Approach of Fall

At the beginning of the year, I told myself that I would blog every day. I did really well, though rarely posting anything of substance, until this week. It occurred to me yesterday morning that I should check on the blog, but procrastinated until I finally checked just now. Um, wow, 4 days? Oops!

I was out wandering in the yard last week when I found this heart shaped yellow leaf. I grinned in delight at how pretty it was and stamped out the distress that fall is rapidly on its way.

I am admittedly concerned about how winter will treat us in our new house and new location. Our driveway is a bit treacherous. Will I be able to keep the temperature low enough without freezing or spending our savings on fuel oil? But at the same time, I adore fall now. So much photographic potential. I am excited to make snowmen in my yard. I have a porch with a railing that I can string garland and Christmas lights on if I want.

I am excited for the possibilities :)

You know you're married to a photographer when...

C was making a sandwich and I glanced over and exclaimed over it: "Stop! That looks so appetizing! Let me put that in the light tent and take a pic before you continue!" Poor guy :)

Swing Portraits

I was stuck at the park by myself for a long and drawn out reason, and decided to take some photos of myself as I swung on the swings!

It's been a while since I had time to just swing for the enjoyment of it!

I miss playground days!

Massive Clouds

Big. fluffy clouds make my day! This was taken on the beach, looking up at a trail and the big clouds!

Lovely Sky

I was intrigued a couple weeks ago by the brilliant blue sky and white fluffy clouds, and went a little crazy taking photos, when I had another task to do.

Well worth it, I think!

Lily

My in laws have this cat with a really strange personality, and one aspect of that is that she does not like to be cuddled at all.

Which is so unfortunate, because she is one of the softest kitties I know.

And she is very pretty :)

FIreweed and Buttercups

The fireweed is creeping up toward the top of the stalks now.....Summer is sadly coming to a close..

Fireweed Shoot!

It is a really wet morning outside today, so my way of coping is to look at the pictures I took just a couple evenings ago...

 I drug C out of the house to a close field of fireweed in the evening light.

I think most kissing shots are rather silly and obnoxious, but I couldn't help but take/share this one.

Then I had C try to take photos like I wanted him to.

It didn't quite work, and I wasn't about to lay back down among the bugs for a second round! It has gotten harder and harder to convince C that we need to do photoshoots every so often, but I keep managing most of the time :)

Gull Island Trip, July 2011

It's a month after I took this trip, but here is the recap finally!

The Tustumena, the ferry

I decided to take this trip by myself, which I was not too concerned about. When I am shooting, other people are a distraction to me. It would have been fun to have another person there to chat with, but it was fine. I hadn't counted on the boat being as tiny as it was, nor the other "exciting" things that happened!

Land's End Resort

First of all, we were waiting for a party of 8. The party made us late, and only 5 of the people showed up after making the rest of wait. They ended up being grumpy, hardly participating at all, and 3 of them never got up from their seats, preferring to play on their phones instead!

A view out my window of the waves crashing along the boat!

In the stress of getting the latecomers on, the deckhand helping out (who I knew) fell into the harbor, and so we had a different deckhand on board than was planned! 30 minutes after we were supposed to get started, we finally left the harbor!

Cormorants and a gull at 60 Foot Rock

I could tell as soon as we got out of the harbor that it was a bit choppy out in the Bay. Sure enough, there had been a storm in the Gulf of Alaska 3 days before, and it was just making its way into the Bay. So, a small boat + big waves = unsteady shooting conditions. We made our way to 60 Foot Rock first, where we came across the only sea otter I managed to get some photos of.

We departed and headed into Sadie Cove for a while. It was much calmer in there, but much less that I was interested in shooting. We spent a good deal of time in the Cove, stopping for 3 bald eagles way up in the trees and on the cliffs.

Sadie Cove

It's always gorgeous across the Bay.

After a while, we finally made our way to Gull Island and all the birds to be found there: Gulls, puffins, cormorants and murres.

Poot's Peak and the beautiful greenish ocean water

Birds everywhere.

Waves crashing onto the rocks created a temporary waterfall!

Murres

Murre

 

Love the color of the water!

End of the Spit from Gull Island

Puffin!

Homer hillside

 After what I considered too little time at Gull Island, we turned back toward the Spit for our return journey!

Back in the harbor!

I'm pleased with the photos I ended up with, and the trip was definitely memorable!

Amazing Chocolate Cookies

C found this recipe for cookies the other day that we promptly made. I think they are my new favorite cookie. So delicious! We put mint chips on top, but I want to try peanut butter and butterscotch ones as well!

Golden Grass

As sunset time approaches, the light turns a delicious golden color that I just can't get enough of. I oftentimes cannot capture it in a satisfactory way, but I always try!

I really should learn to take portraits in this light....too bad C is uncooperative a lot of the time :)

Goat on Steps

There are days when I see the most random things, and am so happy that I already have my camera out and ready to go. Hello, random goat!

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I had an adventure a couple weeks back, that I really don't want to repeat! I went up the road to go shopping with a friend and her two daughters (3 and 1). I have made several trips with them in the past and knew I would be on partial babysitting duty. We took my friend's truck, and everything was fine until we were ready to leave town about 3:45pm. Someone let us know that both of the brake lights were out! Cue frustration, and confused children. We spent an hour at Napa, where various people looked at the truck and tried different things, only to rule out most of what could be wrong.

Thank goodness for portable DVD players! The kids were fine for the most part, and so at 5pm, we decided that we had to head home, lights or no lights. The kids fell asleep on the way, but we had one more stop to make 40 miles from home. Everything was fine until we were about to leave there, when the gear shifter refused to work. We finally got it to cooperate (turns out it is related to the brake light problem!) but not before the baby started to wail. She proceeded to scream and cry for the next 20 miles.

It was such a relief to get back into town, but when we pulled in next to my car....I had a flat tire! It was quite amusing in the end, but not so much at the time!

Pastel Serenity

I'm not sure what it is about this image that fills me with peace and contentment, but I like it! Is it calming to you as well?