Inspiration and other stuff I complain about...

Blogging is hard.

And since I last blogged really regularly Picasa's online albums have switched over to Google+ which wants me to share my pictures with Google+ which I don't like AND don't use and now Picasa doesn't have the handy dandy share button that lets me copy what I'm embedding and although I USUALLY figure it out from Blogger I'm not positive of the procedure and it makes me cranky to try. (Did you read that all without taking a breath?  That is how I wrote it...so if you didn't...go back and read it again.  No breath.)

And I've been busy.

And the gate to my fence broke and now I can't get the trash cans out or the mower in.

And I've been planning stuff...all kinds of stuff.

And my friend bought a cooler planner than me on the very same day that I bought my planner  and now I want hers and not the one (well ONES) I bought.  AND she's moving far far away...soon.

And I got a new laptop and a new operating system and we aren't exactly on speaking terms right now.

And...Blogging is hard.

A month or so ago, a friend of mine suggested that I read "The Artist's Way" by Julia Cameron.  Great book.  You should read it, too.  I'm not done with mine yet...but I'm far enough in to say, "glad I'm reading it."

Anyway, "The Artist's Way" is one of those challenging books that requires you to think about the stuff you are doing...have done...and then consider that maybe there is more inspiration in your life than you are using.  As you do the things the author suggests, you start discovering more inspiration. 

Sounds great, right?  Sure enough.

And it was.  For a few weeks...it really was.

I was blogging a lot.  Singing a lot.  Reading.  Cooking.  Planning.  Cleaning. 

And then, as always ALWAYS happens...the spontaneous inspiration died. 

Part of it is my issues with people.  Yep, me, the friendly one, I have issues with you all.  It makes no sense to WRITE this out-loud on a public blog, but as much as I like to stand up and write and talk and sing with and in front of people...I have a huge issue when people notice.  And it's worse if they like what I'm doing.  And inspiration KILLING if they know me well enough to look me right in the eye.

It's performance anxiety of the worst kind.  I'm not afraid to DO stuff.  I'm afraid that you'll NOTICE and have any opinion.  Super weird quirk, if you ask me.

Anyway...so less than 3 weeks into the book...people that love me started noticing that I was doing some of this stuff...and complimented me.  So I quit.  Because, y'know, that's the logical thing to do when you find a little bit of success in something...quit immediately...solves ALL the problems of the world.  PPPFFFFFTTTT.  Sometimes I get so tired of myself.

All of those words to say...I'm challenging myself and I'm inviting you along for the ride.  I'm learning to write.  I'm a beginner in this art and any talent that I may currently possess is completely God-given.  Other than teaching my children, I've never studied this craft...I've never written long enough to get past the inspiration killers.  To write when I didn't feel like it, about things I may not be passionate about is part of the challenge.  To write ANYWAY, regardless. 

I think that figuring out how to write regardless of inspiration might be a key for me to do other things beyond my circumstances.  I'll tell you, I think this might be a rung on this ladder out of depression for me.  But, I really like to hide when I feel like too many people are looking, because watching TV is far less judgy.  And I'm talking about ME here people, I get judgy on myself if you are looking.  And I'm MEAN.

So, I'm TRYING to write anyway.

(There's a statement that is going to come back and bite me.)

So expect me to.  And when the post goes badly or weird...know that I'm just learning.  I'm learning to write.  I'm learning to let people into my strange little head and I'm learning to focus on the writing and not necessarily on what other people think about it.  So think to yourself, "She's gotta learn,' and PLEASE keep reading...keep commenting...keep looking me in the eye.  Eventually, I'll be able to look back. 

Right now, I think I'm gonna figure out the stupid picture thing...please hold...I even have an analogy...are you ready?

Okay...so I like the sky...and I was taking pictures of the clouds and when I pulled the pictures into Picasa I pushed the little "I'm feeling lucky" button.  The resulting picture made me super happy.  The sky was vibrant blue the clouds puffy white.  Now, I'd liked the original picture...it looked JUST like what God gave me...but with a VERY little help, the picture got better.  That's what I want to happen with my writing...I like it very much when I'm inspired, it's beautiful, but I want to learn more, practice more, to tweak it into something better.

Sigh...we will be working on analogies...Here, why not look at these clouds...

Pretty, huh?

 

Vibrant-er, huh?

 

 

Well, like it or not, I'm doin it anyway!  ;)

See ya around...

Falling in love again...can't help it...

Yep...it's another new camera post.  I can't help it.  It's pretty slow around here and treasure like this REALLY pulls my attention and makes me want to play and play.  As it's a school day...playing opportunities are not quite as abundant as I'd like...but I've got these little models that I can snatch away from almost ANY planned thing...and they'll stand there all cute like...

For instance...my second child...my lil sunshine girl...she turned 9 last week, maybe you didn't know.  Anyway, for her birthday she received a ball of yarn and a crochet hook and the promise that her friend would teach her to crochet.  So she brought said ball of yarn and crochet hook to church on Sunday and sat cross-legged on the floor between services with her creative little friend and the two of them taught my Bear to chain.  And then she CHAINED, by crackie.

