hi there.

i hightailed it out of here. i'm over at this joint now.

september : 10 on 10

i'm bending the rules a bit today. usually the photos i post for 10 on 10 are snippets of an entire day. i set out with that being my intention for this post and i did take photographs throughout the day, but when reviewing those photos i realized something. every photograph taken in the afternoon was trumped by every photo taken in the morning. so, for this 10 on 10 you get a glimpse into the morning we spent at the dragon*con parade. trust me, you'll be glad i didn't waste the space on photos of my mediocre lunch, refreshing beer, exhausted kids lying about in the afternoon, and my cluttered workspace (because that's what you would've seen if i had decided not to break the rules a bit). i apologize in advance for the diptych overload. 

 i've honestly never been to a better parade. every year this parade is fantastic and it's so much fun to photograph. every year it ends with storm troopers (they seemed quite a bit weaker in number this year or maybe they were a little more spread out. we were at the very end of the parade route, so that seems possible. not the best spot for photographing the parade i learned.) and then the crowd pours out onto peachtree st. behind them. if you can manage, i recommend you make the trek to atlanta next year for this event if you are at all into sci-fi, comic books, costume wearing, or just getting your freak on. good times will be had.

now, for a really good time call (on) carmen over at her beautiful blog and see what's happening in her world!

p.s.  don't forget to keep clicking through the links so you can enjoy the work of all the amazing photographers taking part in this 10 on 10 project.

blinded by the light.

10 on 10

today i patched up a beloved stuffie that a certain dog mauled in broad daylight. i still have a large tear at the bottom to fix up. i thought we would have to call him frankenfrog, but i did an impressive job (considering my ability) and we can still just call him frog. every one was treated to hair cuts and either iced americanos or ice cream. no question as to which one i chose. a trip to the library proved frustrating, which is usually the norm in my case, but this time it wasn't because they didn't have the books i was looking for. no, it was because every bathroom was closed. who does that? would you not leave at least one bathroom open for your patrons? i'm still perplexed by this, but i digress . . .

we received some much needed rain. the rain made the chalk that was left in the driveway perfectly suitable for coloring bea's hair (once it was dried and combed it looked really cute). she has been wanting pink hair for some time now. she literally gasped when she saw herself in the mirror. i think she was pleased with the chalk-do. boyd was relieved we finally made it home, but annoyed that we took so long getting in the house. because like me at the library, he really needed to go. one of the neighbor kids peeked in on us. again. i'm beginning to wonder if she has a schedule made up for looking in our windows. i think i'm noticing a pattern.  the day came to a close with a bit of backyard hooping, but sadly my hooping skills aren't on par with my minimal sewing abilities, so that didn't last too long. i'll try again tomorrow.

 i bet you wouldn't mind brightening up your day a bit, right? then click over to carmen's blog and see what loveliness she has posted today before you do anything else! you'll be glad you did.

perseus

10 on 10

the blog is being revived!
some fellow bloggers finally motivated me to jump back in and i couldn't be in better company. i'll probably start off slow (blogger feels rusty to me), so bear with me and pardon the cobwebs and piles of dust lying around here. i'll spruce things up as i get the hang of this again. in the meantime, i've joined an amazing circle of photographers to do a monthly project called 10 on 10. on the 10th day of each month we'll post 10 photos and give you a link to the next photographer.

the heat here (as well as everywhere else it seems) has been brutal. we had a stretch where we weren't spending a lot of time outdoors. well, we'd had enough of that and decided to make a day of getting out of the house. we started off downtown playing in the fountains, sweating our asses off at the playground, grabbing googie burgers for lunch, playing frisbee and chasing pigeons.

we ended our day closer to home and checked out the local first friday (though we did more people watching than anything. matt kept pointing out people he thought looked like kenny powers). the heat was still stifling but we fought it back by enjoying some gelato and an adult refreshment or two (this ramped up the spot kenny powers game as you may have guessed). we headed across the street when the kids spied a large bounce house only to discover that there would be a free screening of the sandlot (one of my favorite movies) when the sun went down.

it was a nearly perfect sweat-soaked day.

