The End 2010

The last sunset of 2010 was beautiful around here. We were headed out to dinner with the family and the view was perfect just north of town. This shot was the best for showing the expanse of the color and light, but I also have to wrap up this last post of the year with a second shot, less stunning on the sunset front but more interesting in composition. I used a part of a building to give some depth and I like how it turned out. Happy New Year 2011 everyone!

Eyes

Peek a Boo! My niece, Molly and my cat, Gus all cuddled up and gazing. Merry Christmas (again)!

Toys

We've celebrated Christmas once, actually twice already but there's still plenty to go. Tonight I got out a couple toys I got for the dogs but the cats were all very curious about them, so I let them check them out. Gus is feeling a bit frisky this evening so he grabbed on and started to play with the snowman, he cuddled with it, nibbled on it and otherwise enjoyed the new toy. I think this may be his now...

What?!

What do you want and why are you looking at me when I'm trying to take a nap?!?-Dottie

Playing Possum?

When the dogs started barking tonight, we just figured it was time for them to come in, as usual. However, this is what we found on the back porch. I have to tell you, possums are not cute, and they scare me, especially this one, look at those pointy teeth and claws! I can't tell if he's playing possum or not, but he is breathing and otherwise not moving. We put up the dogs, turned out the light and are hoping he'll be gone when we check again...

Sugar Cookies

I am not a huge sweets person, I have my moments of course, but I don't just chow down on cookies or ice cream on a regular basis. However, this time of year the thing that gets me are homemade sugar cookies with powdered sugar icing. I like to make them, decorate them and I love eating them! This was a 2 day project getting them made, cut, cooked and finally decorated but I made some sugar cookies for Christmas. My nephews weren't here to decorate so Eriq and I did, you can tell how great of a job we did...

Christmas Tea

I expect you thought I'd have a Christmas picture up today, and while it is not a typical one, I do. Today, after our Christmas meal, we had Chinese flowering tea. There are many varieties, this one was a white tea with peach, quite tasty and beautiful as well. I had never heard of these flowering teas, but they are a pod you drop into a pot of hot water and it causes it to open up and bloom while steeping. Want more info, check out this link:


http://www.teavana.com/The-Teas/Blooming-Teas/?SC=PPCG&cm_mmc=Google-_-PPC_search-_-Blooming_Tea_General-_-flowering%20tea&9gtype=search&9gkw=flowering%20tea&9gad=6609125435.1&9gag=1684211795&gclid=CMb6t8b5iKYCFQPsKgodiVslnQ

or watch this short video:
http://www.bloomingtea.com/magento/skin/frontend/default/btea/images/howto.html

Cat Eyes

It's hard to capture a really good image with cat's eyes open and in full color. The right lighting is key and this shot was in the dark with flash, which is usually my least favorite method of shooting. She is looking at me, the reflections are colorful, her nose is wet, and her full spirit shows to me in the picture. If you look closely, there's a hanging cat that looks quite like her on the wall in the background too.

Playing with lights

I was taking some night shots of our tree and decided to do some playing with light. We have a star at the top of the tree and so I used that as my focus as I moved the camera to get the movement of lights. I actually prefer these shots over the "regular" ones I took.

Big smile

We visited Chopper (Anderson) this evening, he is 21 weeks old today. He's getting quite expressive, with his smiles and laughs, his faces, like the furrowed brow and pure concentration when he wants something. Here's one of his great faces from this evening.

Is it time?

The cats love Christmas not so much for any "gifts" they might receive but for the wrapping. The tissue paper in bags and the bows are great fun and when the present are unwrapped, the paper is one of the best things ever. Sophie is cuddling up with her presents getting ready for time to open them, hopefully soon!

Squirrel

I finally took time to focus on photography today. I went for a hike with my camera for a couple of hours and saw all kinds of wildlife, nature and scenery. The bluebirds, cardinals and other birds were challenging to capture, as usual. The ducks were abundant and I saw one other sort of bird that was actually swimming under water, I only got a picture of his head peeking out of the water but it was fun to watch him. A few of the turtles were out sunning but most were not to found and even my turtle snacks wouldn't draw them out. This squirrel was my favorite of the day though, he stopped long enough for me to get the shot before he scurried up a tree.

Project

Many of my projects lately have been putting the house back together, but I have been able to work on a few "new" things as well. The bed I painted and put together for my craft room is finished and in use and now I've started a crochet bedspread for the top bunk. As it turns out, probably not soon enough, as I will have family staying here in just a few weeks! I got going on this and have taken it along for some of our travels, in the car and in airports and on planes and I have half of it assembled. I still need to make another 40 or so squares and then the assembly and finishing edging but I was pleasantly surprised that I am actually half done with this in a relatively short time.

Little helper

Who needs elves when you have kittens to "help" with the gift wrapping? I have three such helpers, all helping in a very special and unique way. Dottie thought it was best to get in the paper bin and curl up with the tissue paper and ribbons. When Sophie tried to join her, she got the best "I don't think so!" look I've ever seen. Sophie chose to wander around on and over the presents and knock a few down for good measure. Gus just ate the leftover ribbon, paper and string. Good times were had by all, I even got a few present wrapped.

