Naturally Clare

The Best of 2010

2010-12-31T12:24:00.000-08:00

A year end review of photos I took in 2010 (not of family or the kids). Starts at New Year's 2009, ends December 27th, 2010. Not a lot to show for 2010, I was pregnant and bought my first house. Hence, I was too busy, too hot, and didn't feel like taking much. A new year awaits.....

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Ten Things, a List

2010-02-20T19:22:00.000-08:00

Ten Things You Should Always Bite The Bullet And Spend Money On

1. Hair Cuts. Ten dollar haircuts are out. Unless you're a dude- then this doesn't apply to you. "Hi I'm Brittany, I just got out of beauty school five months ago." That's not gonna fly with me at this age. It worked when I was twenty five and very poor, but at 31 I'm sorta poor, I can splurge for the person with more work experience.

2. Hair Dye. Even I get tempted by that box of $2.99 Revlon. But in the end, I've still got white old lady hairs poking out. Until I can look like Emmy Lou Harris, I cannot have this.

3. Underwear. Five pairs (25 bucks) from Vicky's last forever (Seriously, forever). Fiver pairs from Hanes last..actually I don't know, I haven't boughten them in years. Middle ground, that "Gillian what's it called" brand at Target.

4. Gin. If you are lucky enough to get out of the house and get drinks with your friends, then by god you get the Tangeray or the Sapphire damnit. No house gin for your tonic..I never get to do this, does it show?

5. Clothes. The more expensive clothing (on sale!! End of season clearance!!) the longer it lasts, holds it's shape, and also the more tailored. If it's expensive it shows, and you look good. Target, lasts me one season and I have to throw it away! Old Navy, never really fits right..is that just me?

6. Bras. Yeah, once again, no one ever sees it, but if you put the money into it, it lasts longer and it holds you up higher..and we can all see that. Especially for big boobied girls like me. If it can't hold you up, it's not doing it's job and should be taken out back and burned.

7. Things you love that make you smile. If you love little jumping wooden puppets (I just started buying them for Maya, love em) then by god you buy that ten dollar toy made in Austria. If you love hot pink 1950's Pyrex, then by god you have your momma buy you some (thanks momma). If you love the color turquoise, then just keep buying vintage blue stuff....because it's pretty and it makes you smile.

8. Chocolate. We can't always buy expensive chocolate, sometimes Hershey's is easiest to get. But oh, my god, handmade chocolates taste soooooo much better that you can actually taste the weird chemicals in Russell Stover's and your face goes, "blaghh." So, treat yourself every once in a while and buy something made fresh. Your face will go "aaawwweesooomme!"

9. Cheese. Once again, can't do it everyday but if you get to Wisconsin, you buy the damn nine year old sharp cheddar and you love every morsel of it...and that wine from that place in Door County.

10. This is the most important thing you can spend your money on. SHOES. Especially RUNNING SHOES. Your feet, which you walk on everyday, will thank you. They will thank you by not having severe pains that plague you your whole life. They will thank you when you're eight months pregnant and you can barely walk it hurts so bad, but at least those expensive shoes help a little. They will help you on that last push of a quarter mile with Led Zeppelin in your ipod cheering you on.

They will help you not cry too much when you look at your purple italian leather stilettos that don't fit anymore after having a baby. (100 dollars marked down to 15 at Dillard's.) At least they look pretty!

Off Days

2010-01-29T08:57:00.000-08:00

Sometimes pictures look better on a tiny LCD screen, less pixelidated, more vibrant. Then you get home and see them in their actually size and you deflate. And these sometimes are when you realize, you really know nothing about photography and how fancy SLR cameras work. These sometimes are when I miss film, but at the same time don't. These sometimes are when I wish talent grew on trees, good photography was just point and click, and cookies didn't make you fat.

I threw in that last part not because it works in context, but because it's true. I really wish cookies didn't make you fat.

Frozen Fog

2010-01-22T08:06:00.000-08:00

New layout. Because everything looks better in black.

