Lately at work

Lately at work I have seen...

- A boy of about 10 years old who pulled a condom out of his pocket. I gave him quite the look about it. He hadn't even hit puberty yet!

- A lady trying to talk to me in French, even as it was obvious I was only talking to her husband in English!

- A man who upon looking at a panoramic aerial photo of the town declared "It would be easier to get a photo like that in the winter." Me: "Mmm, not really, it would be too white from all the snow." Him: "Well, there are only 1 or 2 days a summer where it is really clear from all the smoke out there." Um...sort of? This summer it's been fog.

- A man with a crewcut and then a 1 inch wide strand of hair past his shoulders.

- A customer who was amazed that we have an earthquake you can feel about once a month. Totally astonished by that. But it's true! Check out my archives!

- In response to hearing about Man v. Wild and eating raw creatures, my boss said, "I'd eat sticks."

- A very unmanly man who told me about how lollisticks were the candy of choice in the 1800s. And then he answered his cell phone, "Good afternoon, this is Benjamin."

- A young teenager (13 - 15ish) who from the minute she came in kept talking and talking. We have a keychain rack with names on it. She was appalled to find her name was not listed. "They must not like Hispanic names." And as she walked away from the rack, she turned to me, "My name's Rosa!!" and waved at me. As she paid for her stuff, "I can't wait to get my permit!!" Little random!

- 1 type of candy we sell has white sprinkles on top. I was emptying out a tub of the candies and accidently grabbed a few sprinkles and they went flying all through the candy counter. That was fun :)

- A girl with neon green nail polish. Also, another lady with bright blue nails and her rings (with turquoise) matched her nails.

First Impressions: Art 367

Today I started my History of Photography class. This is the first class I have taken via Elive. It's an interesting setup, running class via audio and images. It's not a perfect tool, but it will do for what it is intended to do.

There are only 5 of us students for the class plus the instructor. And we're all females! Should be fun.

The professor seems pretty cool. She was a pro photographer for several years, but now she mainly just teaches.

The assignments are going to be fun, dealing with photography in our lives, and how it has affected culture, but there are a lot. A lot of busy work too. I should be prepared for it, I suppose.

All in all, it seems like it will be a decent class.

Now, if only the other professors would post syllabuses for the classes that start next week! I have no idea what is required of me for those ones yet.

End of Freedom

Well, it's that time of year again. The time when I start school, and yet am still working full time. I have been devouring novels this past week. There won't be time after tomorrow. (Although, I will make time. Ted Dekker's Green comes out September 1st, and I must read that.)

Today is my last day of freedom and it is chock full already. I go to work in 20 minutes, and work until 7, where I go straight to my small group. Tomorrow morning I start my first class. I have 4 more days to work this week and then...4? next week? I can't remember right now. Too many days.

I will also be working on my normal "weekend," meaning less time with C. But soon, I will only be working 2 days a week and then 1. I can't wait.

But I'm really not looking forward to giving up my reading time!

My 2nd HDR

Went back for the sunset on Thursday night. I think this one is fun :)

My First HDR

On Wednesday night, I created my first successful HDR photo! I finally was successful (after downloading numerous free programs that were really confusing) after reading this article. Hopefully it's helpful!

Fireweed and Fog

The fog was pretty intense on Tuesday. I took a shot of a fireweed stalk in front of the fog and clouds.

Twilight Flower Stalk

I don't know what this plant is, but I really like it :P

School Woes

You may recall that I was concerned that I would lose my scholarship due to the drama from this past semester (dropping a class, failing one). I put off contacting the school about it for several reasons, but the main one being that no one appears to be in charge in the scholarship department. Anytime I have attempted to talk to someone, no one really knows much about the scholarships, just that they exist, basically.

I finally shot off an email to the school on Saturday. Wednesday, I finally got an email back. I still have my scholarship! I am on "Academic Warning" from my GPA.

Upon learning this, I had to register for another class. I then ran into my next hurdle: there was a hold on my account because of this warning status. The hold had been in place since June 10. But no one had bothered to contact me to let me know about it. I would have not known it was there until I tried to access my UAonline account.