now, if you want to improve your day, please do yourself a favor and click over to carmen farrell's blog and see what she has in store for you!

beat it

i'm sitting here at the computer editing photos when henry walks up to me and asks to watch the video where they are fighting with knives. i ask, "what?". i am completely perplexed. he tells me the video where the are fighting with knives, but not really, they are actually dancing with knives. (this doesn't help). i send him off to ask matt - maybe he knows what this child means. i hear matt say something about michael jackson and 'bad'. turns out henry wants to watch the 'beat it' video. random? absofreakinglutely. i have no clue where that came from! i'm afraid to ask to be perfectly honest.

so we go to youtube, type up our demand and before i can hit play henry is excitedly calling for the "lego one, play the lego one!!!" and sure enough, there it is.



and the whole time he's watching it, he's telling me that this is the lego set he wants.

i love this kid.

beauty for good.

as we all struggle to wrap our minds around the terrifying effects of the catastrophic events that have and continue to occur in japan it is easy to feel helpless. while i was sitting here feeling stunned and heartbroken reading the news, my friend erika was putting together a way for all of us to help those who can provide some relief.

erika has a gathered a small collection of prints from a handful of photographers to be auctioned off with all proceeds to benefit the relief efforts of the ICRC (international committee of the red cross). each photograph is 8x12 with a borderless lustre finish and printed on archival paper. your purchase will ship directly from costco professional printers in order to cut down on shipping costs. there are 8 prints to choose from (see above) and at $20 each they make an affordable way for you to brighten someone's day (maybe even your own) and do a good deed all in one go. the prints will be on the auction block until saturday, march 19.

i feel fortunate to have friends with such giving hearts and am humbled that erika invited me to contribute to this project. i would be honored if you helped us in this effort to show some compassion and love for our fellow humans who are facing struggles and hardships that really are beyond my comprehension. it truly is a small world and every bit of kindness helps.

for more details you can visit here or go to the erika ray photography facebook page where you can get a larger view of the available prints.

this might be long winded.

but for some reason it needs to come out, and i haven't visited this space in months so i'm just going to type and leave it at that. it just feels kind of nice to be back here.

i am horrible at organizing and editing my photos. i upload and run. i rarely delete. and i've been this way for 4 years now. this behavior adds up to a lot of crap photos taking space on my computer. apparently a lot of space. so, i've been slowly working on organizing my photos with the intention of then going back through the folders and tossing out the junk. and oh my, is there a lot of junk. i mean how many photos of baby food or carpenter bees do i really need? and the blurry ones? thousands and thousands of photos of blurry children run rampant on my hard drive. (have i mentioned that i've also never backed up my photos?)

so, i go to upload some photos and they won't upload. i'm out of space. then weird things pop up saying there was an error in trying to save my photos in iphoto though i don't even have that program open. panic starts setting in and mass deletion (on my part) begins. i'm trying to go ahead and delete the tens of thousands of photos i don't deem worthy of taking up space before i back everything up. which i really am going to do. i've lost photos before (though i think they could be lurking in the trash somewhere. i don't know because iphoto won't let me open it). dealing with this task has been a bit of burden in my mind and putting it off has been my way of (not) dealing with it. anyway, rambling here . . .

and here i get to the tissues sitting there on the desk. going through this many photos and reviewing them has been extremely cathartic. at one point i didn't feel like i was emotionally capable of going through certain folders, like ones from thanksgiving where there were so many photos of my grampa, or all the pictures of the kids with our dog mason (who passed away in september at the ripe old age of 15). i had to stop several times because i was a blubbering mess hoping that i didn't wake up the kids from their naps, but i kept going (and i didn't wake them up). i still have a lot more pictures to go through, but going through these en masse i'm also figuring some things out. for example, i don't need to take any more photos of carpenter bees or baby food being made. or that i've come a long way, baby. it's a big deal to me that i'm more comfortable shooting in manual mode than any other mode. i would not have even thought that possible two years ago. maybe two years from now i'll be impressed with myself for having a decent organizational system for my photos! who knows?

so, that's what i've been doing the last couple of days and will still be doing for the next few days. if you don't see me around too much in the next few days, you'll know i'm busy hitting that delete button with no regrets. unless i mess something up somehow. because that is very possible too.