No More Dramsies in Distress

2010-01-11T20:16:00.000-08:00

I want real friends. I want girl friends that don't have issues. I have issues. I don't share them with everyone, but I have them. One of my issues, is that I tend to collect people with issues. I try to mother them or fix them or be the shrink to their Woody Allen. Something like that.

I'm tired of these people. They're starting to get boring. Which is funny because normal people who don't have issues seems boring. (But it's the stories I like best). I don't want to fix them anymore, I don't want to listen to their crazy, I don't even want to play cards with them. They are crazymakers. No matter what you do, how you do it, how you say it, what you cover it with be it chocolate or banana, they won't really be your friend. They can't cause they're caught up in their own crazy. And that's cool. I have done that too. But there comes a time when you have to just grow the fuck up.

No more martyrs, no more sensitives, no more drunks or druggies, no more narcissists, no more big dreamers living in poverty, no more OCD/ADD/BPD or any other mental disorders. If I don't want to be any of those, then naturally I don't want to be around any either. And yet I am one of those people because I'm incredibly insecure and I use humor as a way of masking that insecurity. I make my self crazy a lot of the time.
I want people I can talk about art with. and poets, and history, and beatniks, and babies, and arty movies, and girly things, and fashion, and nature of course, and camping, and photography.

I have trapped myself in this guise of "she's the crazy one". (I call it "I'm so sleep deprived I'm starting to sound like Chris when he's riffing") I'm not just silly and crazy (that's the freaked out insecure me). I don't just know about movies. I know about a lot of things.

But so far, I have a hard time finding anyone who's even heard of Jean Michel Baquiat or Emil Nolde or Stuart Sutcliffe (as a painter and not a Beatle). Or Margaret Bourke White. Or Jim Nachtwey. Or "The Bang Bang Club"....

soon to be a major motion picture. (I love movies about artists...Basquiat, Backbeat..I lovvve Harrison's Flowers)...

Stop whining Clare.

Or read the Dharma Bums, or who love The Hours, or who gets Shakespeare..

Okay, maybe not the Shakespeare..I know that's a tough one for peeps.

2010 this time I mean it

2010-01-02T18:53:00.000-08:00

Okay, so last year I was all "Oh, I'm so happy and cool like all these blogs I read and I'm gonna be that way all year."

Well, I was lying and this year I'm not. Truth is I desperately want to be one of those people who has those blogs that you read where they're all in love with every aspect of life down to the tags in the back of their shirts. They seem, according to their blogs, perpetually happy and blissed out on the universe. It's all totally swell to them. Truth is I am not one of these people. Damn it, I wish I was, but I'm not.
These people make me crazy jealous.

I am jealous of their blissed outness.
I am wanting to think the world is amazing and great and everyone around me is nice and mature and level headed.

Truth is, they are not. Most of them are overly sensitive and pains in the ass. Truth is a lot of them don't like me, and I'm okay with that. That's growing up I think, not being so sensitive and being okay with people not liking you. If they were writing blogs about being blissed out on snow flakes I think I'd die inside if they didn't like me....but that's different....

Truth is, I had a baby and my life changed so drastically that it's taking some getting used to. I miss the me time and the solo art time. But she is so great it doesn't matter.

So instead of making a list of all the things I'd like to accomplish because I want to be one of those people who I can not be because I'm not like them, I think I'll just sayz;

In 2010 I'm gonna try really hard to paint and take photos because those things make me happy. Even if I'm no good, and I very seldom feel I'm any good at either, they still make me happy.

I'm going to stop working so hard at work because it doesn't matter, and I'm going to put the hard work where it matters, at home, for Maya, for Kyle, and for the things that make me happy.

In 2010 I'm gonna try to do some traveling. But I'm afraid to go away from Maya. I've never been more than twelve hours away from her and the thought of her begging daddy to make momma suddenly appear makes me very sad (she does this when I'm gone for work).
I'm going to buy a house soon, so in 2010 I'm going to garden. Although too many choices sometimes perplexes me.

