Day Twenty-six - Impressionism

As much as I love our bedroom... I find the lighting in this one particular room of our house to be absolutely horrid. You can't take a picture in there for anything. But here I was tonight, trying to take pictures in a bloody dim room... with no flash, because, y'know... I hate using a flash.

End result... camera iso jacked up to 1600 and I get dark grainy photos...

DUH!

but...I did like the look of a few of them... they had a soft fuzziness that rather put me in mind of impressionist painters. Why can't one be an impressionist photographer if one so chooses, deliberately manipulating the camera for textures and edges that are not sharp and clear?

it bears pondering...

Day Twenty-five - ThaiDeco

Over the past summer, by boyfriend and his son constructed a wonderful 'dining temple' for our living room. Our current decorating theme has taken a world travelor flair and our living room theme was inevitably Thai after finding a beautiful antique, hand carved, Thai table in the window of a little shop down the street. Adorning the front of our magnificent loft, is a set of panels which, when assembled, form a giant curving arch of swirling and spiraling leafy shapes.

It's really something else... especially when backlit... as it was when I started taking pictures of it. :D

Day 24 - Time Enough

Just enough time for one photo... old, antique pocket watch taken with sepia filter.

Day Twenty-three - Girl's Day Out

I actually managed quite a few shots today. While spending time with my mom and my eldest daughter on a girl's day out, we went to our favorite salon and spent time playing with th resident pup-pups, Doobers and Jasper. Such handsome boys... so willing and happy to pose and sit pretty for the camera.

...the secret to pet photography?

....snacks.

Then, it was time to go and find some Dim Sum. Dim Sum we did find... and along the way, I discovered some curious buildings. This apartment building just caught my eye because of it's very round shape. I loved the little cloverleaf petal balcony's that poked off the various apartments.

...now, to construct a bit of delicious nom for late night snackin'.

g'night moon!

Day Twenty-Two - Rain Kissed

One of the charms to our micro-melrose are all the plants. We've a neighbor or two who just adore plants. You'll find them all throughout the front courtyard, along the sides of the stairs of the victorian, on the patios of the cottages, in tiny clever tins tacked to the stair-rails to the rear of the victorian, EVERYWHERE in our yard and home... truly everyone who lives here loves plants.

Recently, we have had much rain (very much needed and not at ALL begrudged!). There is nothing like a fresh, heavy rain to leave a coating of liquid gemstones adorning all the foliage in our yard. When I got home from work, there was a brief break in the rain and I was able to run outside, camera in hand, and get a few shots of some of the flowers in our yard just before the sun went down.

...for my pop. xox

Day Twenty-One - Step Outside...

...my door.

You see immediately the entrance to our nearest neighbor's cottage, and through a path of lovely, wild growing plants... the exit out onto the street. It's a true urban treasure, this little 'micro melrose' that we dwell in.

Day Twenty - my Bean

14 years ago today...the first of my children came into this world. In fact... it was right around this time at night on what had been a very stormy, rainy day. I had asked the nurses to open the windows to the room I was in so that I could smell the rain in the air and cool off the room a bit.

Fourteen years... it seems like it was just yesterday that she was a tiny baby.

Day Nineteen - Obsession

Anyone who knows Mike and I, knows of our love of all things chocolate...especially dark chocolate. Upon moving to San Francisco, we discovered a small chocolate shop in our local mall, wherein the chocolates are on display like jewels in glass cases. As my eldest and I were out doing a little birthday shopping, we decided to stop on in and she was allowed to select her own custom box of chocolates.

...well... of course I had to get a few for us adults. I DID need a subject for the evening after all.

Day Eighteen - Ginger

A year ago, on my daughter's birthday... we adopted Ginger. We only know that she was found in Richmond, CA... that she had recently had a litter of puppies, and that she had subsequently been abandoned. A dogwalker found her, filthy and starving and took her in. Her landlady... a good woman of my acquaintance showed me pictures of the little girl and once I showed them to our family... well... we were hooked. How could we NOT give the poor little thing a home. she was just a pup-pup after all... what evil could she have done that would have resulted in her not having a home?

It's been a long year of hard work and retraining to convince our little gal that no one is going to abandon her again, or visit any sort of harm upon her. She has finally learned that our neighbors are friends and has learned that the potty... is outside. ;) She's a great little dog and we're all so glad that she's become a part of our family.

so here's me going to lounge in the big ol' pile of pillows with my ds and my dog. g'night world.

Day Seventeen - Limon

A little bit more urban green. Earlier this year, we suddenly came into the 'dream' unit in our tiny little urban community. The complex we live in consists of a beautiful Victorian divided into three flats, and separate cottages. The rear cottage boasts the treasure of the property... an actual yard. My sweetheart loves to garden and has been gradually collecting roses and geraniums and other lovely plants. One wonderful little find was our meyer lemon tree. It's still small, but it's already got a full crop of delicious little lemons all over it! I couldn't resist snapping a few of the sweet fruits with my macro lens...