and hey! i remembered my blogger password. that's something!

random.

i think you should check this out.
make sure you click on full screen : )

henry had his four year check up yesterday. they tested his ears and say his hearing is just fine.

i beg to differ.

peek a boo.

just popping in again.

listening to the black keys and about to bake a certain girl's birthday cake. somehow bea will turn 2 tomorrow. and she is ready. especially for her pink (by request) cake.
she can't decide if she want's to go on a hike and have a birthday picnic or go to the museum and have a birthday picnic. tonight she said both. maybe we'll wait until we're in the car tomorrow before we ask again.

the pendulum of life has been swinging pretty hard between the good and the bad here lately. nothing i want to get into, yet. just life stuff. i'm just glad that when it has been good it has been really good.

my dslr is still in disrepair, but i hope to have it return soon. in the meantime, i am enjoying film, except when i really screw up the shot and with film i think that's pretty hard to do - but i am managing just fine a little too often. not to complain to much because i love the excitement and anticipation of getting the pictures back and thrill of seeing the ones that turned out better than i imagined.
i need a film fund and i'm open to donations, because i don't want to give this up.

so, here's a little film-y goodness for your viewing pleasure. i'll be back around these parts again soon.

random wednesday.

i've been listening to the feelies a lot. at least when i'm not listening to these guys, because holy smokes i can't stop.


what are you listening to lately?

tea leaves cardi in progress.

. . . . . . . . . . .

my camera is temporarily out of commission. (that's a very wishful statement, by the way). i'm not quite sure what is wrong with it, but it keeps locking up and won't shut off without removing the battery. as of now i know it's not the battery or lens and that's about it. spending quite a bit of time online trying to troubleshoot before sending it off to canon. i'm also perusing new camera's just in case, ha ha.

so i figure in the meantime i may upload older photos that have never been seen. and to keep up with my 365 (i'm too close to the end to give up) i'm going to shoot film. at least i'm going to try. so, while i'll be attempting to keep up with it, my posts will be late.

keep your fingers crossed for me that the problem is as simple as a dead memory card!

community love.

via hula seventy.

sequestered.

lately i feel like i have more shadows than i should at one time. not enough quiet and calm to break up the noise and chaos. some days i can take this in stride, while other days i feel like all coping skills have mysteriously vanished and may never be seen again. i feel like hiding away sometimes and the other night i did. as soon as dinner was finished i bolted up the stairs telling matt i needed at least 10 minutes, ducked into the bedroom and locked the door. i put some music on and laid on the floor next to the bed. the lock is faulty, so my hope was that if a noisy small person came in i might not be found.

i was found, but sometimes all it takes is 10 minutes of breathing in a room that you have all to yourself. that night i think i got 12 minutes.

this is from one hello world. you should go check it out.

it reminded me of this a little bit.

made in the shade.

spent some time under here today with henry and bea. just us and the laundry. hanging out.

i was working in the garden trying to prep it for fall planting (which probably should have been done at least a week ago). it's hard to think about a fall/winter garden when it's still in the 90's.

so there i was moving dirt around with two batman's running rampant around the yard when one collided with the clothesline pole. she needed some love and i was lured away from my task. she wasn't really hurt, she just really likes to be snuggled. so we set up camp for a bit under the laundry and enjoyed the privacy and the shade. and i enjoyed the company and conversation.

the garden can wait.

in summary.

i haven't been blogging (obviously), but i also haven't been reading blogs either. maybe a post here and there, but that's it. today i opened up my blog roll and i am behind on reading 867 posts. ha! now, in all honesty, there a several blogs that i just skim (certain photo and design type blogs). then there are those that i like to get lost in, so if i don't have the time - i don't open them until i do. this is the weekend i think i'm going to make that time. i feel the need to catch up and not feel so far behind. i also think this is the weekend i need to whittle down my blog list (like those blogs i skim, for example.). this was supposed to be the summer of simplifying. i think the simplifying will be carried over into the fall and most likely the winter. i'm okay with that. it's a process.

looking forward to catching up with many of you!