A New Family

I travelled to a place called New Jersey over this Thanksgiving holiday.  I had an engagement party to attend for my son and his fiancé.  I was honored to have been invited....even though I am his mother but this one was for her family as there will be another in Houston for his family...so again...I was honored to have been invited and would not have missed it for the world.

They invited me to Thanksgiving dinner.  Again...honored.

While in New Jersey, I had an awesome time.  I was well taken care of.  I was wonderfully entertained. The food was great.  The company was awesome.  The traditions, heartwarming to say the least.

The most amazing thing is that I learned and received an entire new concept to the definition of 'family'.

One in which it was seen that families can still be families....all together...even after two parents go their separate ways.   Two people...or even four...can continue to share the well being of their children and their new 'better halves' with peace between them....for the most part.

Sure..I could feel some constraint from time to time...but the love, the understanding, the patience, the companionship and compromising made it all work.  Day in and day out.

I left New Jersey knowing that my son had definitely gained a second family and was very happily welcomed in to it.  I left New Jersey believing that I too...have gained some new family members and actually felt like I belonged and was accepted regardless of what ever situation might exist.

Thank you...to the Pernas family...for including me in your family traditions and teaching me what love and companionship can really accomplish and overcome.

Thank you....a thousand times.

SumUp Sundays - Lesson Learning Challenges

This week brought some challenges for me...some good challenges...some not so good..or rather some challenging challenges.  All learning experiences.

Work continues to be a frustrating one as we are back preparing for our annual audit which requires extra to-dos on top of all the normal day to day long list of to dos.

I had two photo shoots I had to get finalized and put up for clients to view...one that totally caught me by frustrating surprise of requiring a bit more of my attention than it should have.  I don't shoot in small apertures very often and have the larger group to photograph I used a smaller aperture to only find out that my sensor tremendously needed to be cleaned thus resulting in lower quality photos than I should have had.  Composition and poses were great.  Quality not so much.  I await a decision to possibly re do the shoot.  Lesson learned.

I am a member of a few different photography clubs and organizations.  One, WACCO (Wisconsin Area Camera Clubs Organization) has yearly photo competitions of which I have never attended or entered in the past.  I let myself be talked into it this year...still being my worst critic and in a position, employment wise...that I am still doing everything last minute.  I waited to late to make a decision of what to enter and now understand why some say they make their selections and have them printed up prior to deciding what to really enter...because sometimes prints don't look the same as they do on the computer screen.  I liked what I chose...on the computer screen but wasn't quite as thrilled when I got them back from the printer.  Not that they were poor...just not what I had hoped...  Although none of them came in first or second...I think I might have lucked out enough to possibly have had a score high enough to get an 'honorable mention'.  Still to be seen.    The above..inspired by my late sister...did get in the top three so I think I will get one for it at least...which makes me happy.

I entered some as digital also and the one I really thought would get a nice score, got less than average. What the heck?  Totally frustrating.  But another that is one of my favorites, I also think will have an honorable mention.  Again...to be seen.  I heard a lot of comments from the crowd...good comments.  So...

Quite a few of the attendees that had attended and entered many times, were totally surprised at the way things were being scored.  Nothing like what they expected.  In the end, we all agreed that the winners were truly winners.  Although I had to disagree on the 'Best in Show'.  In the end...it comes down to what do the judges like.  It really does.  Photography is all about 'one's passion'.  Not only in judging but in taking the shot.

Aside from that, I have another portrait shoot coming up that I am excited about.  Another weekend up north that I am looking forward to.

The seasons are changing.  Although winter is officially another couple of months away, our 70s have gone away to be replaced by 40s during the day and below freezing, frosty mornings.  The time change will not wake us up to darker mornings and bring us home during less light evenings.  The days..shortened will bring even more excitement for weekends.

The fall colors are being replaced slowly by the browns and tans of 'the season between awesome bright fall and enchanting, mysterious, cleanliness of winter's white blankets'....of which I am actually looking forward to from a photographic perspective...and hopefully a chance to use some new snowshoes that were received last Christmas with little to no snow to use them in.  Wishing for just enough to get out in..but not too much...or not too cold to enjoy, I should say.  I don't mind the snow.  I mind the 'way below freezing' that keeps me cooped up inside.

All in all...no major complaints about this week.  Lessons learned.  New goals to work towards.  Things to look forward to.  Another new year soon to be planned.

Through the Fog

It's creepy and scary and nerve-wrecking when I have to drive to the office in the early morning hours when the fog is thick I can barely see in front of me.  I will drive for what seems to be hours to only realize I've only gone ten miles...if even that....less than one-fourth of the way to my destination.  Half of my route is country highways where there are no street lights.  I do all I can to keep up with the car in front of me that drives as if it is as clear as daylight and hope they don't have to get off before I get to the half way point where the lights greet me and my hands thank them for the release of the mighty grip.

Many times while enroute on the early morn of the weekdays...there will be a light layer of ground fog, making everything majestical in the fields around me.  I long for those mornings on the weekend so I can get up and have fun with it and my Nikon...knowing quite well that I will need some initiative to get up early enough on the weekend after having hit the snooze button three times when it goes off at 4:30 during the week.  A photography road trip with a fellow friend photographer recently gave me the awesome pleasure of a foggy morning photo op that was absolutely awesome.  One of my most favorite from that trip was the moon and wind turbine...

...and my most favorite marsh (that I have discovered close to home) lit by the morning sunrise..

Then there are the more recent opportunities I had with a girl's weekend 'up north'. While the others were sleeping in I got to enjoy the morning fog that totally covered what really is a lake 'behind all that fog'. Really girls, I so hate you missed this!!!

...and just so you know....this was the view the morning before...without the fog....

And people wonder why I have a difficult time sleeping in. I would have been really upset with myself if I had missed this.

