Day at the Botanical Gardens

It was a lovely day. Until the end. When I fell trying to catch Holden, my daredevil child. I twisted my ankle (pictures to follow soon), gouged a nice chunk out of my knee, and almost saved the camera.

You can read more about it here.

The Unsuccessful Courtship of Miss I

"Get used to it, kid." ---Daddy

A Spring Afternoon

Tickle Me Holden TMX

Is there anything more intoxicating than a warm Spring afternoon? No coats, no cold, no Winter. The flowers are blooming and the boys are bouncing off the walls. So we head outside to enjoy it.

Over the Fence

T gets out his tiny remote control helicopter - a Christmas present from his brother that the boys have been dying to play with. Luckily Daddy shares his toys. He flies it a few times and then Hollis takes over.

The Wonder of Flight

Eventually, the sun heads down for its nap and it is time to go in. But first, there is one thing left to do....

Make a Wish

If we could see the miracle of a single flower clearly,

our whole life would change.

- Buddha

Norfolk: It's My Town Now

The view from our office conference room. That's the Norfolk cruise ship terminal on the right. I even dig the cranes in the middle. Cranes are pretty cool.
It's no secret that I miss D.C. I went to law school, bought my first house, got my first job as a lawyer, worked in the Pentagon, got drunk and closed many bars, heckled politicians, and had my first baby there. I cling to the home I once had, unable to completely let go. I had some of the best years of my life there. Hell, I still write for the D.C. Metro Moms Blog and I head up for happy hours every couple of months.

But I'm starting to dig this place where I live now. Yes, it's a bit less culturally diverse and there aren't as many cool restaurants, bars, and museums here. Let's face it; I can't go to many of those anyway unless I fork over $10/hour for a sitter to watch the little tasmanian devils in my home.

Hampton Roads has its own appeal, the beach being primary among them! It's a bit too early for beach photos, but I recently took some photos of downtown Norfolk, where I spend so much of my time. (In the office, of course.)


This is the old Customs Building in downtown Norfolk (with the green roof) and another historic building behind it. I've always loved the contrast of the red brick with that roof.


The sunset was reflecting off of this building about a block from my office, so I headed up to the roof of the parking garage to get a few shots. I just wish I'd been a bit higher up!



This is the side of the World Trade Center building on the Elizabeth River in downtown Norfolk, where I work. I'll have to circle my office window next time, just in case Jenny wants to stalk me.


The Old Customs House again. I look at this through my office window every day.
I just love that roof.

So, it's growing on me. More than just the space around my house feels like home now. I might even tell people I'm from this area in the future. Maybe.

Superhero Photo Challenge - A New Perspective

Have you visited Shutter Sisters yet? Why the hell not?

Those chicks take good pics! (And I can say that because I am a chick.)

The Superhero Photo Challenge for this week is to take photos from a new perspective.

In the past I've parked myself flat on my back in the lawn to take photos of bubbles floating over head. That one didn't work out so well because I had my 50mm 1.8/f lens on my camera and it doesn't auto focus with the Nikon D40x. I've gotten pretty good at quickly manually focusing, but not that good. I also have this thing for taking photos of parts of people: half an eye, feet, etc....

But yesterday I tried some different camera angles and taking partial shots of some new things. The photo above and the photo to the side are the result. I like how I managed to capture the action of the sand falling in both photos.

But, of course, I wouldn't be me if I didn't try a foot picture. I had to be careful posting it on Flickr though. Did you know there are feet freaks out there?

I guess I did in theory, but when faced with the prospect of some horny middle aged guy marking a photo of my feet as a favorite so he could sit in his mother's basement and wank off, I was extremely disturbed.

So with much ado, here we have the Feet that Freaks Favorite on Flickr! (Say that fast 5 times.)



Spring is here, y'all!

Missing Her

I hesitated before putting this picture on my blog. I've never had a problem revealing my emotions or even blogging about my family. But this photo captures someone else's pain. Ultimately, I shared it because I don't think my grandfather would mind. I think he would like the entire world to know of his wife's death, to mourn with him, and to celebrate her life.

They traveled the world together. They had parties, and laughed, and had fun together. They fought and they cried and they grew together. They had three sons. Four grandchildren. Two great-grandchildren, and another on the way. They were married for 60 years.

I never want to forget my grandfather's face when I arrived for my grandmother's funeral. I never want to forget how his voice cracked and his shoulders shook as he told her good bye for the last time, standing over her casket. I never want to forget the wistful look he has in his eyes when he watches Tee, her dog, looking for her.

I never want to forget because it reminds me of the most important things in life. Our family. The people we love.

Color

Peacock on a Fence

There was a time in my life when I was almost afraid of color. I wore a lot of black. Or mostly black with a little red thrown in. Or mostly navy blue with a little red thrown in. Or mostly brown with a little red thrown in.

