Saturday, February 5, 2011

Friday, February 4, 2011

thirty-five. three.six.five

In which, I can be spontaneous.

I struggle, in general, with being antisocial. It's not that I'm antisocial, so much, as that I really enjoy my own company. And that of my husband and family. "Bored" is not a word in my vocabulary. There is ALWAYS something that I can be doing. ALWAYS. So I love being in my little home in the woods. Because it is a relaxing retreat, in and of itself. My favorite place to be (especially my bath tub.) It's hard to get motivated to leave my comfortable little bubble.

I think that my "homebodiness" stems from the fact that I was raised on a farm, where we were forced to create our own entertainment. And that's why I appreciate my friends who understand and nurture and support this side of me.

No pressure, no guilt, just "I'll see ya when I see ya."

So when Liz called me and asked me to help her pick out a new pair of frames, I said "YES!" And it was fun.

And, when the frame-pickerse had finished, and she said, "Let's go get a beverage!" I replied, "Can it be alcoholic?" And thus, happy hour and snacks ensued at a great little place called Park Side, where we snacked on pita chips with goat cheese and edamame dip and talked about art and life, and all sorts of easy, interesting things.


So, hooray me, for being spontaneous and social this afternoon. It was wonderful. And I loved every minute of it. Thank you, Liz :)

Spending Time with Princess T










For more photographs of Brooke & Taylor, visit my facebook fan page: Young South Photography and "like" me :)

Wednesday, February 2, 2011

WBW - New Mexico Skies

It's the dead of winter. And a lot of us are cold. When I think back to a moment when my heart was at it's warmest, my mind immediately travels back to New Mexico. To the Ghost Ranch, in particular. I learned a lot about myself there. Sometimes, I need to think about my time in that place to keep me going. To remind me of the friends I made, the self I connected with, and the enlightenment I felt surrounded by this landscape. Part of my heart belongs in the desert.



Tuesday, February 1, 2011

32/365 - getting fit

Granddaddy's new iPad-compatible recumbent bike was delivered to his house today. I am so jealous. It is amazing. It is pure exercising luxuriousness. Here he is doing his best Lance Armstrong impersonation.
Dirk and I have been trying really hard the past few weeks to eat better, and my hard work paid off when I stepped on the wii fit scale this morning. Wearing scrubs 40+ hours a week has it's downside. Lately, on weekends, when I put my jeans on, they're WAY too snug for my liking. So yeah, we're working on it. My goal has been set. And it's totally reasonable. Wish us all luck!

many fun things

Brooke & Taylor came to visit us last weekend. Friday night, we had my aunt, uncle, and cousins over for dinner and Jane brought these amazing cupcakes. Yes. They are from dreamcakes bakery. Hm. Hm. Hm.
twenty-eight.  three. six. five
I am still trying to find time to edit all the photos I took over the weekend, still haven't even TOUCHED one shoot in particular, so you can be expecting more adorable photos like this in a few days:
alfafa 2.0
Two favorites from Saturday mornings impromptu shoot:
my beautiful sister
if you walk across my camera...
And then we loaded up and went to the cirucs! Yes! The Ringling Brothers Barnum & Bailey circus was in town and it was fantastic! This is, literally, the only photo I've edited out of the hundred I took (I'm so glad I smuggled my camera and telephoto lens in in Brooke's diaper bag.)
twenty-nine.  three.six.five
Leyna chose this week's theme: angles. Here's my best angle shot. I laid myself down on the ground to get some photos and Taylor plopped down on my hiney. She thought it was hilarious to use my booty as a chair. So I angled the camera over my shoulder and got this photo:
niece using booty as a chairWe've also been challenging each other to explore and play with sunflare photos. Here are my two best attempts:


So, thanks to Mel, I am attempting a 365 photo project, wherein, I take and share one photo per day. All of these photos will live in the 365 set on my flickr stream, and I may or may not be sharing them here, depending on how the day goes. Yesterday was a crappy day at work, just really really busy and kind of coming off a wonderful weekend with my niece and sister and family just kind of made me a little sad. Oh, and my husband has a cough and is the most pitiful creature in the whole wide world when he's not feeling well. But then I got home, and there was a bunch of crap on the kitchen island and it looked like Dirk had raided some random person's pantry. Oh, no. Our belated Christmas present from his grandmother arrived. And it seems as if she raided her own pantry in order to find "gifts" for us. A collection of hot sauces, spices, and this photo has a few of my favorite items:
thirty-one.  three.six.five.
I had no idea they even MADE White Rain shampoo and conditioner anymore?! She couldn't have sprung for the Suave?! And a can of Jalapenos?! Dirk said, "What about this can of Jalapenos says 'this would make a nice Christmas present for my grandson?'" I told Dirk that his grandmother is turning into the aunt from Christmas Vacation and that we'd better be careful or next January we'll receive her cat that was wrapped pre-Christmas or a green Jello Mold.

Wednesday, January 26, 2011

WBW

This was taken on my third press trip through Executive Traveler magazine, along Highway 1 on the Big Sur Peninsula. I was lucky enough to be given the royal treatment on this trip, along with my best pal, Collins, who celebrated her 30th birthday Monday (woot woot!) We traveled by stretch limo along the coast, sipping champagne, having our driver stop any 'ol time we wanted, taking photos, pinching ourselves in disbelief as to the awesomeness of our surroundings.

We actually hiked to this spot overlooking the falls (tipsy on all that champagne, mind you.) I fell in love with this view. Not only because I'd never seen a waterfall drop directly into an ocean, but also because the wild flowers were in FULL force! This is Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park. She was apparently an amazing woman. Living alone with no electricity, traveling by horseback, days each way to gather goods to supply her homestead for months, at least, that's what our limo driver told us, but who knows how hard he'd been hitting the bottle on our journey :)

(click on this picture to really take it all in)

This photo also reminds me that, regardless of fancy lenses or cameras, a photo is all about capturing memories, random moments in time. It's amazing the feelings and sounds and smells that come flooding over me when I see this, and it's great confirmation that I took amazing photos back before the super cool camera and the expensive lenses. It's all about how I, personally, view the world and my surroundings. And how I can share that with you.

Here's one last photo from that journey along Big Sur. Happy Birthday, Cole!