Day 260: Pelting Snow?

The snow storm tonight.

I knew there was a storm coming today.  The wind was howling all afternoon and when I went outside at lunch to run some errands, my hair literally swirled around my head and straight up as if I were in a cyclone.  But even though the weather was freaky cool all day, I was still shocked to see the snow whipping through our back yard tonight when I looked out the window.

There was no way I was going out there in the cold and wind, so I took this shot from the window to the back porch.  Lazy, I know.  But at least I got a picture of it. :)

Day 255: Night Watchman

The tree in my front yard.

I've been checking out different pictures of trees, and I keep seeing these amazing shots of trees up close, at night.  Of course, all of the shots I saw were much cooler than this one, but as it is my first attempt, I'm pretty proud of myself. :)

Day 248: Wizater

My sister's car

Tonight the three of us went out to dinner and a movie - a typical Friday night.  We exited the movie theater to find the world covered in a light sprinkling of powdered sugar.  That's about the time I realized I hadn't taken a picture yet.  I panicked a bit...until Ryan walked over to Christine's car and wrote the word, "Wizater" on her rear window.  

"There," he said, "take a picture of that."

So I did.  I took quite a few pictures of it because we kept writing things in the snow on the trunk of the car.  It was fun and very cold.  My hands ached for a little while afterwards, but it was worth it. :)

Day 247: Ball of Nerves

The sunset through the trees.

I named this picture "Ball of Nerves" because I wanted to use the word "ball" since it's a picture of a bunch of dangling balls on a tree, but no matter how I tried to mix the words around, "dangle" and "balls" just couldn't go together in the title without making unintended references.

Also, because I was a nervous wreck today.

Obviously this happens to me frequently since I write about it a lot on this blog, but it doesn't make it any easier.  Some days I just handle the huge responsibility of my work load better than others.  Today all I could see was the big picture of everything in the world that I had to do (personally and professionally) and it panicked me so badly that I couldn't concentrate on a single task.  I even had to take a break in one of the empty offices by sitting on the floor in the dark, trying to calm my breathing and empty my mind.  Of course, this didn't work because I really think it might be impossible to clear my head of all thoughts.  I've tried oh, so many times, but there's always something going on up there.  Plus I have the attention span of a kid in a candy store.  My brain is always frantically running from one subject to another so fast that I tend to loose the thread of my own inner dialog every few minutes or so.

I'm not kidding though, I literally lasted 4 minutes in that dark room before getting up and walking out more frustrated than when I started.

And it felt like 20 minutes.

But, I'm sure tomorrow will go much better, because it usually works out that way.

Day 238: Lamplight Stock

A tree highlighted by a street lamp.

Tonight I found myself in a great area of lamp-lit trees.  After several attempts at photographing different trees around the pathway I was on, I found this beauty.  It was the perfect lucky shot that actually made me ooh with pleasure when I was it on the LCD screen!

I love trees because they have so much character.  There's so much to look at and they provide such stark contrasts depending on the time of year.

For some reason, I love leafless trees the best.  They make the prettiest photos.  They fill me with a peace I can't describe.

Day 235: The Glowing Orb

The moon tonight.

This isn't my best shot.  I tried to take a "quick" picture of the awesome moon tonight because the clouds were moving so fast across it, and I had a short window of opportunity.  I didn't have time to grab my tripod and set up for a proper night shot, so this is the best I could do.

Still...

I like it because now I have a solid reminder of that excited feeling I got when I looked out the window to see the awesomeness in the sky.

Day 204: Colorful Darkness

Our front windows.

I'm so sorry for such a long absence.  I've been so stressed out trying to get everything finalized at work, and get all the presents ready for Christmas, that I've actually gone and made myself sick again.  This time it feels like the beginnings of a head cold, but still...quite possibly the worst timing ever.

So the next few posts will probably be short, since I don't have a lot of time.  But then again, by the time I get around to posting these, I'll probably have time to add a few lines.

We'll see.

Happy Holidays everyone!

Day 184: Lights

Lights shining through some dead grasses.

So it's the beginning of the Christmas season, and the beginning of the second-half of my project, and I was all set with a picture of our newly trimmed Christmas tree.  But on a whim I took this shot in a parking lot tonight, and when I looked at all my pictures from today, this was my favorite.  So, We'll have to save the tree for another day.