So I took this picture of her...the first one is STRAIGHT out of the camera...her eyes looked so pretty I thought I'd bump the saturation a skosh...I was right...TOTALLY made me happy.

  

Then there is this house...


Monkey Face got this house sometime after Christmas because it was on sale for 5 bucks...and I thought it might keep her busy for two minutes put together...



But...it's been in pieces stuffed over by the piano since shortly after she got it...because it wasn't finished....or so I thought.  The reality was they'd gotten tired of trying to color the ginormous thing with the 8 sad little markers that kept running out of ink.  (What is with the tired markers that come in these things?  I mean I got it for 5 dollars but somebody else bought it for $19.99...doesn't $19.99 warrant some REAL markers? ... But I digress)

So because I just knew that if I set it up they'd play in it and maybe they'd be cute er sumthin...and then I could pull out my new camera and snap-ety snap away...I set it up.  Ulterior motives laid bare...it's sad really. 

And I was right...I did get a couple of cute shots...but I found something else out about my new love.  I found out it doesn't work the same as my old one...SHOCKING, I know. 

Case in point...these two pictures...same location...same shot...(well, except the kid ducked)...the only difference was the flash.  Now my old camera would flash and light the foreground target and drop the bright background a bit...this one...everything went dark.  Intriguing really.  Can't wait to figure out what setting is making it so. 

  

Something else about this shot...it's wider than my old camera would take...

I like it.

See ya around...

WOO HOO! And there was GREAT rejoicing...

Oh my goodness, it's been awhile.  Let's see...well, my camera has been giving me FITS for months and months...sometime late last summer the lens started to grind whenever it moved.  Right at first it didn't cause any problems...other than to my psyche as I had to listen to that awful noise.  But as time went on...it got worse...pretty soon the lens began catching and having a hard time moving at all.  Sometime in November it became virtually unusable.

Which brings me to my post.  I got a new camera today.  It's basically the grandchild of my old camera which I loved so well...a Cannon Powershot SX40 (not to put too fine a point on it)...I hope that we will become very good friends.

I haven't had much chance to get to know it yet...but I have taken a few pictures...for instance our 1st and 3rd grader's memory verse for the week...


And then there was the dry erase marker that was just sitting there waiting to have it's picture taken as all dry erase markers do...(um and shoelaces)...


And last but not least...an incredibly hazy reflection...


I think it's pretty obvious that I'm out of practice and that I probably need to bring up my game...but it is SO nice to play with a camera that doesn't growl at me...

See ya around...

Me and Photography...

I've never been what could be considered a photographer. Actually, until I had kids, I wasn't even much of a picture taker.

But recently...I've been exploring my camera. Ever since I started reading Pioneer Woman and discovered her blog of tutorials on Photoshop and photography in general, I've gotten more and more interested. However, for the most part, I don't have the time or the inclination to sit down and really READ my manual. (I blame my past, I was an MCSE, after all, and a computer hardware girl beside...we don't READ to set up things unless it's to teach a class or pass a test...and we CERTAINLY don't look at the manual FIRST.)

But I have been learning in short bursts. Taking one thing and looking it up. Mucking about a bit. Then back to auto-point-and-shoot. Then some picture will catch my eye...or a new tutorial...and I'll take 3 minutes to see what my manual says about THAT. Then off I go again.

This makes for TONS of pictures that don't FIT anywhere...like this set from the other day...First I took it on auto...then flipped it to manual because I wanted to see the ripples...then after changing the shutter speed (ISO) and time value finally got close to what I was looking for. Of course, I'm not showing you the 6 other pictures I took as I got to where I wanted. PTL for digital photography technology, eh?



Or these two shots that simply show the difference between auto and manual/vivid...I was actually surprised at the difference...it's pretty subtle...but it's there...



Or my tiny foray into macro-photography...where else would I ever use this picture?



I stood in my kitchen the other day while the girls dyed paper towels and played with ISO (shutter speed...I think...it would have been film-speed on my old camera)...I discovered how much closer to the same light you are seeing without using a flash that you can get with this button. For instance, the first two are too light (used the flash) and too dark (no flash)respectively...The last two looked the same in the camera as what I was seeing with my eyes (I was standing with the bright window behind me and I think it was set at 400)...




I'm started to ENJOY taking pictures a little more. I'm starting to notice pictures out in the world that would be fun to take if only I could control my camera a little better. I'm even having better luck with first time straight out of the camera shots that actually LOOK like what I'm seeing...



Now if only I could figure out Photoshop. Oh how I miss my friend, The Camera King, who is always available by phone but of course knows FAR more than I know to ask him. Oh how I WISH that I'd studied less TCP/IP and more Photoshop...Guy, Gina, Dan...sorry I missed your classes...

Oh well...it'll be 2095 before I get all the way through this manual...but at least I found a place for a few of these extra pictures. PHEW!

See ya around...