pictures {{groan}}

oh the good and bad of pictures. The good (the memories, the documentation of Life) and the bad (the fact that I have to take a picture of each slide and scan every picture) but it will be so worth it. Then I can share such gems as the following few........

just before I had Paul in 1979

Ian didn't really want his picture taken!

this guy was such a clown.

were they ever that little? Yup. My newborn firstborn. 

As if I don't have enough projects. But this one's really important. Boxes of pictures that are deteriorating by the day and slides and no slide projector. So I'll just keep plugging along.

September begins

September already. New photo challenge--will add them as I take them.

 Morning - a picture that is taken in the morning, like you in the mirror when you first get up! Or not!

My dad in the morning. Taken with my phone on "sepia" which I wasn't trying to do. But I liked the way it turned out.

"S" for September - anything that starts with the letter, 'S.'

sedum. And no I have no idea what variety. I used this same sedum once before when it was full of water. I liked that one a lot better. But this one's interesting too.

Sad, smoky sunset... and a reflection in the water running down the street during a drought. In Placerville, lawns are not being watered, everything is brown and tinder-dry. In Lodi, people are still watering with abandon although we have been told to conserve. However, posting this reminded me that there was a hose trickling on the lawn this evening, so better go check and see if I'm being a hypocrite.

Inside out (color-wise) cactus SPINES

right side out cactus spines.

Reflection - we've done this before and it's time to revisit it.

Over My Head - everything from Combinatorics (high math) to the moon and stars.

over my head. This was a surprise. The outside of the tree is dead and brown. It was a shock to see the inside so green. Gave me some hope that the tree might live through this dry, dry spell.   This tree is at Gold Country in Placerville.

this was over my head. But on the window. He begged me to take his picture.

   

otherworld

Having fun with filters on my phone, due to my daughter and HER experimenting. This one is my favorite.

doesn't it look like some kind of alien place? It's just my front fern bed. The driftwood really looks cool.

This has been a quiet Sunday. Started very early with an earthquake, not strong here, but it got my wind chimes going in the front hallway and woke me up. I grabbed my computer to see what I could find out and got the Blue Screen of Death.... so my day was spent running diagnostics, both on my computer and on the one hubby's son gave us that he was having problems with. I found viruses on his, but who knows what was going on with mine, everything came out perfectly and no more blue screen. Makes me nervous though. Was it a fluke, or is the end near for my poor computer?? So that's when I decided to stop focusing on the computer issues and take some pictures. So there you are.

Photo Challenge for August

So. What do this pictures have in common? Hmmm. Might have something to do with a challenge.

The first one is pretty silly. Just the address numbers on the wall of a blue house. But the webs caught my eye. I originally thought that the black dot was the spider, but I think it was Arachnid Dinner. So much for the letter A. But it does look blue, and it's on a wall. Maybe I can rationalize that as fitting the challenge!

I really like this second one. The clouds and reflections are just perfect. The angler in the foreground and his red shirt added just the right amount of color. Taken with my PHONE. Crazy. Sometimes I get good stuff that way. Lodi Lake is also the site of many childhood memories. My mom and I would go swimming there almost every day in the summer. I also spent a lot of time there wandering.

This arrow is just on the road at Lodi Lake. I've been thinking a lot about camera angles to make the picture more interesting. It did kind of make it the focal point of the picture....

San Francisco always holds childhood memories, we went there every few years. Pier 39 is of course a more modern commercial thing and we didn't go there. The flag shows how windy it was that day, A lovely cool respite from the valley heat.

The owners of the place my parents live have decided to Upgrade their landscaping. This was a pretty grouping.My thinking always goes to things getting stolen. There's been other stuff taken from the public courtyard. these are pretty pots.Sigh. It isn't my problem of course. I just remember things getting stolen off the porch when I lived in Stockton.

New construction in San Francisco. There's the angle thing again, it makes it interesting. And notice the accidental letter A down in the corner. :)

isn't recognizable. But it's blue.

Another site of childhood memories. And lots of As. I also have spent time in the Art and Artists store. In high school, the A&W was a favorite teen hangout. Seems to me the same people still hang out there.

The beautiful blue sky and clouds reflected in the water at Lodi Lake. The Muscovy (?) adds a bit of movement and color.

This automobile was part of a display at a store in Lodi. Its shiny blue-purple-silver paint caught my attention.

I can imagine myself driving this one. Snazzy yet elegant. I can also imagine the gas mileage but it sure would be fun. 

Another beauty. This one's for sale if you can find it! It's at Street Rods Plus on  Cluff St. in Lodi. 