I'm excited about the holiday season and all the fun it brings!  Christmas music, societal good will, corny Christmas movies, parties, yummy food, and getting gifts for everyone.  Usually this is my favorite time of year because I completely ruin my budget and splurge on all my family and friends.  But this year I'm not as financially comfortable as I'd like, and it's the first time in several years that I have no money to spend on Christmas.  It puts a slight damper on my season, I won't lie.  But I'm trying to find a better way to look at it.  Now, instead of spending hundreds of dollars on impulse buys for family, I'll be able to take more time really thinking about each person I give a gift to this season, and spend a lot less money doing it.  There are very economical ways of giving gifts to family and friends, I know because I have a few siblings who have always been very good at thrifty and thoughtful gift giving.  So I just need to put my thinking cap on, and find unique ways of showing my family and friends that I care about them this Christmas.

Now that I've typed that all out, I'm getting excited about it!  This is going to be a great Christmas!

Day 136-138: Sick

The following post has three days of pictures in it.  I was sick this weekend, so it's a miracle I got any pictures at all.  Since I didn't get around to posting any of them until today, I decided to put them all in one post to save myself the time.  The writing is pitiful, but remember I was sick.

Day 136: Friday night. 

Mom and Dad came home from their road trip tonight, and these bottles were from their snack box.  I had a stressful day at work, followed by a night at home watching romantic comedies.  Great in theory, but sometimes I can't let things go.  It took me all evening to get over my stress day, and by the time I was relaxed, it was time to go to bed.  Of course.

Day 137: Saturday....here comes the sickness.

So I was knocked down with what I'm assuming was a flu today.  Mainly it was just a fever and aches and pains, and a big headache.  It was bad enough to keep me in bed most of the day.  It was frustrating because I had things to do and I only have this one day a week to get my chores done. 

But, I'm too tired to think about it anymore.  Time for me to go back to bed and think about posting this later. 

Day 138: Sunday...Sick again.

I missed some major stuff at church today because of this stupid sickness!  I was feeling guilty at the beginning of the day because I decided to stay home even though I wasn't feeling as sick as yesterday.  But as the day wore on, I felt worse and worse.  And now that I'm getting ready for bed and feeling worse, I'm really worried about work tomorrow.  It was bad enough to miss my only two days of a very busy weekend, but to miss a busy work day as well...

Day 133: Marbled Sky

Sunset

I was trying to get a picture of the cloud trails in the sky with this shot, and although the cloud trails are visible, they are dwarfed by the sunset.  Unexpectedly cool.

I was planning on writing something lame here, to go with what I assumed was a lame shot, but now I'm wondering what to write.  I'm still in a foul mood over this project, but oddly enough, the annoyance I feel is actually fueling me onward instead of spiraling to the pit of despair.

I'm not saying I'm super hyped or anything.  But it's a start.

I still feel like whining about it, but I won't.

Instead, here's this.  A story of how tonight I nearly gave myself a heart attack in a matter of - maybe - 3 seconds.  And I am not exaggerating that time frame.

Just now, as I was trying to type this entry, I heard movement upstairs.  It was just the neighbors stomping around in their house, but because Christine mentioned earlier that she freaked herself out by mistaking the neighbors and our cat for intruders (and because the house is dead quiet and Christine is fast asleep), I immediately thought there was someone in the house.  BUT, before I could remind myself that it was highly unlikely to have intruders, an entire scene played out in my head in a matter of milliseconds.  I saw a killer break in the front door and wander around the living room before sniffing us out,  finding the stairs to the basement and pounding down them so fast as to render escape - or any movement - impossible (as if being cornered in the basement weren't trapped enough).  I saw the killer round the corner to my bedroom and tear down the hallway in a mass of noise and murderous rage.  I saw him fling open my door and head straight for me without a second's hesitation.

The vision was something akin to a scene from 28 Days Later, and my heart rate spiked so quickly from the split-second horror that I felt like I'd been given an electric shock.  I freaked myself out so badly that the air was sucked right out of me.  I found myself staring wide-eyed and horror-struck at the door to my bedroom.  Frozen in fear, unable to move, or even dispel the vacuum in my chest and draw a breath, waiting for the psycho killer with lightning-fast stair skills to come charging around the corner in a bloody, screaming rage...with arms outstretched to rip me in pieces with his bare hands.