Most importantly, I'm going to work at loving myself so that I don't sit around wishing I was somebody else's blog. I'll blog all that I can be, and stop fake blogging. The real me is not blissed out, the real me is tired, a little stressed, missing alone time and art time, sick of working, and loves her daughter more than anything. That's me. In a nut. Any questions? Next time, my over whelming desire to cut wacko's out of my life. Or as the Celestine Prophecy calls them (Kyle read it out loud along time ago- it made me laugh)
CRAZY MAKERS.

Seriously

2009-12-07T18:41:00.000-08:00

Why hasn't someone invented a way for me to get everything done in a day? More hours in the day? Less sleep needed? No need to work? Seriously, I need more time so that I can have more creativity time. But, I guess that's how it goes when you've got a wee little girl who trashes the house in five minutes if you turn your back on her to upload a few photos.

Fall Adventures

2009-10-30T09:22:00.000-07:00

The dinky trellis in Ames (three blocks from JoMomma's house) has had a facelift thanks to the local high school potheads (seriously I walked out and found two smoking a joint). They are quite artistic, that's a big art project.

So Many Photos

2009-10-07T20:44:00.000-07:00

So many photos..." />

So little time....

Color

2009-09-16T20:17:00.000-07:00

California wildfires make Iowa's moon orange. September 9th, 2009.

I keep looking for a house.

A house I will fill with Maya's loud boisterous laughter.

A house I can paint in again.

A house I will fill with color.

I love color.

Things

2009-08-25T19:13:00.000-07:00

Things I've learned in the last two Months:

1. The harder you flail your arms around trying to keep from drowning, the faster you sink.

2. You can not Force a person love you. Even if you love them.

3. Maya is quite possibly the love of my life, and I should be okay with that.

4. But anything is possible.

5. Tomorrow, for the first time in a long time...I should take pictures. Stop being sad, and move on. Baby steps.

The Best

2009-06-19T14:05:00.000-07:00

This was one of those perfect evenings. Cool, foggy, no buggies. And Maya just wanted to walk. "Walk, walk," she's always saying lately. (She walks around the coffee table saying it.) So we took her in her jammies to Squaw Creek Park and let her walk up the road.

Of course the perfect weather lately suddenly changed into typical Iowa disgustingly humid weather. Blah.

The Macro Safety Net

2009-05-29T19:00:00.000-07:00

I think I'm in some kinda of macro safe place. Like, "it's safe here doing macro shots." Why? 90% of the time they look cool as long as they're in focus. I need to get outside the macro box and do other stuff. Scary stuff, learning stuff. Big girl, "let's evolve as a photographer stuff."

Other stuff involves really thinking about framing,lighting, speed, f-stop, and all that other stuff that really good photographers do ten times better (without thinking!) than me.

Somedays, I get lucky. Most days, I just go macro.

Maya's First

2009-05-26T10:17:00.000-07:00

Today my baby turned one.

If I could bottle her giggle, her smile, the way she blows kisses, the way she says "OOOHHHHH!!!", her excited hands when she sees a kitty, and the way she snuggles up and coos/laughs when she's tired I think I could start world peace.

She is the best. I lovelovelove her.

There's more Maya on mayainbloom.blogspot.com

Preoccupied

2009-05-13T20:42:00.000-07:00

For the last couple of weeks I've been a little preoccupied with miss Maya. Doctor's visits and now a "waahh?" procedure tomorrow make me nervous. She's still a baby and she has no idea what's going on. And in the end all this precaution will be for nothing.

Just doctor's being overly cautious and causing a wee little girl unnecessary trauma.

If we were Scientologists, she'd have years of auditing.

Good thing we're not Scientologists.

Good thing we are animal lovers!! Here's a few pics from a short visit to Old Macdonald's Farm at Bever Park.