I emailed my advisor (a favorite professor) and told him the whole story. I came home from work Thursday night to a very pleasant email from him about it. He had intervened on my behalf and I was all good to go.

I have registered for my 5th class - Income Tax for Individuals, and purchased the expensive textbook ($128 from Amazon xP) and now I'm already for this coming Tuesday. Fall Semester 2009, here I come!

August Quake

Had a 4.95 earthquake yesterday. I barely felt it, but could see the things in the house swaying. I was waiting for it to get more intense, but it didn't.

Lensbaby Fireweed

Taken with my Lensbaby 2.0

Photo Wishlist

In trying to decide what gear I will need to really make a professional go of this "business" I have, I have been thinking a lot of about equipment I will need. Here is my current want list...

Lightroom 2.0 - I can get it inexpensively through my college stuff. Just haven't done so yet. I got to play with it the other day and it looks fantastic!

Canon 40D - Or maybe the 50D when it comes down to it. I will eventually need a different camera body. I have already hit some of the limitations of my Rebel. I will continue using this one for a while, though. I think I need to max it out on every aspect before I can begin to really look into the next jump. Of course, I'd love to jump up to the highest level of Canon camera, but that won't happen for a long time!

Remote - I got one for my Rebel that was not compatible with it. I have found 2 that I think are. I will do more research before I purchase, but I have my eye on a couple.

Canon 17-40 f/4L USM Lens - One of the least expensive L lens out there. This is my next goal to get.

Polarizing, Neutral Density, and Graduated Neutral Density Filters - I would have already bought each of these, but the L lens above does not take any of the same diameter filters as any of my other 3! And each of my 3 lens have a different diameter. Sure, filters aren't that truly expensive, but when you are buying 3 of each....it is! I'm trying to decide whether to wait until I get the L lens to invest in them, or get them now anyway. Any thoughts?

What's on your wishlist?

Lensbaby Spruce

Got my new Lensbaby 2.0 lens this past week. It's pretty fun to play with!

Get Off My Porch!

We live next to a daycare. Our neighbor that runs it is a bit touchy sometimes so we try to stay out of her way. The way our apartment is set up, the wall to her house is about 7 feet from our front door. Along the wall she has raspberry bushes growing.

Yesterday, I came home to find an old plastic jar (like a mayonnaise one) on our porch with the lid off. I glanced in to see some of the kids (apparently) had been picking some raspberries. All well and good, but why leave it on my porch?

As I looked into the jar, I saw the most disgusting and huge spider. It was green and brown, with a body sac literally the size of a dime. I watched it in horror trying to get out of the jar for about 20 seconds, me unsure what to do.

Finally deciding that I did not want that arachnid anywhere near my house, nor coming into it, I kicked the jar off my porch. The spider landed on the grass and I promptly squished it several times. The raspberries fell out too, but that's the price they pay for leaving it on my doorstep.

I don't know if the spider was in there because some kid thought it was cool, or if it came in on accident, but they will have to get over it. I don't care if this causes more issues with our neighbor; that spider was not staying on my porch!

Amazing Images

I have been slowly bookmarking several images to share and my folder is getting a bit large, so I figured it was time! (Sorry I don't have them embedded in this post)

Amazing Images
Let the Sunshine In - I love sunrays, and this one is just fantastic.
Moonlight - Incredible sunset and beach shot.
The Curious Kit - Adorable baby fox
Flowerpower - A polar bear in a field of fireweed. Awesome.
Selective Color - I really don't like selective coloring for the most part, but this one just seemed to fit.
Yellow - Fantastic shot of a little boy in the rain holding a yellow duckling.
.. Dreaming - Siamese cat with wide eyes :)
The Soul Drift - Sunset over a winding stream
Blue on Blue - A Scottish church building among trees.
My Quiet Place - The Lost Lens Cap - Jessica has been having some incredible images lately, but I think this is my favorite so far. The lighting is amazing!
Rain Through the Roof - Anil Kandangath - I had been looking into images shot into the rain and this one is really interesting to observe.

