{I’m sitting here waiting for it to warm up a bit before I go for a run, our snow that we received on Saturday took a beating overnight with the rain. Morning temps are above freezing but there are still icy spots as witnessed by my son falling in the driveway while waiting for the bus. I do not need an injury to derail me from my training.}

The shot above was taken with my Lensbaby lens and it gives the illusion of snow but, in fact, was taken on a 60 degree January day.

I have found the most beautiful light where my son goes to school. In the fall it was early morning sunrises and now it’s the setting sun.

A reflection from a martini glass. I’m thinking Valentine’s Day cards? (or would the school frown on that? j/k)

Love my Chucks.

More proof of this odd winter we are having, my quince budding.

Seems Stella has made her way into a lot of my photos so far in 2012. If you aren’t a fan of dogs my apologies.

Seems she’s also made it into my heart.

What!? You say? You’ve had her almost two years!

That’s just the way it works with me. She’s gone from a burden… chewing kids toys, limiting my time away from the house, biting and chewing all of us… to now being a favorite companion. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve always loved her but now I really really like her.

I remember the same thing happened with Logan who we had for 17 1/2 years. And, really, if I’m honest it happened with my kids too. Once the physical challenges of the first two years were behind us we could really enjoy each other, I could really enjoy them.

It also helps that she’s such a willing companion for my photography habit.

In this shot I was using the tripod and 10-second timer. I ran to position myself and she joined in the fun, even turning around to look toward the camera.

Another version in black and white (I was playing with the rule of thirds) and you can see her in the distance still running. At some point she turned around wondering why I had stopped.

If you aren’t a fan of dogs just be thankful that you don’t follow me on Instagram where there’s almost always a daily photo of Stella.

Just look into those eyes, how can you resist?

This morning when we woke it was 6 whole degrees! It wasn’t a complete shock as we had been notified that at race time it would be 13 but, as you can see by the above photo, it only made it to 8. The reality is that any number whether it be 6, 8 or 13 doesn’t feel anything but damn cold. This was Griffin’s first race and he was a bit apprehensive. I think being concerned about the cold took his mind off the running. The glorious sunshine and dressing in several layers helped to keep us warm.

The 1 mile walk/run was a benefit for the National Lung Cancer Partnership. The length of one mile was a perfect length for a first run. I paced along with him and he started out fast so I told him to slow down so he didn’t burn out quick. He later said that he listened to my breathing and tried to match it with his own.

Once we could see the end of the race I took off so I could get a picture of him crossing the finish line. Once he crossed he was so excited and we were so proud of him! His time was 10:01 which is awesome. I’m pretty sure we can get him to sign up for a 5k (3.1 miles) but probably when it’s a bit warmer.

1/366

Rather last minute, I think on January 1, I decided to do a 365 project. I’ve committed to taking a photo a day for 365 days or 366 as is the case with 2012. I haven’t committed to this in the past because I don’t want to feel as if I have to take a shot each day which could quite possibly result in forced and uninspired images. Plus, I think it would take the joy out of photography for me. What’s different this year is that I have the iPhone that I’m also using to take daily shots and sometimes I will count these as my shot of the day.

May Fly Farm
2/366

4/366

6/366

I’m posting each photo to Flickr and will share some of my favorites here.

Becky’s Angels

This post is a bit of randomness. About how funny and totally random and insignificant things in a day can make life so interesting. About if you take the time and really look and listen those random things can become significant or at least fodder for family dinner conversation and laughter.

Before vacation ended I had a day spent with just my oldest son. We took a trip to Target.

While we were in the toothpaste aisle an older woman approached us, she was dressed uniquely and I had that feeling in my stomach, you know that feeling when you are approached by someone that looks a certain way and you just know that there’s no escaping? Obviously I was stereotyping. She holds up a container of blackberries to show us and exclaims about how wonderful they are and what a great deal. I tell her that I’ll be sure to pick up a container as they were huge and appealing. Then she says, “Do you like sharks?” Oh no, I’m thinking, here goes. She pulls out of her bag a gigantic Meglodon tooth from a prehistoric 70-foot long shark which swam the seas 1 million years ago. She showed it to us, let us touch it, and then she was on her way. Griffin said, “That was random”. It kills me when he says that, especially the expression on his face. I can’t believe I didn’t think to take a photo of her and the tooth!

Then, on our ride home, I came across someone’s laundry in the middle of the road. This time I did think to pull over and take out my camera and snap a picture. And just as I do this an elderly gentlemen emerges from his house. He tells me that it’s from his neighbor that pulled off and unknowingly to the driver this fell out of the vehicle. As he approached the strewn items he questions the content and when I look closer it’s women’s underwear including several thongs. If I could have captured his face when he realized what they were, oh my gosh so so funny. I’d love to see the neighbor when she realizes that he picked it all up for her (I did help but just picked up the socks since touching underwear of unknown origin is just gross).

Are you my mother?

