Making It Up As I Go Along

When I moved to this house, I engaged a decorator/designer to help me pull together this house. And then I promptly interfered. But Diane did help me come up with a color scheme, pick out some furniture (that had to be strategic because the house is small) and find some things for me here and there.

One of the recommendations she made was to finish off my bathroom with silhouettes - their cream and black color scheme would go nicely with the old yellow tile and black walls (it's better than it sounds, click here to see). I set about finding some old silhouettes, mostly from eBay because I was not about to pay what the antique stores around here wanted (this would be the interfering part).

I have finally amassed enough, and they have been residing in a drawer long enough that I feel I must deal with them.

One problem. I have 6 in frames and two more that need frames. I don't want that many holes in the plaster walls. They aren't forgiving when you change your mind.

So from the crevices of my mind, I recalled something where someone had framed padded burlap and hung a number of things on the burlap. With only that to go on, I had to make it up as I went along.

Off to Michael's and Hancock's. I came home with this:

a frame, quilt batting, that sticky stuff you back needle work with for framing and burlap.

Then, with a little trial and error, I cut the batting and the burlap. Below I've started taping it down with packing tape.

After a lot more tape, I put the burlap thing in the frame to look at how the silhouettes would look in the frame.

I tweaked the layout - the one below looks better to me. Now I'm considering how to affix the silhouettes to the burlap as they're so decrepit that the hanging hardware is broken or falling off most of them. Hot glue gun is looking pretty good right now.

Wait - I just realized there are an even number of silhouettes here. One will have to be removed. Which is good because that will make 3 separate ones to hang on the other wall in the bathroom.

So, before I could hang the silhouettes on the burlap/batting, I had to make some minor repairs to the decrepit pieces - literally the wood of the frame flaked when I tied to tap in a small hook, easily repaired with a hot glue gun. And I settled on Christmas ornament hangers to hang each silhouette.

Only the bottom left silhouette had a name on it - Gladys Henderson.

I think Gladys will approve of her new display.

Weather update

I just turned on the tv to check the weather channel, and there it was: the weather peeps were saying "two inches of rain in Troy, Alabama" and showing Troy on the weather map.

1. Troy is my hometown

2. There are some stir crazy kids in Troy if it's rained two inches worth

3. There are some parents who wish it would stop raining in Troy, Alabama

I'm going to walk my dogs before the rain in Troy, Alabama gets to Atlanta, Georgia.

Midas Touch

Gus, surveying his kingdom from the highest vantage point. The light is golden, and so is he.

Gus is very tuned into the weather - when it's sunny, he's upbeat and bouncy. When it's overcast, he's a bit subdued but he's still up for a walk or a rousing game of chase in the backyard. When it's rainy, as it is today, and the house is darkish and the rain is pattering constantly on the roof, he's downright mopey, possibly because he knows no walks are happening in the rain and cold (we walk in the summer if it's just sprinkling).

Cotton at the back gate, always a dirt road sport

Cotton is unfazed by the weather. She's more catlike, happy to curl up rain or shine until there's an outing or she spies some mischief she can perpetrate, making me suspect that there was a cat in the kennels with her. Plus she makes this noise that at best could be called a purr. And where Gus is loathe to get his feet or face wet in the rain, turning back just three short steps from the back door, Cotton just puts her head down and gets it done.

Gus and Cotton gild my life every day.

Thanksgiving Scenes

Official Spokesdog

Hey. It's me, Gus.

You probably can't tell because that new lens cuts off parts of my snout. I figure a few more days, and Molly's gonna get the hang of it. Huh? Cotton says that maybe the framing of that photo was deliberate and I should quit talking about things I don't know about.

Cotton's such a goodie four paws.

Cotton and I are taking care of the blog today, because Molly is cooking. No, I mean really cooking. Not that heat and add salad stuff. Real cooking, as in 5 lbs of potatoes, and these white things she called turnips and peas cooked the old fashioned way (with bacon drippings) and there's gonna be some bacon in something she's doing tomorrow because I smelled it. And there's gonna be roast fowl. Yum. Not that we've gotten any of it.

Yet. bwahahahaha...hush up Cotton, you're such a ninny.