Hopefully We'll all get some fun time in the coming weeks, and I'll get some much needed photography time. It's my drug. And I'm dying for a hit.

more photos at my flickr site and some will be coming soon to Maya's blog!

Where did April Go?

2009-05-04T19:22:00.000-07:00

Seriously, I feel like I'm two weeks behind. It's already May?? Tomorrow is Cinco De Maya..er, Mayo? Maya is almost one?? Time is going too fast and I'm too busy to slow down and enjoy the slloooowww spring we've had.

But here are a few pictures I took after a run at Squaw Creek Park.

Around Ames

2009-04-22T08:21:00.000-07:00

I like going home. I like seeing my neighborhood and my family in the house we grew up in. I think it's a good sign that Maya sleeps well there.

Easter Weekend

2009-04-13T20:38:00.000-07:00

Spent the weekend at Brynna's for Easter. My mom came and we all had fun watching Max find Easter eggs. These are the non-family photos.

Brynna's Yard

2009-04-05T21:02:00.000-07:00

We went over to Brynna's yard for supper a couple of nights ago and I explored the front yard for a few minutes and found a little nest! Her blue bells fit nicely inside of it. It's perfect, it's even got a piece of blue Easter grass in it.

Finally!

2009-04-02T07:06:00.000-07:00

Finally some spring flowers!! I had just arrived at my sister Brynna's new house to see it, Maya was in the car, and while we waited for Brynna to arrive I saw these little crocuses trying to come up. And her front yard was full of blue bells! I'll try to find more once I can get over there and hopefully it will warm up soon so I can find even more spring beauties.

The Pollock

2009-03-28T17:23:00.000-07:00

After doing some research I found out that I probably won't be able to do Number 20 from The List because it's MIA. Basically the entire University of Iowa Museum of Art was relocated to various places because the museum flooded last summer. Luckily, everything was saved in time. Unluckily, Jackson has been moved to The Figge in Davenport and I shan't be driving that far. He belongs in his spot, his spot at the U of I because that's where Peggy donated it. Poo.

At least everything was taken out in time. It's too bad the CR Library can't say the same. When I think of the books drowning, I feel a little farklept.

Who knows, maybe I'll just take a road trip to Davenport with a buddy. Maybe it'll happen. Or I'll wait until Jackson comes home.

This sounds awesome. Might do that.

But they raised the price on 2X2XU this year. Might not do that this year. But it was on the list...

Choices Choices.

I'm not doing well on The Word, March was a bad month for me. Out like a Lion in true form. Snowstorm and all.

Brighter Days

2009-03-16T11:21:00.000-07:00

Oh what wonderful weather! Maya has been enjoying days in the park with Momma and Dadda, and Momma has on occasion been able to sneak away for walks along empty paths.

But I'm tired of taking "brown winter" pictures! Where are the greenies?? Where are the little peek a boo flowers and sprouty things? Perhaps I'll find some today and feel much better.

I love love love spring.
I love it so much I made a spring shelf. On it is my picture by Cori of my niece Nika, some bunnies, my little ACEO of "Pauline" (makes me think of the Neko Case song) by Annette which was my first purchase off of etsy. I love it. I've decided to buy something off of etsy every month from a different country. This month I'll be getting something from here and I'll show it off when it arrives!!

The whole shelf just makes me excited about spring and pretty girly things. I feel like now that I have a little girl, I have to represent by buying cute knick knacks of bunnies and things for her to adore when she's older ("Momma where's the dancing bunnies?"). I remember loving little treasures like that.

And Maya love love loves bath time.

Fog

2009-03-11T20:28:00.000-07:00

I woke up on Tuesday to the most wonderful fog. I say wonderful, moody, delicious fog- but some woman who came into the store looked at me like I was crazy (she said the weather was awful????) when I said I liked fog. I was bummed that I couldn't go take some photos, but on my lunch break (fog lasted past two p.m.) I spent ten minutes taking some and then the rest of the time cuddling Maya.

I wish I had had more time to compose and think about the shots. But the baby was waiting for a momma visit. And this is what I got.

