One last purple guy

Forgot this one! Every now and again something calls for a square crop, i think this was one of those times :) I typically tone down the greens in the background (adding some red and magenta to the green in a selective color layer), I didn't one this one. What do you think, is the GREEN too much?



I could use some "house selling" vibes from you all. We got our first offer on the house today, and countered this evening. We'll have an idea what's what tomorrow. I have a sneaking suspicion we may not be able to come to agreement with this buyer which makes me a little sad. It's weird living in this state of limbo, I think we've all come to terms with the idea of moving now that the house has been on the market for 6 weeks, and we're ready to begin the next phase in our lives.

Purple

Monkshood. Notice the shape of the flower, it really does resemble a monk's hood :)



Clematis:



and a ground cover from one of my neighbor's rockery. I think it is Campanula. I've got some tall spikey versions of this in my garden:

SUCCESS!

I drove out to the botanical garden this morning and sure enough, they had my glasses in their lost and found. YIPPEE! I am very happy!!!

And a few pics:

Delphiniums




I can't remember what these are called but I know Pat will know, she told me several times last spring but I forgot. She knows EVERYTHING plant related!



And she'll know what these are too I'm sure, she is a walking encyclopedia when it comes to gardening, seriously! The plant sends up a tall stalk large with a globe shape on the top (maybe 4" across) covered in all these teeny tiny blooms. I think it's related to the onion plant, I'm not sure:





and I think this one is another wild rose (like yesterday's picture):



I like the way only the one is in focus but you can still tell what the others are on this one:

Irritated

I went out to the botanical garden today to shoot for a little bit. It was a picture perfect day for shooting flowers, high clouds, but not heavy cloud cover, REALLY nice!

When I got home I realized I lost my glasses while out there. I had them hooked onto the front of my shirt at one point (I only need them for reading, etc) as I take them on and off constantly while shooting. I usually put them on the top of my head, but for some reason i didn't today. I'm pretty sure they fell off towards the end of my visit while I laid in the grass on my stomach to shoot some red flowers. I'll drive back over there tomorrow (half hour each way.....GRRR) and hopefully someone will have turned them in to the gift shop. Fingers crossed! In the meanwhile I'm wearing some random drugstore glasses that were laying around the house, but they give me a headache :(

One from today:

Pink tongue

S'mores licking her chops as she watched the birds in the yard the other morning. She loves to hunt. Thankfully, she hasn't brought us any for quite a while now (knock on wood).

They love me, they really love me....

otherwise they wouldn't do this, would they?



So, on my last post I was boo-hooing about our stinky weather this spring, right? The sun came out for Father's Day in a BIG way, yahoo! It was probably 70 degrees, and a picture perfect afternoon to spend at the zoo. At first (believe it or not) I wasn't going to bring my camera, but....after thinking it over a bit (and coming to my senses), of course I brought it.

Since it was Father's Day, I focused on taking pictures of our relatives ;)...







Happy spring (finally) to all you Pacific Northwesterners!

Sparkly

Look at that smile and twinkling eyes :)



and then I lost him...



Isn't it sad that its the middle of June and we are STILL wearing hoodies and fleece? Waiting for spring here in Seattle. Hopefully it'll come sometime before August......

Another headshots session

This is "L." She's off to Europe on the 25th, she's an opera singer. Pretty amazing stuff, I'm sure she'll have the time of her life! She went for classic black and white, this is the first image I have pulled off her session, I can't wait to see the rest! She has such an easy, comfortable and vivacious personality, plus I think she looks like she should be on the cover of a magazine, dontcha think?



I'm a little unhappy with the sharpness on this. I typically use my 105mm for headshots but decided to use my 85mm for this session. I think I need to send it off to be calibrated to my camera as I've noticed my theatre stuff (which I use the 85mm for almost exclusively) isn't as sharp as it was on my older camera as well. I've never sent a lens in before, but I'm hopeful it will do the trick.