And all that cooking means the siblings are coming. And when the siblings show up, all those kids turn up and Cotton and I nearly throw out our backs wagging. And jumping. And wagging. Oh, and licking.

Cotton and I love when company comes. All those people to shed on is a lot of fun. And the kids drop food. Need I say more?

Anyway, Molly saw this today when she was out buying our dog food. She said it would be good to put in the blog and I should talk about it. Meh, boring is what this is.

What now? Oh. Cotton says that the gold thing must be a big harvest moon but that Molly first thought it was the Great Pumpkin.

Well, that's about it for me, folks.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! Wait for me, I got dibs on the foot of the bed!

War on Clutter

For Bush, it was the war on terror.

For GHW Bush, it was the Gulf War.

Reagan stared down the Soviet Union.

Kennedy, Johnson and Nixon each faced the Vietnam War.

Honest Abe presided over what is still called in these parts The War of Northern Agression but the history books call The Civil War or more benignly, The War Between the States.

For Molly, it's the War on Clutter. And Molly has won a battle, as evidenced below. You can see the battlefield in its former state here.



As with every war, there are refugees, those misfortunates who are displaced by the battle.

They are expecting packages from the Red Cross any day now.

Turnip, or not turnip?

This year I'm adding something new to the tried and true Thanksgiving dishes. I'm making a turnip dish. Saturday, at the nearby farmer's market, I found these turnips. Wednesday I will be brave and assemble the new dish.

Turnips, parsnips or brussels sprouts never made an appearance on any dinner table I can remember from my youth. Rutabagas made a cameo appearance or two, but I didn't like them. Blech.

But brussels sprouts have become a recent favorite, as have beets. I found the brussels sprouts in the frozen foods section in a steamer package and bought them in a fit of needing something new to eat. And lately the chefs in Atlanta have been featuring beets in all manner of ways. My favorite is a beet and goat cheese molded salad that also factors in balsamic vinegar. Yum. But that's a summertime dish.

So in the spirit of adventure, I'm going to make a half recipe of a turnip dish - turnip gratin - because it just looked so dang good on the website. I'm pretty sure there will be trepidation on the part of anyone here on Thursday who tastes this dish.

Nothing ventured, nothing gained, right?

How about you? Trying anything new this Thanksgiving?

A Million Pieces

This is the corner of my deck - the deck that apparently is going to split into millions of pieces. See the cracks? I'm assured that's from the drought.

Makes me wonder what surprises the trees have in store for me.

Anyway - this is about the 5th picture I've taken with my new lens. See the lovely out of focus yellow leaves in the background?

I'm trying to get the hang of it before the Thursday gets here. I want to make the most of the, live models victims um, family while they're here.

Plus, I've made a rule for myself: I can't buy the other lens until I have mastered this one.

Now that's what I call motivation.

Flotsam and Jetsam

I can't seem to kick the clutter. But it's genetic, I'm from a long line of cluttered relatives, those who figured that spending time with family, cooking, playing with your camera, reading, walking your dogs or napping was more important that dealing with the flotsam and jetsam of life.

Below is my desk. The picture tells the story.



In a few days, family will be arriving. The question is if the clutter will be gone before they get here.

Did I mention this is a small house? As in very little storage?

This is a small house. With very little no storage to speak of. Just changing out the wardrobe for each season is painful.

I made a schedule that spread out the clutter eradication tasks into manageable bites over the days leading up to Thanksgiving. Starting today and ending in triumph on Wednesday.

I'm already behind.

Help me.

That was Then, This is Now

Then = 2/2006


Now = 11/2008

I still can't believe Gus was buzz cut when I got him.

Off to the farmer's market for fresh green beans and sweet potatoes and maybe some turnips to shake up Thanksgiving!

Lens Envy

I think this may be the last Chicago post.

Maybe.

I'm still obsessed with the lenses...

Anyway, this is one of the ladies in our class. She and her husband have a photography business, and I think it is mostly weddings. Anyway, she volunteered to be the model in our Sunday afternoon courtyard shoot when Me Ra was showing us how to work with models. And let me just say that by this time Sunday it was COLD in the courtyard.

Maybe the most important thing she said was "I don't lift my camera to my eye until I have the shot I want composed, and I can see it". Good stuff.