Just a couple days after that...two days ago actually...our warmer fall weather created an evening fog that I was greeted with when heading back home after one of those 'fun days...NOT' in the office. What a stress reliever to be able to walk to the river behind my house and capture it's mystical  surprises.

Do you need a change of pace?  Try it...the early hours. I don't believe you will be disappointed.

Would love for you to share some of your foggy morns!!!...or evenings.

WEDNESDAY WORDS - Homemade

Sadly...I open my last jar of homemade applesauce.

An Awesome Find

Finally shopping at an antique store that I had longed to visit for a few years now. We stopped there at my request...hoping I would find something that would satisfy my need for another photography prop. I browsed...from room to room. Not finding anything that really grabbed me...except the owners pup, Bear..whom I also didn't see until I'd browsed most of the store's rooms. He came out of no where.  Not sure where he hid until then..he wasn't small..but he was awesome.

One last walk through and I was heading up front when I saw an old tractor toy..child size that was meant to ride...with pedals to pump.  A bit out of my price range.  Oh well.  I enjoyed the time to just browse.  I turned. I looked down.

There they were...stuck..hidden...on a floor level shelf...under another one.  There is no telling how long they had been there.  Why would anyone want them?  Why would anyone give them up?!!  I'm pretty sure I stopped breathing for a sec...in excitement...as I listened to them calling my name...'we're here.  Here.  Look Down.'

This one find.  Made it all worth it.  Satisfied my craving...for another photography prop along the lines of the vintage sports items I was slowly collecting.

I was...one happy camper!!!

(Two of my favorite movies full of inspiration...The Million Dollar Baby and Cinderella Man. Now...I felt 'part of it'.)

...sigh...Thank you, Dear Lord...for directing me.

My Lunchtime Escape

Lunch.  Lunch time.  Outside.  Escape.  Sun, hot and cold normally will not stop me.  Rain...it's been rare this year thankfully...for my lunch escapes...not so much for earth's bounties.

The office is in a bad part of town.  Not somewhere you want to be in the evenings.  Right behind the office, the scenery changes.  It goes from 'not so nice' to 'nice and full of character...safe...peaceful....revitalizing'.

It saves me...day in and day out until some longer term escape can be found.
Soon.
Soon.

Walk with me.  Enjoy the view.  It's fall...peaking.  The leaves are colorful...yet already beginning to fall.  Creating piles.  Creating child like trails to shuffle your feet in.  Pumpkins. Haystacks. Ghosts, witches and spiders and scarecrows dapple the yards.  Creating...smiles....laughter...childhood memories.

Escape.
      Escape.

           Escape.

Celebration of Growth

(The OshKosh Dragonboat race - This boat of rowers celebrating their fight against cancer. It was an awesome, inspiring moment that provided me growth of the soul, heart and mind just to have experienced.)




We've been asked to do a celebration....of our growth this year...with everything Kim has provided us with and all I can think of right now is how far behind I am on all the inspiration she has taken time to provide me with.  Such a bad student, I feel.  My own fault....or I could put part of the blame on her because she has inspired me so much, I signed up for other courses...all running at the same time...going in different directions...and not year long ones but four and six week long ones..still all running at the same time.

But...I smile.  I know winter is right around the corner and there will be time...to catch up.  Actually I see a little light in November.  Maybe even a start this next week...or next weekend when I take a girls trip north to rest and relax.  That should bring some type of down time and further inspiration.  (shhhh...don't tell them I plan on using them and our time together for many blogging opportunities)

Next
I've grown in my editing in PSE.....able to add textures and text over and above what I have done in the past.

I'm learning Lightroom now and definitely have fallen in love with it.  Taking the 'RoundTrip' to learn how to do exactly that...Lightroom to PSE and back. Can. Not. Wait. to have that under my belt.

My time capsule course....I want so much to finish and that is my goal for the next couple of weeks as after that it won't be available and it needs to be the one that I don't extend availability on....for now. I put a slide show together to share last week and couldn't get it uploaded to my blog here...for whatever reason so now...I need to go into the class more in-depth over the next week and get it up...because it is about Fall and I hate to think I won't get it posted until Winter. (uugghhh  and ggrrrr)

My blogging course was awesome and I followed it up with Make it Sparkle.  So filled with so many ideas. Now...to find the time to 'just do it'.

I have grown in a couple of other ways also.  I discovered the power of 'The Artist's Way' and it has given me so many opportunities in my photography passion which is part of what has kept me from the courses (also resulting in mixed feelings of where to spend my time..which passion... how can I get to them both because I want to do both....photograph....blog...travel....garden.)

In the past, I have not had much liking for the color white.  Past experiences of white cabinets in kitchens and bathrooms continuously needing cleaning with children and pets and just humidity and stickiness of Houston environments.  Cussing...claiming that these could only have been invented by a man.  Yet, this year...I found a new love for white (thank you to the one and only Kim Klassen) and am now trying to figure out which room is going to be the best to turn into My Whiteroom.

Along with the new love of white...has come a somewhat new love for bright lights....as long as they are not on me.  Many people wonder about my sitting in rooms with not much light.  My office at work has huge windows...tinted yes but....as far as I am concerned in the middle of the day, I much prefer that natural light coming through the window than that overhead flourescent light that just doesn't seem necessary...after all the computer monitor is lit.  But I have discovered the awesomeness of 'light' as related to photography and love those where I can capture some bright light..although it is normally still from that wonderful 'light' the Dear Lord has blessed us with.

I've grown in my attitude, my awareness (still needing work) but getting there.
My self esteem is slowly creeping up.

Next year.  Next year will be great. I've learned so much this year and still have more to learn as I play catch up.

And today, I think I actually do 'Trust the Process' just a bit more than I did ten months ago.