I hope these inspire you!

Moon

I will admit that I used Photoshop to make this image better. I used two images to get this shot. I really like how it turned out, though :)

Columbine

Taken last night in our yard

Best Tourist Quote

A friend posted this on her Facebook status last night.

Heard the best tourist question ever today....
Customer: "Y'all been havin' a drought here? I noticed the water level's real low."
Coworker: "That would be the tide, sir."

For those unaware, we have pretty extreme tides. This customer was out on the Spit, where the water level can be extremely close to the road or extremely far out. And even more ironically, it was pouring rain all day yesterday. How is that a drought? =)

A New Baby

If all flowers wanted to be roses, nature would lose her springtime beauty and the fields would no longer be decked out with little wildflowers. - Teresa of Lisieux

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I was approached by a friend to potentially take photos of the birth of her second child. I was a bit unsure (and honestly freaked out), but quickly decided I wanted to do it for them and I knew in the end that I would be happy that I had.

Last night, Mom-to-be called and told me she was thinking she was going into labor. I attempted to go to bed early, but my mind was too worked up to make much use of it. I had a fitful sleep, and ended up dreaming of babies being born all night long. I kept waiting for the phone to ring for the call to come. It didn't come.

When C got up at 7, I got up too. At 7:30, Mom-to-be called. I had missed the birth! They went to the hospital at 12am, and labor suddenly went extremely quickly. There was no chance of calling me, and Scarlett was born at 2:47AM.

I was disappointed to have missed it, but I was happy everything went extremely well and smoothly.

I went up to the hospital at 9 and spent some time and took a lot of photos after everyone was cleaned up, but not really rested. It was memorable nonetheless and I had fun taking photos!

Mom-to-be told me, "Next time, we'll call you when we leave for the hospital!"

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Today I saw at work...
A crossdresser (man) with red lipstick and manicured, french tipped fingernails. And, his head was shaved bald except for a small ponytail.

A married hippie couple. They were really cute, with an adorable pug. He had dreadlocks to his knees. They were both beautiful people and pretty cute together.

Fireweed Fields Forever

The fireweed is almost done blooming :(



Drove to a spot with a pond

The white spots were seagulls. Not too exciting!



Back to the original spot



That's all for this set!

House Changes

I have begun adding framed shots of my work to our green kitchen wall. It's been slow coming. The bigger 8x10 shot is not by me, but it soon will be replaced with a shot that is.

"Our" wall is growing. I added our Hawaiian caricature and a couple of green frames.

We recently picked up a black bookcase. I wanted it for books, but C thought it would be good for our sparse kitchen space. It is now a mini pantry.

The latest plant. It's still getting used to our house, so we'll see if it grows.

Here starts our latest endeavor. Last night, we ate this junky Betty Crocker practically premade cake sample I received in the mail.

This is what our living room has looked like for about a year, give or take a few things.

Last night, we moved the third computer desk out, leaving a wide open space next to the window. We then moved both C and I's computer desks. It ended up being a bigger project than I was expecting!

Now I am next to the window.

Don't mind the clutter. We haven't put everything back together yet. This is how it all looks now. The couch is still in place to watch shows and DVDs from C's computer.
My lovely desk. Don't be fooled, it won't be this neat for long. But now I can look outside the window all day long while I do homework. It will be great! Although it's already been a bit distracting, and the sunshine leaves a big glare on the desktop when it's streaming in. But I think it's a small price to pay.

C and I now have more room to work. It's a weird and strange change, but it's been good already.

Charred Remains

Just look at the weird shapes cut out of the tree.

These are from where the heart of the fire was in May.

Black and pink



I love the contrast of this one. Brown and black on the same trunk.





I love how even though fire is terrible, it still can have a beautiful after effect.

Matchstick trees

Those brown spots are where the bark has fallen off



There definitely were some strange shapes out there

At least 1 more post to come.

Horsey and Corgi

Last Wednesday, I went out East to take more fireweed photos.

There were horses....

And more horses...

And a Corgi!

A beautiful, smart dog

More pictures to come soon!