And then she went on to say that women are all curves so when you shoot their pictures, work the curves. In the one below, the model is leaning against the wall (window) behind her, which puts her at an angle and is not a straight on shot. This is another 85mm lens shot. Sigh. I loved the 85mm lens.



Me Ra demonstrating to the model how she wants her to pose. It's all about the curves.

You can start to see how this will turn out very nicely. And I wonder if the pose doesn't take the model out of "posing" since it's not conventional. I mean, she is really having to listen to what the photographer says since it's not run of the mill "tilt your head to the left and look at the birdie".

Me Ra also got up in a chair and took pictures from above (love those angles).

What the weekend looked like behind the camera:

So here is Me Ra with the lens I covet most in the world. It's the one she says she can use for a whole wedding. If you go to her site MeRaKoh.com you can see the portfolio.




Yep, no doubt about it. I have lens envy.

MollyMath

This is a fountain located in the courtyard off the suite we used in the Fine Arts Building. There were many things I enjoyed about this building, and the courtyard was one of them. The first two shots are with my kit lens, and they're okay.



The shot above is of the painted medallions that FLW painted before he became the Frank Lloyd Wright.

From here down, I'm using the 85mm fixed lens that Brian and Me Ra loaned me while I was there. Yum!


Below is Brian with bffC, who had been asking Brian what lens to use to photgraph basketball. In a gym.

Brian said "well, there are several choices, the 24-70mm is very versatile. But this lens, the 70-200mm would work great. Anything beyond this would be in the thousands". Thousands? Thousands.

"And while I'm at it, you just need to change this setting here...

...and this one here...
...but I think that you'd really like this 70-200mm."

Looks like we won't need MollyMath, as bffC's husband is interested in photography too.

But here's how it would work:

Cost of 70-200mm lens with image stabilization: $1,549 / 2 photographers / 2 kids / 365 days = $1 per day per child.

Alternately: $1,549/2 photographers/2 kids / 26 weekends = $15 per weekend

Basically a bargain any way you slice it.

CL, Part II or Yay, Chicago!

Here are the 4 shots I liked best from the photo shoot. You will remember from yesterday's brief and ever so to-the-point post that this was a room with the heat turned up for the babies, fluorescent light not natural light, and 20 or so crazed photographers who had been told to make the best of the situation.

Oh yeah. bffC and I had just figured out we had the crappiest lenses in the room. So we had to "make do".

She got two shots I really liked. One in particular, I hope she will put up on her blog, because when it came to critique time on Sunday afternoon, Me Ra and Brian said she couldn't do it with the lens she had.

But oh yes she did. (bffC, did you catch that reference?)

The epiphany came on Sunday, when Me Ra was really encouraging everyone to shoot in manual because it allowed for full creativity and control of the light. And do you remember what we learned yesterday?

Yes. It's all about the light in photography. You can't handle the light! Ahem.

Step into the light. Join me in the light. They're hee-yer.

Ahem. Er. Oh. Excuse me. Forgot where I was for a minute. Extra points if you can name those movie references.



Anyway, metering is about reading the light. And not only reading the light, but reading the light in the place you want to feature. So that means you meter that space, make your settings accordingly, and then you can recompose your photo secure in the knowledge that the face or skirt or puppy nose you want to be the story will be just that.

What settings, you ask? Well, first you would check your exposure compensation meter. If you have a DSLR, you've probably noticed the little scale that ranges from -2 to +2 in quarter (I think) increments. You want to adjust shutter speed or aperture or--in dire cases like the photo shoot when there are no other options--ISO to have your exposure control meter in the right place for your camera/preference. And in the case of Canons, make your exposure control meter read +1 ish because Canons shoot a little dark.

I have wandered into the land of the tech-no-geek now, and without so much as a pocket protector, and I apologize. This was quite momentous for me because it was this precise combination of things that knitted themselves into a relationship in my mind. And while I need to practice, at least I get it now.

Because before, shutter speed, aperture and ISO were a jumble of statistics to be kept track of but not fully understood. Mumbo Jumbo - not unlike the # of quality jobs created in Atlanta vs. the total number of jobs created and neither is necessarily in direct proportion to the current job growth rate and how does all that all relate to square feet of absorption and available sublease space?

Now do you see why I need a hobby? Maybe two or three?