Are you sensing a pattern here?

As as adult, and with confidence in myself, I've learned to love color.

My house has every color of the rainbow on its walls. I like to tell people we got drunk and painted the house. My favorite color scheme in my home, the dining room, is orange and teal. I have almost a pumpkin orange on the walls, light teal window treatments and a teal, brown, and cream rug. It makes me happy every time I see it.

I wear color too. I'm not afraid of it any more. Well, maybe I'm afraid of yellow. It makes me look too sallow. But other than yellow, if I like it, I'll wear it. In fact, I'm toting around a patent leather kelly green purse right now. It's fabulous.

Today I wore a light orange sweater topped with a dark plum corduroy jacket, a black satin skirt with dark plum flowers sewn on and embroidered in orange thread. It sounds a bit out there, but trust me, I looked fierce. (As Christian would say.)

Color adds so much to my life. As much as I love the serene calm of white snow, all that white space calling out to me; I love the gorgeous fuchsia, celadon, kelly, violet, and all the blushing colors of Spring, more. Or the warm, rich colors of Fall deep with spices, the burnt red of crackling fires and falling leaves, and the deep shades of football jerseys.

I'm discovering that my personality and love of color is appearing in my photographs as well. While I'll always love the dark tones of a cool vintage photo,


or the peaceful feeling of a nice black and white conversion (or mocha and white),



color is my forte.



Rich, saturated, glorious color.



Color just suits me.



And I still love to add a little of my red every now and then.




What's your signature color?

Leading Lines

In photography, leading lines are lines in the photo that lead you to another subject in the photo, or out of the photo. You can use almost anything as a leading line: a road, tree line, pattern, fence, shadow, etc....

Here are a few examples from Stock.xchng:



Using a leading line from the corner of an image, leading to a subject placed in a photo according to the rule of thirds, makes a strong image with nice composition:

Of course, knowing that and actually doing it are two entirely different things. I didn't fully have an understanding of what I should be doing until after my photo shoot when I looked at what I had. But here are the photos I took expressly for a leading lines group photo challenge on Flickr.

The french fry is the leading line here,
although the photo didn't turn out quite the way I'd hoped.

This is the photo I chose to enter for the challenge:


This image is unedited.
In the first round of the challenge, we submit our photos straight out of the camera. In the second round, next week, we are allowed to edit the photos. The skin tone, light, and color all look pretty good here already. I will probably crop it to place the chocolate milk or the end of the straw in the corner of the photo, making it more compositionally pleasing. I'll have to play around with it and see. Of course, I'll post my end result for you to see.

Here are a couple other "leading line" photos I've taken at other times:


This image is unedited. I take so many darn photos, I just never got around to it. I actually took this photo for the silhouette challenge I did for my Flickr group a few weeks ago.
Here's one of Hollis I took the same day I took the photo of his feet:




Here is the classic example of a leading line - the road:



And finally, one with both of the boys:

Monster of a Lunch

This weekend we discovered an indoor space with fantastic natural light - the mall foodcourt. Go figure. It has these huge sky lights in the middle, so I didn't need a flash. I needed to take some "leading lines" photos for a group competition on Flickr, so I started shooting away. (I'll post my leading lines photos later.)

Please, no judgment on the chips and french fries. You try getting this kid to eat and then we'll talk.

I think I actually like the blown out highlights in the back. They make the photo's white space a little more interesting.



"I think he wants my chip, Mommy."
I don't know why, but this green goblin Happy Meal Toy fascinated me.



Here's the little green guy again. I used Michelle Black's Funky action to saturate the colors and add a little pop.




"He's really starting to creep me out, Mommy."
I was playing around with selective coloring here. I used Michelle Black's Mocha RAW preset and then layered a faded/vintage version of the photo over the top and left the green coloring in the little goblin.

Sewing Shadows

The Swing and Sway of Play



Falling With Style



Sewing Shadows

You can't stick it on with soap, Peter. It needs sewing. That's the proper way to do it. Although, come to think of it, I've never thought about it before... um... sewing shadows, I mean.

- Wendy, Peter Pan

California is Beautiful - Part II

Fog in Sepia




Of Fairy Mist and Redwood Trees




Down the Green Road

Northern California is Beautiful

I'll have more....

More Zoo Portraits

I want to share some more pictures from our zoo outing last weekend. I got some great shots of my friend Wanda and her daughter Isabella. I have many shots of Isabella in motion. Like most 2 year olds, she rarely stopped moving.

Isabella was wearing this adorable little red coat. I love red for outdoor shots. It shows up beautifully and provides wonderful contrast for the skin and green grass and leaves. It also provides some lovely opportunities for vintage or selectively colored shots.

Here are some of my favorites of Wanda and Isabella: