chairs about town

My cat, Lucy, sitting anywhere but in one of the 300 chairs in this room.

In other news, I will be out of town this weekend, so while my posting will be suspended, hopefully I'll snap some cool photos. I'll post when I get back.

rainy day croquet

Today I tried to take pictures of ordinary objects.

I thought about cropping this a little differently, but kept going back and forth. I'm still not 100% sure I made the right choices, but I cropped it with a little more on the sides than I originally wanted because I've made the mistake in the past of cropping without taking into account the amount of space mats take up and have been screwed when going to frame something.

happy national s'more day!

I did not mean to have two S'more related posts so close together, but it was brought to my attention that today is National S'more Day. How could I let that go with out a word?

yeah, i'll keep him

This is photographic evidence of one of the rare instances in which Cooper is worn out.

summer morning on the farm

sprouts of happiness

While it's no Central Park, St. Louis' City Garden is a bright spot downtown, and a promise of how vibrant and inviting St. Louis could become if we commit to its development.

two guesses as to how i'm spending my saturday night...

Laundry sucks. Here's why:

• The one good thing that can be said for doing laundry might be the fact that while it's washing and drying, you don't have to actually do anything. But you do. You have to wait. You can't leave the house - it might burn down! (that happened to a friend of mine) Sure you can do other things around the house, but you are still at the machine's beck and call. You are its bitch.
• The washer and dryer do not take the same amount of time. It just seems so inefficient. I could wash two loads in the time it takes to dry one, but then I'd have wet piles of laundry hanging around, so there's no point.
  
• The dryer buzzes and you are elated, then you remember you still have to fold/hang the clothes and put them away. Or: dryer buzzes, no elation, decide you'll get laundry at the next commercial break, forget about it, later find all your dry clothes wrinkled and your wet clothes mildewy, curse yourself for not just pressing "pause" on your TiVo, decide to rewash everything because you don't own an iron. This process may or may not repeat.
  
• The dryer is now empty, everything is clean, put away, and your bed sheets smell like linen breeze (or fragrance free in my case), and you think "This was worth it," and you change into your pajamas, dropping the clothes you were wearing into the f'ing laundry basket; it's a viscous cycle.
  

toaster oven s'more

You all know how I feel about s'mores (I love them), but it's been too hot to even consider going camping around here, so I haven't had any all summer. Last night I decided to try to make a s'more in the toaster oven. While better than most people's attempts to make the treat, it still was not perfect, but it did satisfy my craving.

water plants

Last night I went for a nighttime stroll around my neighborhood, and I stopped off at the farmer's market. I know they'd go out of business if it was vacant all the time (which would be bad), but it was really peaceful to be there alone at night.

I really like taking photos at night, but I don't really know how to do it well. They usually are out of focus, and lighting is problematic. I'm still learning how to use my camera, and I'm sure there are better settings I could use to get better shots, but I still need to figure that out. Any pointers?

the lucky duck

if you take my cell phone, you will kill my child!

Last night I had the opportunity to see an advanced screening of the movie 30 Minutes or Less. I get these passes occasionally through a pretty awesome website (gofobo); it's a great way to see movies for free if you are willing to put up with some inconveniences (like arriving at the movie nearly an hour early to ensure your seat). I am willing to put up with minor inconveniences because I love movies, and I am cheap.

Another inconvenience that free moviegoers sometimes have to endure is giving up their cell phones. The studio of the movie makes this decision, and it is a preventative measure against piracy attempts. When faced with this, you have three choices: you can either leave your phone in the car, check it (like a coat check for phones), or decide not to see the movie. Whenever this happens, people grumble. I can understand a little grumbling, especially if you are there alone and you have an hour's sit awaiting you before the movie, but what I can not understand is the sky is falling mentality that the world is going to end if you don't have your cell phone on you for 2 hours; that's insane. But what I cannot stand for is people being rude about it and acting as though saying "no cell phones allowed" is somehow taking away one of their inalienable rights. Last time I checked, the Constitution didn't say anything about cell phones. Unfortunately rudeness abounds, and last night was no different.

