Mistakes

I am so thankful for my photography mistakes because they always teach me a lesson. And make me a better photographer.

Yesterday I spent some time with my photography mentor Carol to go over the 22 flower shots. We had to pick the 3 most strongest ones. It was tough. Carol is brutally honest with me and will tell me what worked or what did not. And when I am over forcing something. She helps me grow as a photographer and develop my eye.

So we made a decision and then I showed her some of the other photographs. She liked some of my rejects so we changed the top 3.

Then I told her that I had a wall in my house that did not have anything on it. Could she please give me advice which photos to put on the walls? I was looking for interior decorating tips. Instead... she loved one of the photos of the wall, cabinet and flowers. It had to be in the show.

For a lot of photos I took, I spent a lot of time creating a composition, thinking and planning them. This photo, I just snapped. But she loved it. It was gallery worthy.

So we went back to the square one and started picking the top 3 again. I can tell you this. It is so nice to have a veteran photographer in your pocket. I would share these with you but I still have to put some finishing touches. And maybe even re-shoot some of these.

The deadline is this Saturday morning so I have to act fast. If I get in, I get in. If not, I am turning my house into a gallery. And you are all invited to the opening.

Flower Power

Happy Monday everyone! Hope everyone had a great weekend.

Remember how I told you about a call for entries for flower photos at a gallery? Well... I want to enter and I took about 250 photos of flowers. Yep 250. Some are good and some are just blah.

Now comes the difficult part. I have to narrow it down to 3 of the strongest pieces. Yep 3. I hate making decisions like that. How do you know if you are right or wrong? What is the jury looking for? No clue.

I could ask my friends for their opinion but who is the world has time to go through 250 photos? I have to narrow it down to at least 20 and then ask for opinions. The deadline is this Saturday so I'll have to act fast. And I very much doubt if I will get in. I'd like to but I'm not sure if I am there yet. We'll see.

The best part of this was the planning. The visualization. The execution. Even if I don't get in this gallery, I know that I have at least 100 flower photos that are gallery worthy. So stay tuned. I'll keep you posted.

Sun Flower

Yesterday I was all set to go to the Cathedral of junk. Until I stepped into my back yard. It was a gorgeous, gorgeous day. And my garden was crying for help.

So I decided to work on it. I cleaned up my little veggie garden. I trimmed bushes and replanted some geraniums. And the next thing I knew, it was afternoon. But I was excited. I had a flower bed and my veggie garden ready.

I asked my hubby to drive me to a plant store to pick up some veggie plants. I promised myself that I would only buy what I could plant this weekend. And I almost kept the promise.

I got Jalapeno peppers, Serrano peppers, Beef tomatoes (what the heck is that?), some other tomato, squash and some seeds for cayenne pepper. Based on my years of experience in planting veggies, nothing ever will come out of it. They will die, get eaten by slugs or just disappear. But don't give me any sympathy. I consider it my contribution to the environment.

After all, the slugs got to live too. Right?

I did get some time to take photos of flowers for the flower contest. In the morning I did great. But in the afternoon, I over experimented and the photos did not look that great. Oh well...

I am also working on a top secret project with a bloggy friend. I think I've hit a jackpot. It was a minor project of collaboration. But oh my God. It is simply mind boggling. Of course I'll share the artwork as we make more progress. Stay tuned.

And I am off to plant the veggies. Wish me luck!

Jars

My hubby doesn't know this yet but I've decided to turn my house into an art gallery. A Scriber's Web gallery. So what if I am not getting accepted in galleries? I will create my own. There. Every single wall in my house will have my photographs plastered on it. That way, when I have visitors, they will be forced to look at my photos. And I will expect lavish praises. I won't let them escape until they comment on at least 6 of my photos. If they give me more, I just may feed them. It's going to be all about me. Me. Me. Me. Me.

So with this stealth new project in mind, I went last weekend to IKEA to buy some frames for my black and white photography.

I know, I know. You are wondering what the heck this has to do with jars. Trust me. It will all come together.

I can spend an entire day at IKEA. But I told myself only one hour. Zip in, zip out. Find the frames section, buy them and run out.

Everything went according to the plan. I found some fabulous frames in my price range and grabbed them. I have 13 photos so I got 13 frames. And then I went to the check out counter.

There were at least 40 people ahead of me. Shocked, I asked a lady in line, "this is the line for checkout? what is going on?" And she said, "oh there is some special going on today. They are selling some jars for 99 cents."

I did not need the jars but darn it I was not going to miss out on the bargain. So I turned around and stood in another line to pick up the jars. After about 30 minutes, I picked out 6 jars. That was the maximum you could purchase per person. And happily went back to the checkout line. This time there were about 50 people ahead of me.