I only cried once

Last night was C's graduation ceremony. I only cried once, during the processional. There was something about watching 400 kids, many whom I have watched grow up from a very young age, all dressed in their green and gold, walking out so full of JOY onto the football field while the band played Pomp and Circumstance. Wouldn't that make you cry too?!? I hadn't been in the high school football stadium since I was a student at C's school a few decades ago. All that combined just did me in.

However, I pulled myself together and was able to take in the last moments of seeing the kids all together. Ok, I'm getting teary-eyed just typing that. GRRRR!

I don't have any pics of C in his cap and gown yet. There is a reason for that! You see, C has a large head. Which is weird, cuz you'd never look at him and say; "oh my gosh, you have a LARGE head C." So, his cap wouldn't fit on his head (he got a lot of ribbing from his friends about it), and he had to get a larger size as he headed into the stadium last night. Oh, and I couldn't believe this...he is TOO good to me. He made sure that when he threw his cap, he watched where it fell so he would get his large size back just to make his snap-happy mom happy. I've trained him well! By the time is was over, and the parents made their way out (which took forever) the kids had to head off to their all-night party. So...he promises me - pics tomorrow!

I've pointed him out with my handy, dandy arrows - mainly for my family.





I AM NOW THE MOTHER OF A COLLEGE FRESHMAN (gulp)!

I have the hardest time with orchids

It seems like I can never get THE picture I see in my minds eye with the orchids at the conservatory. Now, it doesn't help that they are caged (literally) so I have to shoot through the bars. Plus, I can't move the plants around to isolate them from the other plants. However, you'd think I could get something good after trying several times. Not so much.

I'm still going to post a couple, and you don't need to do any ohhhing and ahhing over them because I know they're nothing special. I just want to post something today :)





Some day I would love to have a climate controlled little sun room where I could try growing them myself. I've bought a few over the years and I just can't keep them alive very long. On the other hand I gave my mom one a few years ago as a gift, she got it to bloom continuously for nearly 2 years...I kid you not! And she thinks she has a black thumb .

from another headshots session this weekend

This is E. She too is an accomplished singer/actor/dancer, though after spending time with her, it seems her heart lies with singing Jazz. She is also beginning the strenuous college audition process later this month.

I really enjoyed working with her. She's got a quiet elegance about her, besides looking much older than 16 years old, she's got the enviable "wise beyond her years" thing going on. And lucky me, she's another natural beauty with gorgeous, flawless skin and hair to die for.

Probably too smiley for a headshot, but I like this one:


and a little more serious:

Oh to be 17, and gorgeous, and oh-so talented!

Meet L. Gorgeous (this is a two minute edit, so yes, she is a natural beauty), and an immensely talented singer/actor/dancer. As a rising senior, she's just about to begin the whole (incredibly stressful but at the same time very exciting) college audition process that C went through this past year. I'm thrilled for her, I have a feeling she's going to have a very successful year and it'll be fun to see where she lands! Besides her perfect bow shaped lips, look at the whites of her eyes. They are naturally THAT clear and white and boy do they make her eyes just pop out at you!

I haven't had a chance to proof the images yet (hopefully tomorrow), but I wanted to send her a sneak peek after our session yesterday. I typically do not encourage having hands visible in headshot photos, however L wanted to try a few. I think it works in this one, though I'm not sure this will be the strongest of the lot, we'll see. I loved working with her, she had some very clear ideas of what she wanted and didn't want, and she's got a lot of spunk and a vivacious personality so it was a fun session :)



On another note, today was C's last performance of high school. While I won't get into details at the final curtain I got a little teary-eyed. It's hard for me to believe he'll never perform on stage again with all these kids he's become so close to the last four years. I'm sure the kids will shed a few tears themselves at the party tonight as well. It's a time of big change for them all (and us as well). After 15 years of being involved in his schooling it is time for us to let go...