cleaning up all the fallen leaves from the three whole trees in our backyard.)

Let me get back on topic.  I wonder, if I may, what do you see when you look at this photo?  Do you see the storm or do you see the beginning of something beautiful to come.  I will give you a hint about what is actually going on here, I did not take this yesterday before that storm.

Tension is who you think you should be. Relaxation is who you are. ~ Chinese Proverb

Just For Fun

Neon Coke

Another fun favorite of mine.  Everytime I look at this picture, it just makes me happy.  How could you go wrong with Coke and Neon?

One of my Favs

Photographer in the Pumpkin Patch

This is an older pic but one of my favorites.  As a matter of fact, I have a print of it hanging on my wall above my desk.  I cannot remember the exact year this one was taken.  I could look it up and tell you, but right off, I do not remember.  I do know that it is from my old school film days.  (That makes me feel so old to think that I started out on film and look at all the amazing technology we have in cameras and picture processing these days.  Then I get my dad talking about the days of using one of those beautiful cameras with cloth to cover the back so the photographer could actually see what the camera was going to shoot.  Man oh man I would love to have one of those sitting in my house somewhere.)

Now, I do not love this pic for the obvious reasons, because there is a camera in it.  Although, honestly I have never thought of photographing camera parts.  Hmmm, that could be fun . . .

I love this photo for many reasons.  It's got a lot of great memories for me.  But mostly I love it for the technical aspects.  I love the bright sunlight shining off the tops of the pumpkins.  I love the softness of the field - I'm guessing it's some kind of wheat field or such.  And I love how all of that is contrasted with the very sharp, in focus subject - my brother Warren - holding his very old school camera.  I think that camera is quite possibly almost as old as me.  And it still works great.  Look at that lens!  So totally cool.

And yes, I know I am a photography nerd.  But that's why you all love me isn't it?

Oh, and about yesterday's post.  I did get many responses about that bridge that I could not remember the exact name.  It is the Chesapeake Bay Bridge.  It is extremely long and high.  They built it so high that any ship would be able to pass under it.  And, as my brother Kelly commented, they close the bridge down one day out of the year, or at least one side of the bridge, and let people walk across it.  Now that is just craziness in my opinion.  More power to those that want to do that.  For me, driving across it takes too long!  Thanks for sharing all the info you had on that bridge and for those that shared their thoughts about bridges in general.

Bridges

Untitled

There are a couple things going on in this picture that I really like.  I love the look of neon lights.  And to me, every time I see one of these photos taken where the lights from traffic all come together to create one continuous motion, it makes me think of neon lights.  I'm not sure why like neon lights so much but I do.  I think maybe they remind me of coke which I also really like. 

And, I have just come to a realization tonight.  I was having a hard time picking out a photo to share tonight.  Nothing was jumping out at me.  And trust me, it's not from lack of material.  I usually sift through my files and files and files and something jumps out at me as the photo that I want to share.  And tonight, I just could not decide on anything.  And as I was looking at the dozens of photos that I took of this bridge, I realized that I may like bridges almost as much as I like staircases.  I do love the look of certain bridges.  My all time favorite bridge is Memorial Bridge in Washington DC.  It is beautiful.  Sometimes when I was in town with my friends we would drive out of our way just to drive over it.  Okay, probably a lot more times than not, we would drive out of our way to drive over it.  Love that bridge.

Do you want to know a bridge I do not like?  The one going over the bay on the way to Ocean City, Maryland or Rehoboth Beach, Delaware.  I cannot remember the name of the bridge - it might even be called the Bay Bridge.  But that bridge always scared me.  It is much too long and much, much too high.  I know that my family will know exactly which bridge I am referring to and the name of it.  Maybe somebody can help me out with that?

What Kind of Wizard is This?

Wizard

Since I shared the knight last night, I really need to share the wizard as well.  I really like wizards too.  Not the crazy ones that always seem to have one sock up and one down.  That don't ever know whether they are coming or going.  The ones that seem to be a little brain fried.  But the ones that are kind, gentle, very old men.  That have a twinkle in their eye and a jolliness (is that even a word? it is here) to their demeanor.  Sort of like Dumbledore from the Harry Potter series.

The best of us must sometimes eat our words. - Albus Dumbledore