Saturday, February 6, 2010

The Anniversary Gift

My husband got me an amazing gift for our anniversary this year. As of January 6th we've been married for three years. Now that the studio room is getting somewhere I feel like I can share this. The gift that he had made for me is perfect for the room and it is one of the best gifts I have ever received.














It is a wooden box, a beautiful wooden box. I love the finish on the outside and it even has a spot for me to place a label. I will probably spend months agonizing over what I should label it. That's half the fun.




















I haven't completely decided what I will keep in it, but this is what is residing in it for now: a Moleskine Reporter, a couple of Moleskine Cahiers, ink pad, stamps, and my Diana+. That poor camera doesn't get enough love, but at least she can feel special sleeping in my lovely box, although it probably feels more like a casket to her.














The inside smells heavenly and I love that it has slots so that I can easily make adjustments for whatever I finally decide I want to keep in it.
Let's hear a round of applause for my husband for thinking outside of the box! :)
You did well dear.

Friday, February 5, 2010

empty me



















Sometimes negativity can take such a stronghold on your mind that you need to take a moment to flush it out.

Yesterday was great and I let nothing get the best of me. Right after leaving the office I got to work with painting the studio room. Every time I heard the humming of a vehicle a block away I hurried to the window to see if the UPS man had arrived. No I am not being sexist. A UPS man delivers my packages and I gleefully accepted the package he gave me, when he finally arrived.

My new Canon 50mm f/1.4 lens was contained beneath B&H's printed packaging tape. I was very pleased with my upgrade from Canon's 50mm f/1.8 lens. That is until the heart sinking Error 99 flashed before my LCD screen. Sometimes it would show up, sometimes it would not. Then the auto focusing on the lens stopped working.

I was not alone in this. I tried a few of the suggestions I found online.
Turning off the camera and removing the battery.
Using an eraser on the lens' contacts and the camera's contacts.
Taking a peek behind the camera's mirror.
One suggestion said to remove the lens, remove the CF card, and charge the camera's battery. But I had recently charged my battery and it was still nearly full. Why would I bother?

Still, I felt compelled to charge that battery. The only problem was that I couldn't find the charger!

First I checked the most obvious place, my camera bags. No luck.
I rummaged through the junk drawer.
I started looking through the piles I had made in the spare room. I was finally able to see the bare tops of flat surfaces, but a camera charger was nowhere beneath them.
Window seat bench? No.
Spare closet? Nu uh.
I found myself becoming increasingly angry with myself. Why was I so unorganized?!
I started to look through each and every one of my bags. I have a lot of these.
Nowhere to be found.

That was the last straw.

I had to stop and tell myself that the only way I was going to find it would be if I just settled down for a moment. Maybe praying about it would help. Yeah. That might help. Maybe I could ask God to tell me where it is was. Maybe He would answer me. Probably not, but it couldn't hurt, right?

I asked God to help me find my camera charger.
"Check your bags."
Ugh! No God. I already did that. They weren't in my bags! Frustrated, I hesitantly picked up my bags one by one and looked inside of them.
Not in here.
Not in that one either, God.
By now my arm was getting weighed down and I wandered around looking for a place to hang up my bags. I realized that such a place does not currently exist in my house, which is why they were in a huge pile in the first place.
I continued picking up bags and checking their contents. By the time I picked up all of my bags there was something small staring up at me from the floor, my camera's battery charger.
Seriously. I have no idea how it wound up way down there, beneath bags I haven't used since this summer, but I was thankful to have found it.

My mood lightened a little, but there was still no guarantee that my camera was going to work right with my new lens. I was disappointed that I had so quickly sold my similar lens.

I didn't really pray about my camera problems this morning, it was much more like begging and pleading with God.

I inserted my CF card, put in my freshly charged battery, and twisted my troublesome lens on my camera while crossing my fingers in my mind. I powered up my camera and pressed down the shutter button while wincing. I looked at my LCD screen. It took a picture! Wait, it might be a fluke though. I quickly snapped another picture. HOT DOG! Ok, let me try again.
And again.
and again.
I've tried it again at least 200 times now without any problems.

So maybe technology really does work some of the time, and maybe God really does answer prayer all of the time.
It probably wouldn't hurt to try.

Friday, January 22, 2010

making my own sunshine.

Thinking away the grey...

It is Friday and I am not at the office. :D
French-pressed coffee. (I'm thinking a Round 2 might be nice.)
I scanned my new slides! *faint*
Listening to "I am Young" by Coconut Records, on repeat.
There's a new Missed Connection (Throat Tattoo) and it isn't quite like her usual works, but it is amazing nonetheless!
The Studio Room is seeing some progress! (Soon I will have copious amounts of free time and I can go wild on the room, just like I did with the bedroom last year. CAN'T WAIT.)

So yes, even the sky is grey and I have made a mess of my body with poor nutrition, too much caffeine, not enough exercise, and a lot of anxiety, I am still feeling pretty great!

Sunday, January 10, 2010

And the winner is...

I told myself that I would draw a winner at random on Sunday. As it turns out, today is Sunday. The wait is over!

I wrote each one of your lovely names on a Post-It note, which Nick drew at random from a hat. After reading the name he said "That's not any fun. Best 2 out of 3!" I said, "No! We have to be fair!"


And the winner is...

Mike Knudsen.
Thanks everybody for playing and reviewing 2009 with me! :)

Monday, December 28, 2009

favorite photos of the year (+print giveaway)

Looking back on 2009 is easier for me to do when I have photographs to remind me of the highs and lows. Below are some of my personal favorite pictures that I took in 2009. I have at least 3 cameras that still have rolls of film in them, so naturally those photos are not being included. :)

As a special thank-you for everyone's wonderful support this past year (love you all) I will randomly select a winner to receive a free print! Leave me a comment and tell me which one of my pictures from 2009 is your favorite. I will randomly select one person to receive their favorite as a print. I will choose a size that I think will best reflect the nature of the image. You are not limited to the choices in this post, so be sure to visit my flickr photostream to pick your favorite. Leave the photo's link in the comments and if you're on blogger please leave your e-mail address too so I may contact you if you win. You have until January 2nd, 2010 to enter.

Be on the lookout for the full launch of my photography website in 2010. Thanks and have a Happy New Year!

My personal favorites:

in a room without a view

mauled

crossing over.





hush