changing pace

ah, summer.  when my pace changes, allowing more time to play and process.

YIPP - EEE!

learning about light and focus with the camera.

It is finally making sense (big, happy sigh).  Which button does what?  Where is that button? Moving from "point and shoot" to "I want to do this".  I still can't talk the photographers lingo, but I can make my camera do some things instead of being at the whim of "automatic."

Knowing how to change the focus point. 

Under the leaves.

Finding the "ah-ha" moment.

rock focus, spring green

what's your learning?

Newest Obsession - Annie Sloan Chalk Paint

Read this article about Annie Sloan Chalk Paint.  Paint? No prep work? This has my name written all over it.  AND - a cute shop, in a small warehouse nearby, sells the paint!  The following weekend - I was there, 15 minutes before they opened, waiting in the parking lot. Note: I don't do anything with furniture other than dust it once in a while, so this paint stuff is easy peasy.

French Linen paint color.

Harvest table that my husband and his mom stained years and years and years ago.  Well, maybe not THAT long ago...but pretty darn close.  Those legs belong to my daughter, the "we" part of this post.

Once we saw how easy it was to paint the table, I started looking around for other options.  So, we painted two of these little ragtag tables that have been around for years and look pretty sad.  We also painted an old waste basket and a small wooden step ladder that had once been red, but was very weathered after living outside for years.

These are the brushes we used.  We didn't paint the place where the table leaf lifts up (have no idea what that place is called).  We were worried if we painted it, the leaf wouldn't open properly.  We also left the underside of the table with the original stain.  My daughter said that way we leave the part that her dad and grandmother did and combined it with the part she and I did.  She has already claimed she gets to inherit anything she helps paint.  Hmmm, that could be an issue with the other sisters.

Waxing tools.  The Little Black Chair

Table in the foyer.  I was a bit chicken to rough the table up much.  May go back and remove more paint later.

View with the underside of the table that isn't painted.

The ragtag table looking pretty darned nice.

The confession:  We painted things until we ran out of paint. I have been to the store 3 times in one week to buy more paint - Old White and Arles.  A persistent voice in my head keeps saying "Oh, that would look nice painted." Tomorrow (Mother's Day) my daughters and I will be painting more furniture.

Today I registered for the Annie Sloan paint class.  

Paint me obsessed.

I am not connected with Annie Sloan paints or The Little Black Chair - just an excited customer.

Bloomin.....

Warm Mother Nature weather

shares a plethora of daffodils

for the passersby.

Delight!

On a walk

before the sun is up.

With camera, sans tripod.

A bit of blurry - still sharable.

Playing with black and white and THE Light.

Another online class.

Photo Silly Advanced.

Pepper Play

In our deep mid-winter,

stalking the produce section,

picking the perfect pepper.

Posing pepper.

Photoshopping pepper.

Play-filled playtime!

Planet Renee

No lives were lost during the filming of this event.

 The plan: Arise before sunrise, drive downtown, shoot some urban landscape.  My buddy, Neva, has been going out with a photography group shooting nature, so I decided to join her - a couple of states and a timezone or two away. As I pulled out of the driveway, I changed my mind about the urban theme and drove to this little pond open space.  Turns out it was the right decision.

 Magnificent goose fight: Territorial argument? Gang fight? Courting?  I have no idea.  It was intense and  went on for a couple of minutes.  Water splashing.  Wings flapping.  Beaks biting. The rest of the flock was honking, beeping, swimming around - going absolutely nuts.

 At one point one of the geese tried to hold the other goose under water.  Or maybe the underwater goose was making a fast getaway?  I don't know about these things.

Yikes.  I stayed in photographer mode and didn't yell or scream and try to break them up.  I only felt a wee bit guilty about letting them duke it out.  Luckily I had set my camera on sport mode so I must have snapped a hundred pictures. Gotta love digital...

Hanging in the hood - you never know.

What's in your neighorhood today?

Draw what you know...

 red bunny

ink bunny

Living smack dab in the middle of suburbia I know the bunnies in my "hood."  Gray brown color, a bit of a white tail, brown eyes, they crouch and hop, hiding under evergreens and low bushes. These guys and gals aren't the sit up and take a look around bunnies.  Here are two from this winter's bunny series.

The photos were taken with my iphone, the ink drawing was processed in instagram - my fav fast photo fix app.

Having a bit of snow...

CHARGE - ing!

...viewing....

contemplating or resting?

Snow here.

Lots 

of snow

Creating new landscapes and play opportunities.

Oh - and LOTS of shoveling time, too.

enjoying

this

moment.

Street Life; Still Life; Tough Life

At the end of the day, night closing in.

A still life of someone's work day on the median of a busy street.

Cinder block to sit upon.

Magazine flipped open to read.

Several drinks sipped.

Did the person walk away?

Get arrested for panhandling?

Is it set up for tomorrow's work?

Challenges, street side.

a Silly class, I learned that...

I believe in challenges.

I love learning.

discovering.

finding out - OH, that's how that works.

Now, I know.

So, I took this class Silly Light.

Above is the Silly Food Sculpture.

Baby Bok Choy (I never did cook it) with Strawberries (I ate them, raw).

I learned some more things about:

 my tripod.

Lighting.

That I need to blur that table cloth in the background so it's not so distracting.

Light from a window source is good.

Aperature.

Photographing fresh fruit and veggies in the winter is a good replacement for flowers in the spring and summer.

Baby Bok Choy is a cool thing to say, and is great to photograph.