Dots and Lines

From an old They Might Be Giants Song, the lyrics "dots and lines" just came to mind with this photo. I really have to start doing things, stop doing things, and/or change things so that I get pictures other than sunrise. I made it through most of the year with decent progress, trying new methods or focusing on different aspects, but this past couple months have been challenging personally and I'm sure you can see by the repetitive shots. Today was the last day of work for this year and I hope to find some time to really DO photography this next week. I won't promise anything though...

Holiday Hats

This week at work, we have had holiday dress up days. From rockin the holiday socks to tacky sweater day and everything in between. Today was holiday hat day and Annie had one of the best hats. The photo does not do it justice but it does capture her spirit! We had our department Christmas party at a local restaurant and then moved on to the school party at another restaurant. After that party ended, the restaurant opened up for business again and some of the customers had to come over and check out her hat. The Santa feet sticking out of the top wiggle back and forth and it sings and talks when you press the button. Imagine the fun...

Pancho

This is my newest pet, Pancho. My students gave him to me today. Taking pictures of fish is even more challenging than pictures of a water turtle! However, I had some fun with reflections, bubbles, lighting, colors and so forth.  There are a few good and different ones of him that were great to get as I was challenged in trying to get good shots. I needed a reason to play with the camera and here's the result.

Tis the season

For basketball of course...
The season did start awhile back actually, however, it's time for a photograph now. There isn't any particular thing I was going for on this shot or that I notice about it, but it just struck me. I like it, the simplicity of it and the game was a good one, with the team scoring double what they scored the previous game. Nice win ladies.

New Guitar

Dot's new toy came in today. OK, so really it's not hers. We haven't gotten the cats into the guitars but she is a daddy's girl and it is his so of course she had to check it out. She does rather like it, she played with the knobs a bit, then stared at it for awhile and finally just curled up for a cat nap.

For me?

Did you put this basket here for me? Does it match my eyes? Do I fit perfectly? Who knows what she was thinking. I set this basket on the chair and walked away and when I came back, there she was just looking at me as if to say, this is mine, thank you very much. Thankfully, she's still quite kitten and her attention doesn't stay in one place too long. After a short while, she moved on to batting ornaments off the Christmas tree.

Cookie Time

Tomorrow is the annual cookie exchange party at my house. It's always a lot of fun to get together with friend but also to have an excuse to make cookies. I was considering trying something new but my Holly Cookies are always such a big hit and I've been so busy I stuck with something I knew. Here's a bit of a pattern picture, the rows of cookies all laid out to cool.

Orange

Yes, it's another sunrise, but just look at the amazing color! I just could not help myself, even positioned my car just right to get the shot. Nothing more to this than that.

Inspection

We received our first Christmas packages today and I put them under the tree. All the cats had to check them out and make sure they were acceptable. As you can see, Sophie says they pass inspection :)

Stuffed?

Which one of these is not like the others? I have mentioned that Dottie likes to be up high, on top of a cabinet, loft bed, shelves, anywhere she can get. Here she is again, this time "hiding" among the stuffed animals. The photo didn't come out as well as I had hoped but she is posing perfectly.

Welcome home

It's Monday morning, feeling especially early after having a whirlwind trip to New Orleans for the weekend. Thankfully, this was the sight that greeted me out my window. The colors were great and there was a contrail in a pretty orange-pink color off to the side.

Swamp

Today was amazing! We went on a swamp tour in Lafitte and saw all kinds of wildlife, it's hard to choose the photo of the day, so I think I won't limit myself to just one. First, we went on a walk through a swamp and wandered on a wooden bridge through the moss covered trees and saw a few Heron and turtles. Then, we went on a boat tour of the bayou and saw incredible things including 2 alligators, actually 3 if you count the baby alligator we got to hold on the boat!

New Orleans

Today was our "see New Orleans" day. We got up and walked over to Cafe Du Monde for beignets and hot chocolate, then headed along the riverwalk exploring. Then we went on to the aquarium, before hitting the streets again in search of lunch. After a few blocks, we sat down for a bite to eat before heading off to the middle of the French Quarter to start our city tour. We caught a bus tour and saw the town. Then we headed back through town walking and changed at the hotel before hopping in a car with some friends and heading off to Cochon for a wonderful dinner. Walking the streets of the French Quarter was the main activity of the day and this shot shows a bit of what the streets look like, if you're early enough anyway.

Room Service

What says vacation better than "room service"? Tonight we left on our mystery trip...to New Orleans! Since we had to be evacuated from our terminal and our flight was therefore late, we got in to town quite late. We hadn't had dinner and we were starving by the time we got to the hotel so we enjoyed some room service and the live band playing in the patio.

Root Beer

We went out for dinner tonight and the drinks were canned. Usually the restaurants have fountain drinks so it was a bit different. I usually drink Dr. Pepper, as most of you know, but tonight I went with Root Beer. The can was a neat design, it looked like well, a beer barrel, but don't worry, it's just aged vanilla :)

Bad News

Sadly, this is the only picture I took today. I didn't even attempt multiple shots at this time. I still think it's beautiful. I still love watching the sunrise most mornings. The sun was peeking over the clouds on the horizon like it was coming over mountain tops. The end...