Winter's Closing

2009-03-05T19:33:00.000-08:00

Don't cha just love love love sunsets?

Today was a gorgeous beautiful March day. 65 degrees and sunny. Windy, but sunny. And instead of spending it outside at the park or on a trail with Maya I spent it sewing and baking for a baby shower. Thankfully, I finished everything in time and Hopefully Saturday (my next day off) will be just as beautiful, or maybe even half as beautiful, so that I can go take some photos and Maya and I can spend some time outside.

Hopefully I'll have more to blog about this weekend!

Going Home

2009-02-24T21:07:00.000-08:00

Over the weekend we went to Ames to visit my family. My mom lives in the house that I have known as "home" since I was eight years old which means that the house has become a part of the family. And if you look around it, it's as if my mom hasn't decorated it, it's just evolved. It's the little things scattered and tucked into corners that make it home. The scotsman toy on the mirror, the etched rocks sitting on the 100 year old sled (coffee table), the blankets made by friends and family, and Pete quietly banging away at the bathroom cupboards trying to open them to get Q-Tips out. I sleep well here. And I never sleep well.

While in Ames we had a Girl's Day Out (Jo Momma, Brynna, Me, and Maya) where we had lunch at Ivy's Tea Room at The Shoppe's On Grand. The last two photos are from there.I exclaimed while getting my hair cut that I was "straight for a day" because I got my hair straightened after the cut.

I figured out what I had said about four hours later.

Number One

2009-02-18T21:59:00.000-08:00

Oh.

My.

Goodness.

I opened an etsy.

Here.

That's my Number One from "The List!"

That was my big jump into the world of selling my stuff. That was supposed to take me a long time to do and commit to. Not so bad, kinda like cough syrup.

Exploring

2009-02-17T20:14:00.000-08:00

I have been a delinquent blogger, and it's so late and I am tired so I'm surely sure I've misspelled delinqent. On Monday Kyle gave and I gave each other free time and I chose to use mine to go explore the back alley's of downtown Marion. I'm always amazed at what you see when you really look (and I'm always looking), and you wonder if anyone else notices these small things, or if they notice but don't see the beauty in them.

I've posted a few here, and the rest on my flickr.

Busy Busy

2009-02-06T20:45:00.000-08:00

I've been super busy lately. I've fallen behind on Fourteen Days of Love. I love movies, the bald eagles that hang out around Cedar Rapids, making people laugh, and taking pictures with my cell phone when I've forgotten my camera and feel the need to keep an image alive.

I also love taking pictures of reflections.
This is Kyle and Maya in a balloon.

Love: Day 3 The Ice Is Slowly Melting

2009-02-03T18:35:00.000-08:00

I LoveLoveLove "Love" By The Beatles.

George Harrison was friends with the guy that co founded The Cirque De Soleil, and wanted to work on some music for him..and from there we get George Martin and his son remixing the master tapes of, oh I don't know, maybe thirty? Beatles songs. And the result is "Love."

If only this year's tax stimulus covered expensive Vegas show tickets and airfare- then I could go see it instead of listening to it.

LoveLoveLove Day 2

2009-02-02T18:49:00.000-08:00

I love these macro pictures that Kyle took last summer.

And I love sloppy open mouth Maya kisses. She gives kisses, that's just ahhh.

Fourteen Days of LoveLoveLove: Day 1

2009-02-01T19:04:00.000-08:00

I love homemade pottery. Mostly mugs. I have this quirk that everytime I go to Stuff Etc. I can't leave unless I have found a mug or vase or something to that effect that someone made in a pottery class. I have three mugs and two vases. I bought two mugs on Saturday for fifty cents each (Yeah! 50% everything day!) and they are awesome.

I love all pottery, but there's something about knowing that someone went to a class, made this perfect mug with their hands and heart, glazed it themselves, and then X many years later I have it.

I want at least ten to put on a shelf. I just love em.