I'm in line relinquishing my cell phone, and the woman in front of me becomes irate, yelling at the young phone check girl that, "It is absurd that you are taking people's cellphones when they have children at home with the babysitter. Something could happen!" To which I jumped in and said, "You know, there was a time when we didn't all have cell phones on us all the time." I'd like to think several people said, "YEAH! You tell her!," but really it was only one guy. She stormed off.

Look lady, you are seeing a movie for free. It is your choice to be here, and if you really don't want to turn over your cell phone, go buy a ticket to see one of the other 16 movies playing at this theater. Do not take out your crazy sense of phone entitlement on this poor 19 year old who is just doing her job.

Okay, so here's where all the parents chime in, "But what if there IS an emergency!?! This is crazy! I have to have my cell phone for my KIIIIIDS!" To that I say: hogwash!

It shouldn't surprise you that not so long ago people went places - out to dinner, to a movie, to a play - without cell phones even though they had kids! Egads! How reckless! So, what did people do in these olden times (10 years ago)? Well, they hired reliable and responsible babysitters, and they left the location and phone number to the place they were going, as well as 1 or 2 other emergency contact numbers with that babysitter. If there was an emergency (a REAL emergency), then the babysitter would call 911 and then get a hold of the parents. As hard as this may be to believe, businesses still have phone numbers, and babysitters can still call these numbers in an emergency. This is exactly what your parents did when you were a kid, and somehow you are still alive to disregard the tale.

Look, cellphones are great; I love mine, but the crazed dependence on them is getting out of hand. Everyone needs to chill out and learn to disconnect every once and a while. The world will not end, nothing will explode, and your heart will not stop when you hit the "power off" button on your phone. Try it; I dare you.

sunflower surprise

Yesterday as I headed home from my downtown photo adventure, I was feeling somewhat defeated. Although I did take some pictures that ended up being not terrible (which I'll post at some point), I wasn't really happy with any of them; none of them were of something I loved. And then BAM! sunflowers. Seriously, I was taking a shortcut home, and what do I see but a gorgeous patch of sunflowers. A small patch in someone's yard, but sunflowers just the same. I love sunflowers! Naturally, I stopped the car and promptly trespassed to get some photos. I was really annoyed that sun was behind them, and vowed to go back at another time of day to have some better luck (which I still may do), but I actually kind of like this picture all the same.

missoula path, 2010

This photo makes me happy, so you all get a bonus picture! Missoula Path, 2010

I was looking through old photos that I like to figure out what it was that liked about them, so as to capitalize on that, but I realize it may just be the subject material and not actually that there is anything special about them beyond that. Anyway, this photo is from a path that I spent a lot of time on when I lived (or now visit) Missoula. I would ride my bike on this path to reach tennis courts, or take it to reach the Mountain in the background so I could hike up to the M. So, I'm going to list some of the things I like about it, and I welcome you to tell me what you like about it and/or give me suggestions 0n how it could have been better.

What I like about it:
I tend to like paths, roads, train-tracks, etc, and they are prominent in many of my photos; this may stem from my love of travel, or I just like the lines, or both. Anyway, I like the path, and the idea of where it might lead. I also like the colors; the sky is a beautiful blue, and I love that the shades of green add dimension without being "showy." The benches, streetlamp, and the people on the path gives this place a sense of community and makes it feel alive. So Of course, I feel this way -in part- because of the memories affiliated with this photo; in other words, I'm biased.

Summer Bay Resort

My friend Billy said, "Take pictures of what you love," Well, most of the pictures I've taken and loved have either been taken in the wild or in Missoula, MT (otherwise known as the place wherein my heart lives), but today I could get to neither of those places,so I tried to love downtown St. Louis during a heat-wave. I headed downtown to walk around, and I stumbled upon this:

This photo, admittedly, has problems. I'm not at all experienced at taking photos of urban landscapes, and hopefully I'll get better, but this was just too hilarious for me not to post. "Summer Bay Resort" in downtown St. Louis, um... what? Not surprisingly, it appears to be out of business.