Shaking Dog

Stretching again.  Seems a good thing to do in January - stretch my photography skills.  Taking an online class (love these), this time from Steve Soneheim - Photo Silly Light.  Helping me experiment and renew my relationship with Cam, the camera.  Black and White - animal action shot.  Looking forward to summer and soaking this ol' doggie and taking pics of her shaking off all the water!

Still in the stretching category - renewing my yoga relationship, too.

What's on your January agenda?

Imagineering Christmas Cookies and a Snow Romp

Sharing a secret cookie recipe.

there are so many wonderful photos and recipes on blogs for Christmas cookies.

A baker, I'm not.  An Imagineer, I am.

Romping in today's snow!

Thanks to Two Graces for the Christmas goodie sharing.

Have You Seen My Sister Evelyn?

I know this is a busy time of year (busy is probably putting it lightly), so take a moment and check out this most fun video.  I discovered the blog, Eleanora Arroyo Ilustraciones about a year ago, and I love love LOVE her art and her videos.  Here is another video.

Note:  Just discovered that Have You Seen My Sister Evelyn is from Evelyn Evelyn.

Note 2.0: Just discovered Evelyn Evelyn is a singing group.  Ah - searching about on the internet.  You never know what you'll find.

Fabulous places - hope you visited and went on your own exploratory online adventure.

Enjoy!  #takeamoment

What's Happenin?

Over Thanksgiving, the 3 "peepettes" and I painted pictures at Canvas and Cocktails,

a local group paint with pop or cocktails.  Quite fun!  Actually - it is GREAT fun.

And we bring home art for the holiday!

A most memorable moment.

Sometimes I like to pretend my life is calm, serene and photogentic-ish.

Then the speed gathers and it's off to another mini crisis with a crazy deadline.

Happy December!

Prepping

pinecone painting up

Step 1:  Gather up some pinecones from a local park (hoping all the while this isn't illegal!)

Step 2:  Paint on white acrylic paint on some of the pinecones - (the snow).

Step 3:  Paint on Golden Fluid Acrylics - Iridescent Gold Deep (Fine) on some of the pinecones.

Question: R U ???  

The finished product has some of the Gold applied over the white, too.

This year one of my daughters and I created a themed display for our outside lights.  We finally had to fire the DH - I think he actually wanted to be fired from the lighting task given the lighting of the past two years.  We had to rip out a dead tree this summer, so we have a tree we can actually reach.

Will have to figure out how to take photos of the nightime display later this week. The weather folks are predicting snow on Thursday.

Answer:  Rudy

Note to self:  Change the banner.....

Coyote In Our Hood

Had a fantastic walk with the dogs early Sunday morning in a small open space near our house. We live in the southern suburbs of Denver, Colorado where the coyotes also roam.  My husband was the official dog walker since he had the leash.  I was the official National Geographic photographer.  It's good to role play.

Lucky photo moment. Right place.  Right time.  Right equipment. 

Our two dogs, had a slightly different reaction. Stella (the Aussie on the right) was pretty wild about the coyote sighting. "OMG COYOTE!!!  Attack!!!  Run!!!  Get Worried!!!!  Somebody DO Something!" 

Mailey, the smaller dog, was clueless as usual.  "What?  Should I be worried?"

Happy Halloween 2011

 Happy Halloween!  I LOVE pumpkins!  So cute.  So carvable.  So decorative.  So ORANGE!
A few pumpkin sketches I drew with a Sketch & Wash pencil and then dipped a paint brush in some strong coffee to create the orange tint above.  I also tried tea, which wasn't as successful.

Above is an example with plain ol' clear water and the Sketch & Wash pencil.  Love the sketch and wash.  Also in the photo is one of my favorite brushes, it holds water really well.  It's part squirrel hair (which is really gross so try not think about it) - a Silver, Black Velvet paint brush.

I attached the pumpkins to cards and sent them on their Halloween way to some friends.  And of course, mailed them before I remembered to take photos of the finished project.

Hope you have a fun evening with all the lovely Trick or Treaters!

line up

Being in the right lane at the right time.

With a camera.

HONEST - USDA Organic - Coca Cola
classic refrigerated humor

#takeamoment

Simple tribute to Steve Jobs by my friend Karl.  #takeamoment

my "be braver" challenge

October 2011 - back to photos and my blog friends.  Hello, hello everyone! I've missed this place.

Where I've been: August - big project for work (all good, but not time for blog thoughts and photos).  September - recovery from August.

Then, there was that little problem that all my photos had filled up my disc space.  I couldn't do ANYTHING in photoshop because there was too much stuff on my Mac.  Sad clutter moment.  I deleted the bad, duplicative, weird photos. Then backed up the favs in two places.  It was another week before I actually deleted the photos.  That nagging worry - would I ever see them again????

Finally got over myself and pressed "delete" bunches.

The photo above is my latest "be braver" challenge to myself.  I've been carrying my camera in my purse forever.  I take photos of the inanimate all the time.  be braver - taking street photos of people.  From the back.  I'll work up to faces (when I'm really, really brave).

Then I had to figure out what to wear.  So I looked more artsy and photography like.  I also have my artsy business cards - just in case I have to explain myself.  I haven't had to yet - but just in case.

So - it's people street photography for me for a bit - I want to expand from nature and the inanimate.

Happy October - looking forward to checking in with everyone! 

Imaginary Fish

Had to post another Imaginary Creature from the Dog Days of Summer Camp classes because she is just "too darn cute."  She is swimming on the refrigerator these days, hanging from a magnet. Finding I love watercoloring the shapes with fins.  And then dreamily penciling in the accents.  Perfect summer moment.

Hoping you are enjoying August!