We've covered a lot of ground today, so I am stopping here. Visit tomorrow to see bffC's consultation on the correct lens for basketball photography and to experience MollyMath.

I'll give you a hint: MollyMath made an appearance in yesterday's post.

The Crappiest Lens in the Room, Part I

Like the title? I'll explain directly.

Lego Girl - Chicago

This past weekend was the event I had been waiting for for some time. I rode the roller coaster of highs (this is going to be so great!) to lows (what was I thinking?) and back again.

By the time the plane took off from Atlanta I was cautiously optimistic with a side of anticipation.

Friday

We-my BFF Candi who will now and forevermore be referred to as bffC but not to be confused with mfC and I-landed in Chicago just in time for rush hour, and enjoyed a joyous rush hour commute from the airport to the hotel which involved suffocation, open windows and lost chapstick. We got checked in to our hotel with two or three conventions going on. The view from my room was amazing - looking across Michigan Avenue toward the lake. On the right was the Field Museum and on the left was the Hancock Tower.

bffC had a mission of going to the Lego Store who knew there was such a place? so off we went. It was only several blocks, just a mile or so. Ha!

After a long hike, we arrived. It was a great place. Can't really say much more than I am set with some awesome Christmas presents for certain littles in my life. And I snapped a couple of phone pictures included here. Wait, I must mention that shopping at the Lego store with a mother of two boys-7 and 10, now I believe-was a Godsend. If I had not had guidance, I would never have known to assemble certain parts with other parts and then to count them out to be sure all corresponding parts were available for maximum construction opportunities. And in retrospect, maybe I should have bought my brother's present at the Lego store too, because I notice he's often in all the kid's pictures that involve Legos.

R2D2 - Chicago

We left the Lego mecca starving, and after a discussion about whether we wanted McDonald's or Subway after California Pizza Kitchen had a too long a wait, settled on Subway.

After a sumptuous meal at Subway we really know how to paint the town red we walked back to the hotel to try to hook up with the other workshoppers in the bar. Now, I have a streak of shy that rears its ugly head on occasion, and I hate walking into something like a bar to try to find people I know, let alone people I don't know. We found the bar, and might have picked out the photographer, but weren't sure. No one looked like they were waiting for more people to join their party. So, we went to our rooms for the night.

Saturday

This was it! It was cloudy and cool, but not yet rainy or snowing. Up and out by 8:30, we visited Dunkin Donuts for coffee and bagels and went next door to the Fine Arts building to the workshop. The building was amazing with mission style woodwork and terrazzo floors with mosaic tiles for borders. Over the doorway from the entry to the hallway is the inscription "All Else Fades - Art Alone Endures". After that, we took the elevator to the 4th floor with kids carrying musical instruments. The elevator is the last human operated elevator operating in the US - pretty amazing.

The space we were in had lovely dark woodwork with a pattern painted on it - by Frank Lloyd Wright before he became Frank Lloyd Wright.

Everyone got settled in and Me Ra and her husband Brian arrived. Soon after we had introductions: why were you here, what's your ability level, what do you hope to get out of the workshop?

At least two ladies didn't own DSLRs yet (lots of courage to come) and several were interested in building or beginning a photography business. Most wanted to continue to document their families' day to day lives, to help preserve memories, and everyone was there to be the best they could be when they held a camera in their hands. There were several pairs or groups of friends, and two mother/daughter combos. More than a few became emotional when talking about their reasons for being there.

Me Ra shared some of her story: of working her way back from date rape, marriage and then losing their second child, and picking up a camera as she learned to live life again. I noticed that she laughed so readily. I like that. It is engaging - she is engaging. Later on, she and bffC got into a conversation that appeared to range from kids to God, but I didn't hang around and actually eavesdrop. My point is, she seemed genuine and everyone seemed to respond to it.

The first order of the day was to understand that photography was all about light. No light, no photos. How much light you let in (aperture), how long you let it in (shutter speed) and how sensitive your "canvas" is to the light (ISO). Along the way we talked about equipment, and how much stuff there is and what equipment you really need.

I will stop at this point to say that I really appreciated Me Ra for her attitude that all that stuff is not imperative to take good photographs. That she doesn't haul around so much lighting and gear. But that the camera, and maybe the lens most of all is what counts. And Me Ra is an award winning destination photographer who charges $20,000 or so per wedding, so one would think she's doing something right.