Day Sixteen - Visitation

Our family's good friend N stopped by for a visit, and as she happened to be sitting about and has a lovely smile... she became my photo for the night. I just love how she has such fashion flair and can wear such bold colors! She's always just gorgeous!

Day Fifteen - Urban Green

I love things that are green. Green is my favorite color. It represents, to me at least, all things that live and grow. I grew up living in a rural environment full of living green things (a vineyard) and often imagined that a city must be choked of all things green.

I find myself now living in a city, in a tiny little cottage... with a yard full of thriving green plants. From our yard we can see the yards of several houses on our block, and all are just packed with trees and plants. So out into our yard I have ventured to capture some of what I am calling 'urban green'.

Day Fourteen - Generation

My subject tonight is my great-grandmother's wedding ring. I knew my Great-Grandmother, Anna. For many years, we would go to Greatgrandma and Greatgrandpa's house for Sunday Dinner, a very big deal to my large, traditional Portuguese family. When I graduated from college, the ring became mine, as my Great-Grandmother had long since passed from this world, as had my Grandmother.

Tonight's challenge was to capture the diamond. Jewlery, as I have found before, can be tricky to take pictures of. Those stones are transparent and full of prismed edges that throw light around in a most uncooperative manner. A flashlight (a small mag) held in such way as to illuminate the diamond from behind allowed me to bring the little blighter into focus, then we just shifted in such a way as to illuminate the ring from the foreground.

Now... I'm off to get a snack!

Day Thirteen - Introspection

More experiments with light...

Day Twelve - Salvation (Composition)

I try to take my camera with me everywhere and am often inspired to take photos of natural elements that strike my fancy. But after three years of intensive product photography, I have found myself a bit less inspired in a creative way with my 'ax'.

When I started this project, I started with a few random shots that seemed to fit in with the season, but already, I feel myself really wanting to know what I'm going to shoot before I start shooting.

Tonight, I knew I wanted a composition. But what? I rummaged about trying to find inspiration. Feeling an innate maternal drive to prepare dinner and see to the welfare of the little ones, I had to give up my search and hustle upstairs to prepare dinner. Between heating oil and breading chicken... I continued in my search for some subject and finally settled upon my subject of the evening.

There are those in this life who strive to do good. In every aspect of their lives, they truly strive to bring goodness and justice to those around them. I am fortunate enough to know such a person.

There is a famous sculpture of the praying hands by Albrecht Durer. Stories say that he used his brother's hands as the model for this picture, in return for his brothers long labors to help pay for his education as an artist. It's a beautiful work. I wanted to create something similar, and was able to use the hands of that honorable man who has done so much for so many others in his life.

They are the hands of a healer.

Day Twelve - Attention

I have two offerings tonight. Crazy, wot? ;) I have been indulging in my love of all things Sepia... and experimenting with animals a bit. I have heard it said that the trick to animal photography is baiting the animal. My sweetheart caught our pup-pup, Ginger's, attention with a bit of dried pineapple. LOL. But it gave me an opportunity to get a shot of her with what we affectionately call her "Gremilin Ears". She's just adorable this way...

Adopted into our family almost a year ago, she's just the best little companion. We all love her very, very much.

Day Eleven - Deception

So... Syncopation has got to easily be one of my all time favorite photos... but then I took this.

For years, I've had this little, four inch Temari Ball that had been gifted to me by a delightful little woman I'd met working in a physical therapy department. She was a patient and had gone on one day about how she dearly wished she could fold origami, but lamented she had never learned how. I have a knack for origami, and so, on her next visit, presented her with a small origami box filled with origami goldfish of various sizes. She loved the little gift, and returned the favor with the Temari, which she explained, should be hung in my home to bring good fortune.

Tonight I continued my experiments with lighting and all things macro and played with my Temari. The results were really beyond anything I was expecting at all.

Day Ten - Syncopation

I love this one... Marimba in sepia.

...I have a thing for sepia, I love the soft, warm tones it imparts. I haven't really taken photos using the sepia settings on my camera in quite a while. And, yes... I realize I can edit just about anything into a sepia tone... but there's something about 'seeing' through the camera in sepia when I'm out 'in the field' so to speak.

I suppose as I progress with this blog I should mention some of the little incidentals, like the camera I'm using, and the lens. This was taken with Ozzie, my trusty Canon 20D and a 60mm macro lens. (my favorite lens...I just adore the macroverse!)

I'll also add that whilst I've not been able to post my photos daily, I have been taking them daily. :D Just wait till you all see the next one!

Day Nine - Behind the Bell

...the view from behind the bell. :)

Day Eight - Contemplation

The Suz and I decided to do some work learning how to look into the camera. She's very camera shy on occasion. It was good mommy-daughter time and some interesting work taking photos of of my youngest. Note to self, small children wriggle out of focus no matter how many times you tell them to hold very very still.

Day Seven - Reflection

I always have a difficult time getting my youngest to pose prettily and smile. It's the weirdest thing. But she was more than happy to sit and help experiment with some photos that didn't involve her having to smile whatsoever.