And one final bit of randomness for the day. We stopped at the library and in the parking lot resides a sweet gum tree. How I hated the one we had in Virginia Beach. The dang prickly balls would litter our yard making mowing and walking around in flip flops challenging and sometimes painful. I assumed that these trees only grew in the south but have now been proven wrong. When I looked down I found this little blue fuzzy pom pom that looked so much like the sweet gum seeds, it was as if the pom pom had searched far and wide to find its family. It made me think of a Dr. Seuss (or in this case, P.D. Eastman) or Shel Silverstein book.

In the beginning of each new year it’s extremely popular in the photography and arts and crafts community to choose your word, the word that sets your intentions for the year. Examples of inspirational words are Soar, Up, Nourish, More, Learning, Believe, Simplicity, etc. I’m sure if you search the web you can find lists of these words. Last year my word was clarity. This year I have a few… Brave, Happy and Minimalist. I’ll share more about these words and why I chose them at a later time.

Today I wanted to share an easy project that you can do to display your word.

Supplies:
Crayola Air-Dry Clay (I found it at Target but I’m sure that it’s sold at Michael’s)
A glass bottle for rolling the clay (I happened to use an empty beer bottle but a soda bottle will do but make sure the sides are flat and not shapely)
Parchment paper for your surface
A knife
Plastic letter stamps (I’m pretty sure that mine were purchased at Michael’s… I’ve had them forever, sold alongside the garden stone making supplies. Make sure yours have the letter H as mine do not.)
A straw
String/ribbon for hanging

I placed a lump of the clay on the parchment paper, rolled it out to the desired thickness, stamped the letters, used the straw to make the hole in the top then used the knife to cut to size. For the last step I used a textured jewelers hammer to give the tile character. I also added a couple gouges with the knife. You could probably find just about anything around the house to add texture to the clay. It takes a few days to dry.

Your new piece of art can be sanded or painted. I like mine as is.

A is for Abode. (Sad to put this bulb away, I’ve had so much fun capturing the reflections it creates)

I have several photo groups that I’ve joined for added inspiration. This particular group is for iPhoneography and is called Me & You 52. The first 26 weeks inspiration comes based on the letters of the alphabet, a theme is presented and it’s up to the photographer to interpret that theme.

B is for Breakfast.

C is for Conversation.

D is for Divide.

E is for Edge.

F is for Flip.

G is for Gathering.

You can join at anytime. Just hop in the Flickr pool.

Definitely one of the highlights for me in 2011 was getting the iPhone. I have so much fun taking photos with it and it takes really good photos, too. I’ve had 8×10′s printed and they are pristine. Also, Instagram is the community for photographers. It’s Facebook without the bullshit. lol

Edited to add: Instagram fun facts… Instagram went from 1 million to 15 million users in one year, Jan. 1, 2011 to Jan. 1, 2012. You can find a list of notable users to follow here. President Obama just joined Instagram because he knows what all the cool kids are doing (and it’s a political season), oh wait, he’s not much older than me. When did I get old enough to be president?

Is in much need of attention. I’ve taken hundreds of photos and have many posts backlogged in my head that need to be released. So, I think, this will be a busy place in the next few days.

One of my gifts for Christmas was a Lensbaby lens. It takes fun and interesting shots like the ones you see in this post but it has a learning curve and I’m only in the infancy stages. It will be fun to practice on this winter and then be proficient enough for fabulous flower shots in spring and summer.

The challenge with the Lensbaby is the manual focus. With my other lenses, even when I have them set to manual focus, the lens will “catch” the focus points and the camera will beep notifying you that you’ve achieved your focus and it’s ready to shoot. With the Lensbaby it’s completely manual (visual) and there is no notification that you’ve found the sweet spot. After a few terrible and frustrating shots I found that I had to adjust my diopter. The diopter adjusts the focus of your camera for your eye.  Read more about adjusting your diopter here.

This image and the next two are my third session with the Lensbaby and I can already see improvement.

Here the raindrops are in sharp focus, you may have to click through to Flickr and then press ‘L’ to see it big.

These magnolia buds hold so much promise don’t you think?

Tired I am, rest I must.

Whew! All the preparations and it’s over in what seems an instant. Whatever you celebrate this season I wish you peace.

(My parents loved the canvas mounted photo. My mom told me about how, when she was young, she would go there with her parents and they would have a cookout on the rocks. I didn’t even know that!)

Now that my parents are here visiting and won’t be reading their email I can post this photo. I took this shot on our trip to Maine on Thanksgiving weekend. My Mom (and Dad) have always loved the Nubbles. Believe it or not in all of my visits to Maine and living there for 5 years I had never seen this lighthouse in person (I think I admitted to this before in a previous post). We turned the corner in Cape Neddick to witness the most beautiful sight, the sun setting on Nubble Lighthouse (York, ME) illuminating it with the most amazing light and color setting up the perfect shot.

I had this photo mounted on canvas by Paper Coterie and it came out fantastic! I highly recommend their canvas quality. I’m so excited for my parents to open this on Christmas morning!

Merry Christmas to all!