Soccer Banquet

Tonight was the soccer banquet. It's the end of season wrap up, awards and saying goodbye to the seniors. I didn't really focus on photography tonight, in fact I wasn't even using one of my cameras so the shots are decent event pictures but nothing extraordinary. However, this is a picture of "my" star soccer player and her fiancee at the banquet, so it is a special picture for that reason.

Patterns

Today's photo is not about the photography but rather about the design. I am working on redoing my craft room and I have a new loft bed that needs a comforter, quilt, etc. I was going to try to find one that would work in the room. Then I looked at the pattern on my curtains and thought "I can make that" and so I drew out a pattern to match. The design is just a set of squares put together, which could be made as a quilt or in this case, crochet. This week's photography assignment is on patterns so I put the two ideas together and this is the rough draft. Eventually there will be four of the maroon and blue designs surrounded in rows of the green, the main color in the room. 

Wild Goose Chase

Lubbock is a wintering spot for more than a gaggle of geese. They gather around the many playa lakes in the area. I had wanted to stop and get some shots of them since we've been in the area and finally had a chance today before leaving town. I, quite literally, went on a wild goose chase and this is my favorite shot. The colors, the placement, the moment of flight all work together in this image.

Cactus

We headed outside of Slaton today to a shooting range to learn and practice with several guns. I was thinking I would probably spend most of my time shooting photos rather than guns. I did take quite a few photos, we were out in the desert. There were some nice views and I got some shots of various plants, some of the elevation and a windmill as well as plenty of the whole gang shooting. Surprisingly, I also shot a few of the guns myself and even knocked down one of the chicken shaped silhouettes...

Yummmy

Happy Thanksgiving!
Mine was great, hope yours was too :)

West Texas

We hit the road today for Thanksgiving. Most of the view is fairly flat and boring but there are some nice scenes along the route. The nice thing about arriving around sunset is that west Texas has some great sunsets, especially when New Mexico is blowing through, as it often is and tonight was no exception. Here are a couple of shots I took heading into Lubbock today.

Flower Child

This cat loves flowers, no matter if they are real or fake. Today I was pleasantly surprised to find incredible deals on fall florals and so I picked up a bag full. No sooner had I set the bag on the couch as Sophie crawled right in and got comfortable. She loves to get into almost anything but add flowers and she's just in heaven.

Skills

I went to a 7th grade basketball game today. It's obviously not quite at the level of the college games I usually watch but it is a huge improvement over the 10u games I've been to! Despite the horrible lighting that all gyms seem to have, I was able to get a few good shots. Skills are coming along at this age and you can see the two players, offense and defense, have the same form as they make the jump to the basket. The team I was cheering for won, by nearly 40 points, not an evenly matched game, but fun to watch, at least for me.

Hello!

We were adding water to Allie's tank today and I tried for some photos of her from above. She is a challenge to photograph because of the water and glass you can't use flash without reflections but the color is washed out without the additional light. I tried a couple with and without before settling into a more traditional photo of her, looking straight through the glass. (It's safer on my fingers that way!)

Bball Tourney

Today was day two of the basketball tournament. TWU won both games this weekend. It was nice to get out and have some fun and have a built in reason for taking some pictures. It's still very dark in the arena so stop action is difficult even with my lens. This is one of the shots I really liked from this afternoon.

Little fingers

I like to get different perspectives on kids in photos. Angles and focusing on their itty bitty fingers or toes, etc. So, I just played around a bit and got this one. She's sucking her thumb on one hand and kind of holding on to her blankie with the other. Typical kid position but not so typical photo, at least hopefully.

Morning

This has been a long and difficult week. I'm not getting out to take many photos but this morning was another beautiful sunrise. I enjoyed it and even took time to actually set this one up. I was trying to get the sun in just the right spot. Hopefully I will have more time for photography again next week.

Windy

Today was so windy, I wanted to try and capture a picture. Of course the question is, how do you capture the wind? I tried some shots of tall grasses and trees blowing but they didn't show what I wanted. Flags are always a good indicator. It's not a great shot but I like the sky and I did actually get the "wind" shot...

Last Rose

As we approach the first freeze date, my roses are putting off their last set of flowers of the year. The showing isn't as good as the spring but they keep going until the end.

Upside down?

One of the nice things about today was that I got to spend some time in my newly revamped room with my kitties. They so love to explore and new things are so exciting for them. They have been interested in every single piece of the bed I put together. Today, I taught Dot how to come down stairs, she already knew how to go up, so we just had to learn how to get down. She is the queen of UP so it was an important skill. After she had made it both up and down a few times, she started to go up the backside, she only went about half way before she would turn around and start over but it was quite amusing from my angle. This is the view I had and it still makes me smile :)

Daylight

Can you believe I'm posting a sky picture that's not sunrise or sunset? This was heading into sunset but not quite and the picture is more about the dark shadows and rays of light than a typical sunset picture. Either way, I thought it was worth the shot and I don't even mind the tops of the buildings and trees as they are silhouettes to add more contrast.