She is wearing my Great Grandmother Anna Silveria's wedding ring. My mother gifted it to me when I graduated from college and I've treasured it. I remember it glinting and winking on grandma's finger as she bustled about the kitchen preparing Sunday Dinner. Feeling nostalgic and experimental... we slipped into Sepia-mode and let the Suz model the ring.

I have managed to make it through one week. Lots more to go!

Day Six - TEQUILA!

So.. yeah... tequila. We've been researching the stuff as we don't know a lot about it really. Did you know there are several different kinds of tequila? Tonight I picked up a bottle of one of the types (having had one of the others a week or so ago) wanting to sample something different. IN the process, I noticed I hadn't done my photo yet...so tequila became the subject of the evening. Not the GREATEST photo ever...but I'm only on day six of three hundred and sixty five. Holy heck!

Day Five - Completion (the 12th Day of Christmas!)

I find it somewhat amusing that a lot of folks start counting the twelve days of Christmas prior to Christmas Day. The twelve days of Christmastide actually START on Christmas Day and extend out for twelve days.

Today... is the 12th Day. Amidst shots of tequilla and phone calls to loved ones, we are slowly dismantling our tree so that we can have it out on the curb in time for trash collection early tomorrow morning. In celebration of our beautiful tree (my darling son INSISTED on using his allowance monies to help buy a really really BIG tree this year, such a sweetie...said contribution was slyly applied towards his mutal fund ~_^ for being so contributory) we are dismantling it gently and celebrating the ones we love. As I am experimenting with light, albeit clumsily, I took a flashlight and Ozzie (my camera) and set to taking some snaps of this years batch of Christmas ornaments.

I have a lovely collection of ornaments, which I have been carefully collecting over the past twenty years or so. Gold and White and Red with flashes of Green, it's a lovely collection and each ornament is treasured. Every year I have added to the collection, carefully selecting just one more ornament to compliment the selection. I've never gone completely mad with my spending on an ornament, but there are some very lovely ornaments in the collection. This year, I never really got a chance to go out and find that perfect ornament. I trusted in fate that the perfect yearly ornament would somehow find it's way to us. I was simply too busy and didn't have the extra time to go off on a hunt for the perfect 'one', despite my best efforts to do so...

...then, one day, I came home to find two new ornaments on our tree. Two darling little japanese dolls, reminiscent of the ones my mother first got for me on a trip to this very City, back when I was a child. I had begged her to bring me a gift when she had traveled to the City (San Francisco) to visit with her long time friend and pen pal on an annual meeting. Upon her return, she presented me with a tiny box, in which two small Japanese dolls were nested, a male and a female. They were stacking dolls, and within them each lay nested several more tiny, painted dolls. When I walked past the tree, one day, I suddenly noticed an ornament that looked almost exactly like the male doll, save its little coat was red. Upon closer examination of the tree (I am exceedingly anal about my collection and know each ornament intimately) I noticed a second little doll, somewhat more feminine, but also dressed in red.

My dear sweet Boy's (my boyfriend) mother had gifted them too us...and two more perfect ornaments for this year's tree I could not imagine. We have loved our adventures in this marvelous city and the flavor of the far East does inspire us even now.

So as we pack away our Christmas treasure, to await next year's celebration, I bid you all a wonderous New Year filled with miracles and good fortune.

...and for this day, I bid you a fond goodnight.

xox

Day Four

Today was another of those crazy busy days wherein I don't get remotely close to achieving any of my goals... this included taking photos. However... Godmother Adri was in town visiting and we managed a few shots just before bedtime. Portraiture is definitely not my thing with the camera, but we'll see where we are in another 361 days. ~_^

Day Three

Today... was increadibly busy...

Ensuring that all of the children's needs are met, especially on a day at the end of a long holiday with a school day looming, usually means not getting a chance to sit down and work on my own projects until after the sun has gone down. As I am not feeling inspired to experiment with light tonight, I decided instead to edit one of the thousands of photos that reside on my computer but has, of yet, not been displayed or shared due to lack of editing.

today's offering was actually taken about a month or so back here in San Francisco at the Museum of Natural Science. The resident butterflies rewarded us for out spiraling trek up to the top of the bio-dome by letting me creep close with my camera.

I normally strive for a very natural photo, hoping to edit as little (if as all) as possible. However, tonight I endeavored for artistically edit the photo marginally so as to highlight the radiance of the insects wings. Only a tiny adjustment to the curves was necessary, causing the yellow in the butterfly's wings to almost glow from within, almost perfectly recreating the beauty of the insect as we saw it that day.

Day Two

Experimenting with light...

Day 1

Though I haven't managed to post them daily, I have managed to take pictures every day of the year so far. Day One's offering is loosely titled 'Celebration' I have a red glass vase filled with these crazy twirly green and red and gold 'thingys'. Flourish for floral arrangements I suppose, but it's terribly festive and makes a lovely decoration amidst our plethora of Christmas decorations. Taken from a worm's eye perspective though, it made me think of Holiday fireworks.