I stood in the line for 2 hours. I kid you not.

When I got home, the first thing I did is to takes photos of the jars. The infamous jars that robbed me of almost 3 hours of my life. What was I going to do with them? No idea.

Anyone want any jars with my photography on it?

See? I told you I was going to tie it all together.

Junk

Junk is everywhere. What do you do with your junk?

One man in my town created a Cathedral of Junk in his backyard. I've heard of it but never visited. Well this weekend, I am going to visit it and take some photos. My friend Carol inspired me to go there.

So obviously I am dragging her with me there. Hopefully, she will give in to my manipulations and mind games and just come with me. It is so much fun taking photos with a friend.

After that, I am hoping to go to a place called Smut Heaven. Another person who created artwork in backyard using junky stuff.

So happy Friday everybody! I hope you have wonderful plans for the weekend. I know I am going to be shooting junk and flowers. Quite opposites but it will be fun.

And not to mention this top secret and very exciting collaboration project I am doing with another bloggy friend. So stay tuned for lots of interesting photos.

What are your plans?

Hail Event!

Yesterday we had a hail storm.

I had just come back from work and I kept hearing this random thuds. I asked my hubby what it was and he said, "Oh probably some tree or bird."

Minutes later the hail started pelting down. It was loud and huge! It was really this big! I ran to grab my camera and my heart just stopped.

As photographers, real or pretend, you need to always be prepared to take a photo. I know it. You know it. Everyone knows it.

Well guess what? The battery in my camera had very little juice, the memory was which is usually in the camera was not in.

So I told my hubby, "Go get some hail! Put it in the freezer! I need it for my blog!" And he did. It is still in my freezer and I will take some photos after work for you guys.

I did manage to take a couple of photos for you.

And now I am going to check if my car had hail damage. Wish me luck!

Black Iris

Wordless Wednesday...

Purse

So the other day I noticed that my purse was becoming way too heavy. And I decided to dump everything out on a table to see what exactly I had.

And here is what I found:

• IPod. Nothing wrong with that.
• Moo Cards. Yeah! Still giving them away!
• 5 pens and a notepad. You never know when the urge to write strikes you!
• Makeup. Lots of it. And I don't even wear that much makeup. But gotto have 3 lipsticks, 2 lip gloss and numerous other stuff handy.
• Change Purse. You never know when you need to cash in that change for some lunch!
• USB Drive: A techie girl always carries one in her purse. Don't you?

And the most perplexing thing found in my purse:

• A hand operated battery/torch. What in the world? It is one of those wind up batteries you can use if you have a flat tire in the middle of wilderness. Or the lights go out in the middle of the night during a tornado. I have no idea how that landed in my purse. Someone must have given it to me but I have no recollection who.
  

So tell me. What's in your purse?

Song

I have a song stuck in my head and it won't go away.

And the song is, "I'm a Barbie girl. In the Barbie world."

Ugh! Someone smack me now.

I don't care for Barbie or the Barbie world. Nor do I care for the nasal and pitchy song. If you haven't heard this song then consider yourself very very lucky. I insist that you don't go looking for the song. It will get stuck in your head. It is sheer torture.

It played in my head all day yesterday and even was the background score in my dreams.

Aah the dream... I was a singing this song in a concert wearing a tight, red, sequenced dress and high heels. I had those fake eyelashes and was wearing blue eyeshadow. And let me tell you. My legs did not look like Tina Turner's.

So like I said, someone smack me or give me a remedy to unstuck this song NOW!

That's all I have to say about that.

See you later

And the boys are gone. For those who don't know, my sons (the boys) came home for Spring Break. Life was good, good, good.

There was a flurry of activities while they were here but if you ask me about it, I'd probably say that we did this and that...

What did we do? How did the time fly by so fast? When did they grow up?

When my oldest son went to college, I had a break down. I cried and cried and cried for 2 weeks. Almost non-stop. My daily routine for those weeks was thus:

• Wake up and cry while drinking coffee.
• Get ready for work and cry during the commute.
• Work, work, work.
• Go to Zilker Park during lunch, park and cry, cry, cry.
• Call everyone on my cell phone and ask them, "My life is over! I have no purpose. What do I do now?"
• Put makeup on and go back to work.
• Work, work, work.
• On the way back home, cry, cry cry.
• Come home, curl up in bed and cry, cry, cry.

Everyone around me was very worried. They threw practical suggestions at me. And I hated them all. They said:

• You still have one more son living with you.
• This is what you raised your son to do.
• You left home.
• This is what they are supposed to do. You should be proud!

Like I said, I hated them all with a vengence.