Back to equipment. About That: Me Ra also said that the lens(es) that come with a camera, also called a kit lens, is the crappiest lens of all. Why? Because they come with an aperture that won't get wide enough to make those wonderful shots that everyone wants to be able to take with the right kind of blurring in the background. This is when bffC and I looked at each other and laughed because what did we have? Correct! Kit lenses!! We had the crappiest lens(es) in the room!!

Not to fear, Me Ra also mentioned that Canon made a 50mm lens that could do the good things we had been discussing, and it was about $100. When most lenses are hundreds or thousands of dollars, this sounded too good to be true. I surreptitiously got online at B&H Photo, and there it was: $84.95. Right up my alley! The second lens she mentioned will take even me some time to justify: it was the 24-70mm for around $1200.

Although, if you add the two together and divide by 2, you get a much more reasonable per lens investment. That's my mind. Always working.

We spent time looking at images she brought and discussing why they worked, what the exposure and shutter speeds were and how she decided the composition.

We soon learned there would be a photo shoot with models. Then we learned the models were moms and babies. And then the sun went very far away and the day became even more overcast and cold, and there was no natural light, no matter how large the window.

And the photo shoot was moved to a room with 1 window and fluorescent lights and the heat turned up to keep the babies warm. And twenty or so photographers descended on the models.

Let's meet the models, shall we?

This is Julianna with her mom, Marisol.

And this? Well, howdy, partner: this is Duke sitting with his mom Janell.





This is baby Hayden with his parents.






And last but not least is baby Keira with mom Kristen.

Tomorrow, the shots I liked from the shoot and the epiphany regarding the last technical element of photography. And bffC's consultation on the right lens for sports photography. Oh, and setting up a model for portraits.

Room with a View

One result of going to a workshop to focus on one particular thing is that I wake up thinking about that one thing. In this case, I was in Chicago which is CST, and going from EST to CST is one of the few times I become a morning person. So I woke up at 5:30 am this morning thinking about pictures. The first thing I thought was "I'm going to try a picture from my window". The view from my room was to face Michigan Avenue and the lake. The Great Lake. And yesterday I was loathe to try a photograph from the dirty windows. But this morning? Anything was possible.

What was there to lose? Nothing ventured, nothing gained, yes? And the day before we'd spent photographing Mothers and Babies in a vacant room with flourescent lighting and no outside light and the heat up and a disproportionate number of photographers to subjects and STILL managed to produce some nice images, so I got up and tried it.

5:40 am

View from Chicago Hilton

6:15 ish am

View from Chicago Hilton

The fun thing is that in the first picture, the cross piece on the window almost blends in with the dark of the lake. It's more noticeable in the second one.

While these are no works of art, I was still pleased, because I was using a much different ISO (formerly film speed) than I would normally try, and as wide an aperture as I could, and a slower than normal shutterspeed. And you get a sense of the lovely blue of the sky - dark in the earlier shot and lighter in the later one. And the street lights are not just pinpoints of light, but are distinguishable as streetlights.

I'll put up some of the good shots from the photoshoot and of the class tomorrow. If you're interested in photography, I highly recommend a weekend like this, albeit with warmer temperatures!

Baby, It's Cold Outside

Anyway, I will be away from the key board for a few days while I spend a few days with my bestest friend. I should blog about our first meeting someday. Rod Sterling's Night Gallery factors into the story.

With her schedule and mine, we don't get to do that too often.

I fully expect mucho blog material out of this trip.

We will be in Chicago at a photography workshop. In Chicago. That toddlin' town.

Cold, windy Chicago. Do I know what to pack? No. I hate bulky clothes, that's why I live in the south. You get a little cool weather, you drip water if you live in an old house or you bring in the plants on a cold night but you do not wear a camisole, tshirt, light sweater, fleece and overcoat. Which is what one person might wear.

There's the occasional ice storm where the grocery stores are emptied of bread and milk and Home Depot sells out of generators in 6 hours and the 4 wheel drive owners come out and get stuck in ditches. But for the most part, cold weather is a chance to cut down on the bug population. And usually it doesn't get cold enough to do that.

