For One Moment - Little Snippets of my Life and Art...

Well, I caught up things at work today and snuck out early. Usually the only time I take off is kids Dr appts...etc...and no special time for just ME. Went shopping for some desparately needed new clothes, met my husband for lunch and then took my camera out to play for an hour before picking up kids and heading out to appointments. This church is right by where I park at work. I come out every day and see it's pretty steeple against the sky. Today was such a pretty blue day that I decided to shoot it before I left the parking lot for my BIG adventure. LOL I headed to one park to check out the water and reflections...but there was still a bit too much chop for reflections, so I turned my attention to a drippy faucet that I found there. Finding nothing else interesting at the park, I headed down to a local boat ramp and fishing pier. The first Great Blue Heron I found canal side feeding in the shallows. The next one was sitting out on the dock enjoying the view of the lake and

This is Momma Cat. She adopted us a couple of years ago when she needed a home for her kitties. She's guarding a lizard that she'd been playing with and wasn't quite sure whether I was after it or not. We are having our two weeks of Winter these days with cold, gray skies and blustery wind. What a difference it makes down at the park... This is the same little willow that I posted about a week ago...only now it has been bitten by the cold and turned all brown and sad...

Decided to look at the smaller picture today. Took these this evening after work. I had gone out to pick a couple bags of tangerines...liked the light so went back in and got my camera. Mariah has a science project due this week. She was so proud to get it done early! Here she is holding Saturn with 18 of its satellites!

Out today to a little marina. The sun was bright and the lake choppy...not as pleased as usual with my shots, but it sure was relaxing to escape from the house for a while.

I call this my MIS-adventure morning. Out early to drop Stacey at Scouts and then I took a couple of hours for myself and drove all over the area seeking out little lakes with birds and flowers. It was a bright sunny day and I THOUGHT I was setting my ISO at 100...well my finger must have slipped cause I shot my whole morning at 1600 and wondering why I couldn't get shutter speeds fast enough. Ahh well, I managed to save a few, and I can always go reshoot now that I know where they places are. The second one I ran through Neat Image to reduce the noise. The first and last one have Xeros Caravaggio filter.

It turned out to be a beatiful sunny day today. Still a bit on the cool side for me, but not bad enough to keep me off the lake. I don't think I've ever seen it as blue as it was today. I pass this little private pier every day. Pulled over on the right-away and took these pictures. I'd love to get closer but it private property and posted. Next time I see someone there I'm going to stop and see if I can't get permission to at least get closer to the dock so I can get better shots of the birds that like to sun themselves there. Then after work I took the girls to their music lessons. I took a little time to play while I was waiting to pick them up. Ran these through Raw Shooter and a couple different filters in PS.

Whoo Hoo! Hard to believe it has been 11 days already! Just another regular day at the office...well except that we did have a birthday luncheon for one of my co-workers. Didn't feel like shooting food shots though. On my way home I stopped at the park again and got this shot. I saw the couple out on one of the docks, and saw that they were nicely framed through the trees, so I pulled out the camera and grabbed a few shots. I knew what I REALLY wanted to shoot today, but had to wait until after dark so I could get what I wanted. I drove downtown after the shops had closed and set up my tripod and took this shot through the barbershop window. I wandered on down the sidewalk a bit and found this wonderful little arrangement in another shop window. The Peddler's Wagon is the neatest little home decor shop. Smelling of cinnamon when you walk in and home to at least 2 shop cats, this little shop is a thrill to the senses. I must got back during the day to see if they will let

A gray and dreary day here today. The promised rain never showed so I took advantage of that and went down to the lake for a few minutes at lunchtime. Even the seagulls didn't want to fly on such a blustery, gray day. Took this image in RAW and ran it through Raw Shooter and tweaked some more in PS using Xero's Caravaggio filter to give it a painterly look.

A cloudy and overcast day today. The sun trying to peak through the clouds this morning made for a lovely glowing sky out my office window. I'm babysitting this little guy while my co-worker is out of the office for a couple of weeks. He makes me smile! My office is filled with ivy and spiders and other plants, so he feels right at home. Had to take this picture today...one of the last orange groves in our neighborhood, it is a young grove just reaching a good size. It borders a lake, and today I saw a "coming soon luxury condominiums". SO sad..... Little bird that was flitting around a parking lot this afternoon. The sky was still gray and overcast, but that didn't dampen the little fella's spirits. He was chirping and happy. Waiting.... I just love her eyes...

Another busy day at the office. The first picture sums up my day...lettters, letters, letters and MORE letters. The second picture is my ponytail plant. LOL - NO time to clean desk move plant and compose shot, so this is what you get. Home in time get dinner and off to Boy Scouts. Tonight it was all about the KNOT...

Spent the morning cleaning...was really tempted to take a picture of the vacuum cleaner, but decided not! I did take a picture of the plate of cookies that I baked the kids...although by then they had eaten half of them. Dwayne is needing a new truck...after the kids had their fill of cookies we headed out the door to look at trucks. Our son loves Mustangs...so he and I took a look at those too. On the way home it was getting a close to dusk, so we stopped at the local park to see if there was anything worth capturing. This is a Dragon Boat. Three towns border on this lake and every year out town host Dragon Boat races. A sea plane was practicing take off and landings. It was circling fast and the light was fading fast. I snapped off a few shots and liked this one. I ran it through PS with Red Paw Media's free RMP Beautifier. Gives it a ghostly plane in the mist look. By then it was time to call it a night and I snapped a few of the evening sky. It has a beautiful orange gl