30 day photography challenge

I had the idea that I should post a photo everyday. I am not a professional photographer, but occasionally I do take some pretty cool photos. I definitely need to get better, so I thought this would be a good way to motivate myself to try to take one interesting photo a day.

I decided I needed a theme, and immediately the idea of "Place" popped into my head. I am generally drawn to photos that evoke feelings of time and place (great photos also hint at a deeper story that one has only glimpsed), so it seems natural that I should try to capture that with my own lens. Of course, when I say "place," that could mean a specific place, but it could also just mean a sense of place, so don't look for pictures of landmarks everyday (although there may be landmarks sometimes), and I can only hope that a few of my photos conjure up stories for people as they look at them; we'll see what success I have.

Constructive criticism of the photos is welcome as I am learning, but please keep in mind: I'm learning. I'm not proclaiming that I am a great photographer or that I am a better photographer than you or anyone else. I just like photos, and would like to better be able to express myself through photography in a way that ends up being pleasing to the eye.

I am not going to use PhotoShop or any other kind of photo-manipulation, aside from turning a photo black and white (I'd switch film, but we're in the digital age and I don't have film). Why no manipulations? Well, on Google+ I follow several photographers, and this has caused me to give quite a bit of thought to photo-manipulation lately. Is a photograph really a photograph once it has been manipulated with PhotoShop to get ride of "blemishes" in the landscape or to make colors more vibrant - or different all together? It's artistry, but is is photography? For me, it's no longer true photography. A photograph is a snapshot of time, place, emotions, etc, and as such is raw and truthful. Once manipulated, that truth is gone.

I'm not saying there isn't a time and place for photo manipulation; there is, and those images can be breathtakingly beautiful (or just good fun if you want to make a photo look "retro" for a Facebook post), but they aren't really photographs anymore. Art, potentially, but not photography.

Anyway, those are just some thoughts that have been going through my head lately. You may agree or not, but right now it's my story and I'm sticking to it. Meanwhile, I'm off to take a photo.

beat the heat

It's been so hot in St. Louis lately, so I thought Cooper could use some time at a lake. He loves to swim. I just wish the lakes around my house were as inviting to me as they are to my dog.

warm fuzzy shout-out

Today I stumbled upon a kindred spirit at Warm Fuzzies.

my new obsession

is this guy's photography blog, called Stuck in Customs. I can't get enough. Seriously. Check it out.

i am from poem

I just started my LAST master's class. I took a couple years off (that is to say the class I needed to graduate took a couple of years off), but I'm finally finishing up. Today in class our teacher had us write a poem, and as this was not an English class, I was a little perturbed. But as it turns out, it was actually pretty cool (albeit also a little cheesy), and although I by no means think I'm a poet, I thought I'd share the poem here. She got the idea from Mary Pipher's I Am From, and modified it a bit. Anyway, it was kind of cool, and I might actually try something like this with my kids as we embark on our immigration unit. Here is my I Am From poem:

I Am From (as inspired by Mary Pipher)

I Am From Tim, Jackie, Ester, Andy, Mildred, and Leo

I Am From Ireland, Germany, and the farmland of Illinois

I Am From Grandma G----'s rolls, lasagna, sweet corn, the perfect s'more, pizza, Dr. Pepper, Chinese take out, mashed potatoes & roast.

I Am From trust that everyone is doing their best; see the world, but always come home; people in hell want ice water, but they don't get it; tell the truth; catch ‘em doing something good, and we love you.

I Am From Christmas mornings, Easter egg hunts, and all the Sundays in between.

I Am From teachers, farmers, and small business owners

I Am From the Monster at the End of this Book, the Princess Bride, 500, Le Mutt, movies during thunderstorms, playing Tetrus until my eyes water, and Free to Be You and Me.

I Am From hikes through the mountains; treks through the cities; I can’t believe we ended up at the beach, and mom told us not to pack a swimsuit; songs sung on road trips; and wait, wasn't that our exit?

I Am From the Pride and Prejudice, Ishmael, and the Delicacy and Strength of Lace.

I am me and those before me.

website plug

check out my friend's blog. He has some cool artwork and stuff.