Cheap art that you can put your coffee in. That's first class.

Love It

2009-01-28T20:11:00.000-08:00

Love, Love, Love THIS....

Bowling: A Photo Essay

2009-01-25T18:33:00.000-08:00

In crafty news I'm making valentine's to send out "from Maya." And gathering ideas for some of The List

Bridges Between Here and the Next Place

2009-01-22T07:53:00.000-08:00

In the past two days I've crossed over the Mississippi River and back again six times to attend a visitation and funeral of a dear friend's mother. Maya brought sad people happy smiles and many came up and said, "I've heard of this baby" and played with her bare toes because she refuses to wear socks.

(Maya loves Barack, and I often hold her little soft phone up and say, "Oh, look Maya, Barack is calling you.")

After the visitation we went to Harris Pizza because it's a Quad Cities "must" and because we were quite hungry. (And Maya needed some quite time, AKA a nap.)

Yesterday, funeral day, I drove back to the Quad Cities with Allan (Maya and her Daddy stayed home this time) and on the way to the burial we saw a black squirrel (I love love love them), and as we crossed the Mississippi into the national military cemetary we saw two bald eagles. What a beautiful send off.

Time, we don't have much of it. And someTIMES it takes a sudden death to help us remember how important family and friends are, and I sooo love Jo Momma. And I called her and told her so.

Staying on Track

2009-01-15T20:46:00.000-08:00

I'm thinkin' maybe I'll try to stay away from giving books this year for Christmas. But it's so easy to do, and I get them so damn cheap!! It's probably getting old in my family and I think they all hate me, "Oh, thanks Clare for this stupid book I'll never read." It's hard to shop for some of them, and for others it's easy.

My solution, go handmade. I've got a great idea for Maisie...and that's it...but I'll keep thinking of them. I need my sewing machine to magically appear from where it's residing in Ames so that I can work on some of the crafty ideas I've got swirling in my head.

I ran today and it felt awesome, I would have spent longer than half an hour, but I had to go buy formula before work. I got into the zone and that's hard for me to do on a treadmill. I hate treadmills.

This is Number 24. It is an inspiration box for Cori Kindred in Portland. I send her old and broken books that we throw away at work so that she can incorporate them into her work and crafts, which I love because it keeps those books alive. In return she'll send me some of her found paper wonderfulnesses, so wonderful I just can't bring myself to use them. Or, she'll send me some of her photos, which I love love love. I sent her the prairie, some tea, a candle, and an old book. Because I follow her blog, I have discovered so many other blogs, each and everyone so inspiring.
HulaSeventy
abbytryagain
sacred lotus
and last, moxiee

Ahhh, Porland. Such passionate and creative people. Must be the fancy voodoo donuts.

Winter Shadows

2009-01-13T15:24:00.000-08:00

Cold. Negative Temperatures Iowa Cold. So cold yer breath freezes in your nose. But look at what happens when it's cold. The biggest full moon of 2009 was this week (not because it was cold, but because of how awesome the universe works), the sun casts awesome shadows on the fresh snow, and nature goes thru it's wintery course.

In other news, I have the bestest baby ever and I ran on the treadmill which helps me work on The Word.

And I completed number 24 from The List! I'll tell you about it once it's sent.

That's one down and 29 to go...

I'm working deligently on number 29.....

My Word of 2009

2009-01-08T21:21:00.000-08:00

Healthy

• having or indicating good health in body or mind
• financially secure and functioning well
• promoting health; healthful; ("a healthy diet, clean healthy air,
healthy sleep, healthy and normal outlets for youthful energy")
• exercising or showing good judgment

The focus of the year is to just be healthy. Healthy mind, healthy spirit, healthy body, healthy thoughts, healthy relationships, healthy life.

Be open to the universe. You get what you ask for, so ask only for good things. Don't beat yourself up, it's just your ego trying to keep you down. Think healthy and you'll be healthy.

Number 24 from "the list" is coming along....