A second later my voice of reason caught up with my imagination, and I was able to draw a shaky breath and look away from the door.  Hand over my heart, and chuckling at my ridiculous imagination, I turned back to my computer with suddenly nothing to say.

Now let's see if you can go to sleep without nightmares.

Day 86: Moonbeams

The moon rise...tweaked a little.

I tried to capture the moon as it was rising over the mountains tonight, but I was without my tripod, so I didn't get a clean shot.  But the flare from the street lamp added a nice touch, so I kept the picture anyway.

Here are some things I noticed today:
*The satisfying sound the spiral binding machine makes as I punch holes in the papers
*The bug bite scars on my arms make me feel like a small pox victim
*Hiding in an empty office to clear my mind doesn't feel childish anymore because it really made my morning go better
*Spontaneous compliments are the best
*Watching a movie for the third time is still fun if you watch it with someone who hasn't seen it yet
*Dinner with friends is a nice break, even if the food sucked

Day 69: Shine A Light

Self portrait.

When I was young, I would daydream about living in a world where things like fairies and unicorns were real. I'm sure every little girl had similar daydreams.  In my daydreams, I would imagine myself meeting fairies in the woods.  And they would perch on my shoulder and whisper secrets in my ear and giggle and sprinkle fairy dust on me so that I could do impossible things, like disappear or fly like Peter Pan.  Sometimes I imagined being one of the fairies, where everything was small and dainty, and where I would make music when I walked and talked.

I still like to imagine impossible things.  Only now my daydreams usually consist of ordinary things, like being able to flirt with boys, or being devastatingly gorgeous and having as much money at my disposal as I need.

But every once in a while, I'll remember my childhood daydreams and long for the unhindered creativity of a 5-year-old once more.  On those days, I CREATE.  I create beautiful things in my mind and make plans to turn them to reality.  I create pretty pictures, or short stories, or little do-dads that have no practical use.  Those are good days!

Day 53: Family Time and Theme Parks

Rides at Lagoon.

I took so many pictures today!  And so many of them turned out so cute!  I'll post them on my other blog tomorrow.  We had a barbecue at Dave's house and hung out afterwards to try out a few fireworks for the holiday.  I got some great family shots with the baby, and caught a bunch of candid looks.  I also created a quick slideshow of some of the stop motion shots I took of Lauren playing with her mom on the swing and of the snake fireworks Christine and I were playing with.

I also went to Lagoon with Christine at the end of the day (just to get a few rides in before the hour-long drive back home), and I got a few shots of the rides at night.  And since I've got a lot of family shots on this blog, but I don't have any night shots of roller coasters, I decided to post one of those instead.

I really had a great time tonight!  I was worried that I wouldn't have fun because I didn't get enough sleep last night and was grumpy most of the day because of it.  But I grabbed a small nap before heading up to Dave's house, and it made all the difference in how my evening went.  Thank goodness for naps!

Here's the stop motion video:

Day 32: Happy Independence Day (Observed)

A sparkler, blowing in the wind.

My favorite part of 4th of July fireworks is using the sparklers.  They're usually labeled as the kid's toys, but I always enjoy the quiet and pretty fireworks to the loud, screaming, blow-up-in-your-face fireworks.  Call me crazy.

A few years ago, I took my first photo of a sparkler in the fading light, and I loved the way it turned out so much that I've tried to replicate it every other holiday (July 24th is Sparkler approved as well).  Unfortunately, they never seem to turn out as well as that first shot.  At least not as I remember it.  I need to find it sometime and see if it's as cool as I recall.  Maybe my subsequent attempts aren't as bas as I perceive them to be.  

This most recent attempt isn't bad at all (I think)!  So I know that this isn't my typical photo.  It looks more like a cartoon than a photo, but I loved the way it turned out so much that I decided to keep this version.  You can see the more conservative version on my other blog, or on my Facebook page.  It was fun trying to find different uses for the sparklers, but hopefully on the 24th I'll be able to capture more fireworks shots than just my favorite sparklers. :)

Day 29: Eclipse

Kim and Christine...spooky!

We went to see Eclipse tonight (which was awesome, by the way!), and afterwards we wanted to get a picture of all three of us in front of one of the posters, but we couldn't see a single poster of Eclipse (aside from a small one hidden behind a sales booth)!  So we went outside to take a picture in front of the theater instead.