After 2 weeks of crying, I stopped. And looked at reality and life as it was. I had raised two wonderful sons. A task accomplished. A check mark on my life's to do list. And I settled down.

When my younger son left for college, he was simply moving from our home in Texas to our home in Kentucky. It was a-okay!

This morning as they left, I held back my tears. They hate it when I cry. So I smiled and laughed and reminded them...

"7 more weeks until you come back! And the clock is ticking!"

But sometimes just not fast enough.

Edible

My entry for Photo Friday: Edible

Tounge-Tied Thursday

Since Mythos insisted.

Wordless Wednesday

The Boys

The boys are back in town.

For those who don't know, both my sons are in college and are back home for Spring break.

Life is good.

This blog, which I started to get over my empty nest syndrome, will definitely be on a back burner this week.

I am back to being a full time mom. Only this time it entails helping them with their resumes, practicing on interviewing skills, and then just hanging out with them.

If you've raised kids, remember that when they were young, they would insist that you sit with them while they were watching Barney or Sesame Street? Well this weekend I had to watch a movie on TV with them. The name escapes me right now. But it was funny.

And I am having a blast!

Scavenger Hunt: 2

In my haste to publish the Scavenger Hunt photos, I forgot to thank Nicole for organizing everything. Thank you Nicole! You did an awesome job!

For some reason I thought that the deadline was US midnight. So I thought that all day Sunday to post these. But the deadline was midnight European time.

So I scrambled to get everything uploaded.

If you haven't participated in the first Scavenger Hunt, I encourage you to participate in the next one. It was a ton of fun! It is also a lot more work than I anticipated.

Uploading the files took forever. If I do this again, I will create a draft post and keep uploading my photos as I make progress instead of waiting for the last minute.

Sometimes good photos just happen. I must have shot the stamp photo 20 different ways. I just did not like any of them. And then on the morning of the deadline, I threw some random stuff together and viola! There it was.

The Sunrise was a challenge. It had been raining for a while and was very cloudy so it was hard to do. So I had to improvise. Same thing with the night skies. All I could see for days was black clouds. Would certainly not make an interesting photo.

If you haven't already visited Nicole's blog, please take a moment to do so. There are numerous people who have participated and it is so much fun to get a glimpse of their city.

I love to see how everyone has interpreted the themes. It really is a very fun experience.

And vote!

XOXO

PS: The photo in this post has nothing to do with the content. I was going to make a "on the fence" connection but the post is long enough already.

Scavenger Hunt

This is my first Photography Scavenger Hunt. To see more participants and vote, click here.


Austin, Texas.


1. Local Currency.


2. Local Flag.


3. Local Food. Breakfast tacos.


4. Something rusty.



5. Local Wildlife.

6. Local Nature.





7. Local Stamp.


8. Part of Neighborhood.




9. Traditional House.






10. Local Person






11. Local Weather.





12. Local Transportation.

13. Traditional Local Clothing: Jeans.







14. Night Skies.




15. Sunrise.





16. Local Product Non Food.




17. Something Furry.



18. Something Feathery.







19. Sign of Season.



20. Part of me.


21. My main hobby.



22. Local Shop.






23. Local Restaurant.



24. Street Sign.






25. Local Mailbox.

Happy Birthday!

Happy 19th birthday!

I wish you much happiness and much success.


xoxo

Weekend

My entry for Photo Friday.

Happy Friday everyone!

Da boys (my kiddos from college) come in tonight. Yeah! Nothing can make me happier.

It is going to be a very busy weekend for me. Spring hopefully is just around the corner so I want to work some in my backyard. We celebrate my son's birthday. And I have to wrap up Nicole's photo Scavenger hunt. To say that I am running very behind is an understatement. But I think I can still do it. Yet to figure out how I will post 25 photos.

Oh well.

What are your weekend plans? Anything exciting? Do tell!

Brr...

The cold front is here! I know that to all of you living up north this may come across as whiny. To them I say, bite me. The high was 86 degrees here 2 days ago!

Typically, I look up the weather predictions on the internet. I hate watching the TV weathermen. They are so darn dramatic!

Rain Event!
Snow Event!
Ice Event!
Tornado Event!
Blah blah blah...

As if I don't have enough drama in my life.

So I just look it up on the internet. Yesterday, I looked at the weather and the highs were supposedly in 70s. And the lows in 40s. So like everyone who lives in Austin, I wore a full sleeve cotton shirt and pants. As opposed to skirts and t-shirts.

What I did not know is that the highs were occurring at 5 AM in the morning. And then the cold front came. I froze my butt off.