And figuring out what to take my camera in - that has been hours of contemplation: buy a new bag? use the old one (and when I say old, I mean 15 years old at least)?

So in honor of Bossy's Poverty Party, I've decided to take the old one.

Not only that, I've not bought a new camera, new coat, new shoes or a new purse for this trip.

Yep. Just Say No.


Has a ring to it, yes?

Little Things

Often it's the little things that make a difference, isn't it? We've been in our current office for over two years. For the first year, I sat on the other side of my group. One of the senior folks in the group on the other side decided his corner needed something, and began having flowers delivered every week to sit outside his office and on the corner of his assistant's desk. I always walked by to see the flowers.



Everyone noticed the flowers, and nearly everyone commented:



"Where did these come from?" "What's the occasion?" "Why do you have flowers?"





J's assistant, B, would tell everyone that he just liked flowers and had them delivered every week.



Then, about 8 months ago, I moved to sit next to J and work with B. And as much as I really have fun with both of them, the bonus to the move is to enjoy the flowers up close every week. It's a personal challenge to see how many times I know the name of all any of the flowers.

On days when there's hardly time to draw a breath, or I've had so many interruptions I can't finish a sentence, or deadlines are stacking up like planes over the Atlanta airport I find myself looking more often at the flowers of the week or going out and checking to see if the roses have any fragrance.

They are a spark of color, and sometimes a drift of fragrance, and always a bright spot in the office.

Tag! You're it!

Sort of. I've chosen to be tagged. At Country Girl's blog. It's a photo meme that says go to the 4th photo folder and put up the 4th photo (so I had an extra 4th because I have folders inside folders).

That was this one:

I was amused to see this since today's post mentioned my utter despair in using my 55-200mm lens. Which is the one I took to Italy INSTEAD of the 15-55mm. So I got weird shots like this one. This was a wall near il Campo in Siena. Note the lovely brick color, and the family crests. I think I read that the one in the center was of the Medici family. Don't know about you, but the inner princess likes the crowns over each crest.

And the holes in the facade? Those are from construction: they would build up to a point and relocate the scaffolding, build around it up to a point, pull out the timber and so on.

So again, the photography workshop can't get here soon enough!

And, you're tagged, but only if you want to be. Link back here if you choose to. Also, go to Country Girl's blog - she has two and both feature her beautiful photography. And if you get there before tomorrow night, you can enter her giveaway!

Breaking the Rules

So on Saturday, after sitting in the dirt, lying on my back and narrowly dodging being crushed by a frisky quadruped*, I managed to get one or two shots that might be considered photography. In the good sense, I mean. This is one. But I think it ignores a tiny little rule called the rule of thirds.




Just hazarding a guess here - but the leaf and the fence post are almost dead center. On the other hand, the background is finally out of focus.

I was working with my 55-200mm lens. Which I hate. Loathe. Detest. Probably because I can't get the hang of it. I have come to the conclusion I need a wide lens. Or a macro lens.

That photo workshop can't get here soon enough.

__________________________________________________________________________________________
*For the first time in my life, I saw a 95 pound dog spring straight up, like a cartoon, in order to leap at my 75 pound dog. Lest you think the big one is a bully, it only takes a curl of the lip from the small one to warn him off. But the leap was a thing of beauty. Of course, I was standing there clutching a fortune in camera equipment but caught zero because I was laughing so hard.

Bokeh

I have been working on my photography. I was looking at the red and orange leaf. I spotted it in the vast area that is my back yard. An expanse where everything is in shades of gold and brown.

I worked and worked to get the bokeh to appear, and to have everything besides the orange and red leaf out of focus. But for some reason, the focus kept shifting to something at the top.



Then, as I pressed the shutter, I realized that there was a color that did not occur naturally in my yard. At least, it did not grow on any trees in my backyard. It didn't grow on any trees or fall off any trees, nor did it spring forth from the dirt. So it wasn't ivy. Or dirt. That about covers what's in my backyard.


That's when I realized:

The bokeh never stood a chance.

Multiple Choice

In this photo in our backyard, we spy Golden Gus

A. Scratching his back

2. Rolling in something dead

iii. Waking up

d. None of the above

Give me your answers in the comments!