I think it turned out cool!  I'm actually in this shot as well, but I cropped myself out because I look a little retarded and it ruined the shot.  We had set it up to take a timed shot so that we could all be in it.  We were going to take a few more to be sure we got a good one, but these two teenagers showed up on a bench near my camera equipment.  They were putting off some seriously creepy vibes, and I suddenly got paranoid that they were going to steal my stuff the second I walked away from my camera to take a shot.

So I called it quits on the mini photo shoot and we headed back inside to take a quick picture in front of the only Eclipse poster in the theater.

Lame photo op's, great night!

Day 17: Camping

As promised, I will be doing two posts this evening to make up for the fact that I couldn't post anything yesterday while I was camping.

The night sky near Sundance.

I took this picture late last night after everyone else left to settle down in their tents.  The clouds were moving pretty fast, so even though I only exposed this shot for less than a minute, they look like they're exploding onto the frame!  This night shoot was such a contrast to the one in Moab.  First of all, we weren't that far from civilization, so even though it felt really dark out there, it wasn't.  Secondly, the moon was out and very bright. When we did our night shots in Moab, it was a new moon, so we had virtually no light to work with.

I love how sharp the trees are in this shot!  It was completely accidental that I hit the focus so perfectly because I had to manually focus the camera, and I couldn't see anything through the viewfinder.  Also, those clouds are stunning!  It was a great moment as well.  Just me and my camera in the middle of a field in the quiet night after a long, hot day. It was also super fun after the image had processed and I showed it to Steen.  We were both giggling with delight at how perfectly it turned out!

Day 14: Two Weeks Down!

I can't believe it took me this long to hit the two week mark! Hopefully the next 351 days will move faster.

Tonight at the temple.  I went a little crazy on the editing, but the exposure was off, so I had to cover it up with mass processing.

Tonight was weekly temple night, and Christine and I went to the Timp temple this time.  I love temple night!  It gives me a chance to really sit in quiet contemplation at least once a week.  It's a time when I have the chance to leave the world behind and really absorb the feeling of the Spirit.  I always come out of it recharged and recommitted to bettering myself and the world around me!

My goal this week: pay more attention.  It's so easy for me to zone out 90% of the time and just hyper focus on one thing or another, but I need to be better at paying attention to what is going on around me.  Not just pay attention, but act when I see action is needed.  It's really difficult for me, but I'm going to try my hardest.

Day 13: The Moon

The sliver of moon that I saw tonight was just a piece of the bigger picture.  Obviously we all know that the whole moon is still there even when it is out-shined by part of itself, but it didn't really occur to me how symbolic that was until tonight when I pulled this photo off my camera.  With the naked eye, this looked like a tiny piece of moon, but on a long exposure it pulls out the whole thing and makes the sliver look blurry and unimpressive.

That's how life is too.  We get so caught up in the moment that we forget to step back every once in a while, widen our gaze, and look at the whole thing...

Gain a little perspective.

Once we do, we'll realize that it's not just the tiny sliver of the moon that we should be looking at, but the entire orb, the stars, the satellites, the trees, and the sky.  And suddenly what was just a bright spot in our vision becomes a beautiful landscape full of potential and life!

Day 10: Moab, Part 1

So I'm in Moab tonight, and thank heavens we get free WiFi here so that I can keep my goal of posting every day.  We arrived in Moab just before sunset, and decided to take a walk before heading to dinner.  Cruising down main street, I almost passed this place before I realized what was hanging in the windows.  My first thought, "this must look really cool during the day," which I must have said out loud because someone then pointed out that it would still look cool with a flash.  So I took a quick shot, not expecting it to turn out.  Boy was I wrong!

A haiku: :
Oh, poor derelict
Creeping out with ghostly shapes
Please don't haunt my dreams

Day 4: Awesome!

I'm so proud of this shot!  I wanted to get a night shot, but failed to do anything until it was almost too late.  So, even though I was rushed to get something really fast (have to post this before midnight), I got the COOLEST shot of one of the trees in my neighborhood.  I even managed to capture a few stars in th background, which is pretty impressive for town.  My favorite thing about this picture: no post processing!  The only thing I did to this photo after I took it off my camera was to add my signature at the bottom.

Ok, I'm done being impressed with myself...for now.  It's so cool that I have the opportunity to do this project and to learn how to be a better photographer.  I love creating things, however small they may be, and to be able to create something pretty is even better.  It's moments like this that make me so grateful for the little things!