Back to San Francisco. Cupid's Bow (and Arrow!) at the edge of the Embarcadero.

So now I get to choose three to submit to the challenge. I'll probably take some more pictures before then though.  It's been a hard year. I haven't entered much. But hey it's ok. At least I got some taken this month. ;)

The challenge:

- "A" for August -  Let us see something that begins with the letter, "A."  

- Reminds Me of Childhood -   Toys, vintage photos, places, faces, etc.

- Something Blue -  I think we've done this before, but let's do it again.

- On the Wall -  Have fun shooting outside or inside. Just make sure your subject is on a wall.

Sweetie

My main creativity for the last few days involve singing silly songs, making faces, dancing with and otherwise being occupied by a certain sweetie. I have been zentangling, but nothing noteworthy, or worthy of being shared. I have also spent a bit of time at my son in law's keyboard, making bad music. It was limited to trying to sight read stuff I used to know. Very sad, but inspiring to get back to regular playing.

Going back home tomorrow, sadly, will miss my daughter and my son in law. And the sweetie. As every grandma knows, mostly the sweetie.

Nothing against you, darling daughter or spectacular son in law. But there's nothing better than snuggling with your sweetie...

Pictures! I took lots of them. This one's my favorite. For now. 

flowery delight

Well Dave's Photography Challenge this month is flowers. I don't have time to edit them and submit them so am just putting them here since I want to. LOL

First the obvious lovelies...

	Grandma's yard has TONS of poppies this year. I am really enjoying them.
Roses are always a favorite both to grow and to photograph... and this is one of my favorite roses.

And then there are the ones that we usually miss...

	while out pulling weeds, I saw this... and remembered Dave's challenge. There was a ladybug crawling around but when I tried, it got away too fast. Didn't want to bug the bug, LOL
I love the color of this one. Soft peach. Too bad it is a weed in the garden. Maybe I will just leave it there...

no sewing. grr..

well no sewing got done. Planning for tomorrow. Hoping for tomorrow. Praying. Did take down the tree and put it outside. Was exhausted by the time I finished.  This looks like a tiny tree but it really is in the background. I love the lights and am glad I took lots of pictures.

photog.

I remember a friend in high school who always signed his name with photog. at the end. I have no idea if he ever became a professional photographer, but I remember admiring him carrying around a camera trying to get that Perfect Picture. I carry around a camera, because I have this urge to capture things in pictures.

Recently I found out that I was not as successful as I thought at keeping my kitty out of the kitchen windowsill.

Also recently, I discovered that Google has a photo editing software called picnik

Here both discoveries have been documented... I like it and I don't. I like the pic, but not the fact that I am still buffaloed by a silly kitty who likes to get on the windowsill and eat my plants.

Back to the drawing board, as it were.

Get your art on...hopeful but difficult

I got through this day, but it did not include any art. I did make a delicious dinner. LOL it was mostly yellow. Yellow corn, yellow squash, and lemon pudding... of course other stuff. So that is art, right???

Speaking of yellow, I participated in a Yellow contest. It was fun thinking about yellow.I had such glorious sunflowers this year.

so, although I didn't get any Art done at least I was thinking in that direction. Hope tomorrow has a bit of Free Time in it. Might just get out the paints with my mother in law. That was I'm multi-tasking. Wish I had thought of that today....

oh the joys of too much on my plate. Art gets shoved to the side because my poor brain is somewhat fried. Every day I hope to do something and every day I just don't. Sigh.

I am so EXCITED!!

For a long long time, I've wanted to scan some slides I have. We even bought a special scanner to do the job, but it took so long it was very discouraging. Today I was trying to scan some using these instructions:

http://www.abstractconcreteworks.com/essays/scanning/Backlighter.html

but for some reason my scanner would only scan black and white. Frustrating. Today, I read an idea to use a high-quality digital camera and take a picture with it backlit. I thought, how about holding it up to a white place on the computer screen? and although all I have is a Canon power shot, I tried it....

and guess what, IT WORKED!!

It took a bit of experimenting to figure out how close to hold it, and I think I will set up some kind of thing to hold it while I shoot, but this way I can do a lot more than the scanner that takes forever.... so yes I am excited!! So is my mother in law, who owns a TON of slides. We're going to have to be choosy. But this picture is so good... :)

a different kind of creating....

I have to admit this is not my usual type of creating. I got the cat this cube and can't believe how much she likes it... and how much I enjoy teasing her to pop out of it. This was fun to do. :)