That's a Cori Kindred print in the back ground (of Nika!) you can buy one HERE

A NEW year list

2009-01-02T16:47:00.000-08:00

A year and a half and a seven month old later....

After a very long break from my personal blog I've decided to get back on board this blog train. It's hard to find the time to keep inspired as a mom. I claim this blog in the name of all things artistic to keep myself. I mean it, to keep myself.

So, I'm incorporating a little help from somone else's inspiration..

here is my list of 30 things to do for 2009 inspired by

hulaseventy.blogspot.com

30 Things To Do Before I turn 31

1. open an etsy shop
2. take camera everywhere, one photo a day!!
3. start and finish 4 art projects
4. make something for Maya for her Birthday and Christmas
5. go to a farmer’s market
6. pick apples and/or pumpkins in the fall
7. visit a photo booth
8. go on a road trip with Brynna
9. get lost alone in order to take photos
10. frame and hang all current art that needs it
11. fill out my found paper journal
12. make and complete one scrapbook
13. take maya swimming and sledding
14. run an 8k
15. open a spare change account for Maya
16. go ask about buying a house
17. visit Chicago with Kyle and Maya
18. make 5 iron on transfer items
19. take Maya to the zoo
20. go visit The Pollack alone
21. participate in 2x2xU again
22. Help
23. have a wonderful day alone with Kyle
24. make an inspiration box for someone else
25. climb trees
26. start a photography project
27. make a list of 100 things I love about Cedar Rapids
28. read Adriana’s book
29. clean up and use my computer work space for art projects
30. go to the Highland Games in September

I am still working on picking my "word" of 2009 but I have a couple of good ones I'm pondering on. So that will come soon, here's the link and some thoughts for those who also want a their own word for the new year.
http://aliedwards.typepad.com/

"A single word can be a powerful thing. It can be the ripple in the pond that changes everything. It can sharp and biting or rich and soft and slow."

"Can you identify a single word that sums up what you want for yourself in 2009?

It can be something tangible or intangible. It could be a thought or a feeling or an emotion. It can be singular or plural. The key is to find something that has personal meaning for you. This is not your mother's word or your spouse's word or your child's word - this is YOUR word.

One little word can have big meaning in your life if you allow yourself to be open to the possibilities. And here's one thing that is totally interesting: sometimes a word will pop into your brain and it will not make any sense to you right now. Give it some time. Let it percolate a bit. I have often found that our hearts speak to us in very unique ways. Maybe this is a word you need to hear but just aren't ready for it yet. Again, be open to the possibilities."

My list has begun. My word is coming soon.
I've started my engines,vroom vroom.

Camera Jargon and Making Mistakes

2007-07-14T15:49:00.000-07:00

After milling about posting blogs on myspace, I figured I'd expand my horizons with blogspot. Flcker would be nice, but it's not free.

I don't have much time to blog, seeing as how I'm supposed to be running right now instead of churning out a blog that no one will read. Sad tears. Just Jokin.

All I really want to say right now is I'm a little obsessed with photography and more than a little pissed that ever since I got my badass Canon four months ago I've been taking photos at 1600 iso. I should start this story with an instructional video I watched....

Last night Kyle made me watch ( I shouldn't say "made" but I am) this "how to use and take pictures with your digital camera" instructional video. Kinda a refresher course since I haven't used a manual camera since 1999. And I realized that I've been shooting crappy pictures with a HUGE iso and I know, I know that you use 100 speed film whenever possible as a photographer..so I'm a little dumb. AND, I wasn't shooting my pictures as RAW (I was shooting them as jpeg's which isn't professional!)..so they are all full of noise. Pixelated and stuff. Not terribly noisy or pixelated because it's a 10.2 megapixel camera..but I'm still upset with myself.

So, now I have to start over and see if I can be as good at photography as I think I can. I'm excited to see what I can do. It's just too bad I didn't figure all this out before I went to Maine and...and before I shot that wedding in Minneapolis...

Live and Learn, and then learn some more.