This reminds me of the time I went to Paris in January. I thought I was prepared. I had my coat and my gloves and pure wool sweaters which you can never ever wear here in Austin. And Jeans of course. Everyone in Texas knows that Jeans are the way to go when it is freezing cold.

So I trotted around in Paris with my jeans, gloves, coat, and a woolen sweater. Oh yes and a cap. Fifteen minutes of being outside, I had to duck into a store. I was way too cold. After I thawed, I went back to my hotel room and found everything that was warm and put it on.

I had no idea that cold wind can go through your Jeans and freeze your legs. One pair of cheap fleece gloves is just not enough! The cap was just a style thing.

So I donned on my thermals, my fleece pajamas, my Jeans, my 2 woolen sweaters, my monkey cap, my 2 woolen scarves, my 2 pairs of gloves and my overcoat.

I had a hard time buttoning up my overcoat but I managed. I probably looked like a bundle of joy.

But who cared? I was in Paris and I was warm and toasty.

Today I am going to wear layers. If only I could find my woolen clothes!

Doors

Wordless Wednesday

Abstract

Playing around with photo software.

Too much? Over processing? What do you think?

Tree Art

I am back. And don't believe everything Birdie says. I have very very smooth dance moves.

So in our neighborhood, a very old tree died after being struck by lightening. And instead of removing the tree, the neighborhood association decided to hire someone to come in and turn the tree into a work of art.

It is beautiful. That anyone can take a dead tree and turn it into artwork is mind baffling to me. I mean how do they come up with this idea? How does one execute the idea?

Simply baffling.

I've been passing by this tree art every single day. Yet I never went up close to see it. This weekend I did and was surprised to see how beautiful it is. I can never do justice to its beauty by photographing it.

But I tried. And made a decision to open my eyes and see everything as potential artwork. I hope you do too.

PS: I can do a mean samba. In fact, if I do the samba, jaws drop. I am so good.

Hey, it is my blog and I can write what I want to. I dare you to a virtual samba competition!

Splish Splash

Splish splash I am taking a bath.

While the cat is away, the birds get to play.

Hello my name is Birdie and I am going to post today instead of Scriber. Scriber's been partying too hard while her hubby is away and I think she has completely lost it.

But I have my serious doubts if she actually ever had it. I don't know what he sees in her. She sends him away and then acts crazy when he is not around.

The other day, she came home and was running around in the house. She had some really bad Micheal Jackson songs on and was jumping around. At first I thought she was having severe spasms. But then I realized that she was thinking that she was dancing but let me tell you ... that wasn't dancing. And who buys those tacky psychedelic speakers from target for 10 bucks? Get some bose speakers please. And quit the psychedelic stuff. The 70s are so over. Can someone please tell her that? And recommend some good music please!

Talk about the abuse! She is torturing me with her bad music and bad dance moves. Visual assault I say. Do I really have to watch that?

Her hubby comes back soon and then I think I will bite her. Hard. Serves her right.

Meanwhile, can someone please email me the phone number for reporting Pet Abuse?

Gotto Go

And so I am off today.

I think I made world's most ambitious list of errands. So I am going to try to tackle it. But I have to tell you about a little funny thing that happened to me first.

The other day, I was driving back from work and I heard someone honking rudely. I looked around and a guy pulled up next to my car. He rolled down his window so I had to roll down mine. It was a guy from work.

I thought he was going to something like this:

Get back to work! I have great news! I am releasing a new product and you get to write a user manual for it. By tomorrow! Yeah!

Instead he said this:

Cool car!

He made my day.

Happy weekend my bloggie friends!

Isolation

My entry for Photo Friday.

Party Time

So I was home alone yesterday. And I made some exciting plans for myself.

But as soon as I got home, I had to take care of the Birdie who was in a vicious mood. We shall not speak about this anymore.

Then I unloaded the dishwasher, put in a load of laundry and threw out garbage. See how exciting my life is?

Wanting to do something fun, I decided to have a little dance party of one. I made sure that all the curtains and shades were drawn, plugged in my ipod, plugged in my psychedelic speakers and danced.

I danced to Antonio Banderas and Micheal Jackson. I danced like no one was watching me. And hopefully no one was.

It was fun.

At one point, I decided to do the split move. But had to refrain myself. The phone was nowhere in sight. What if I did do the split and could not get up? I would stay undiscovered for days!

So I grabbed the phone as I danced to Beat It. And wanted to do the split again. But good sense prevailed. What if I got stuck in that position? Did I really want to make the phone call that said, "help me! I've fallen and can't get up?" I am too young for that.

And I decided to forgo the split for another day. And danced like no one was watching me.

So there you go. My exciting adventures of being home alone and partying of one.

Don't you wish you had been invited?