Attempt at real estate photography.

I took a shot at photographing a house yesterday, my friend's house.  She hopes to put it up for sale today.  I have looked at my photos 4 times now.  162 house photos that took 3 hours to shoot, and my enthusiasm has increasingly sunk into disappointment.

I see horrible light and awkward angles.  Blotchy sun spots and blown out windows.

I remind myself that this is new.  That I've never done this before and I will learn.  I am learning.

Sometimes though, I wish I already knew.

Anyways...

The gift that keeps on giving.

Nearly 2 weeks after Mother's Day.  My daughter knows me.  Cut flowers just wouldn't do.

Just a couple of days.

I don't even know where the day went...or the days.

A visit from mom and all the running around stuff one does when they have visitors from out of town.  Showing and seeing sights, making meals, staying sane.  She did my laundry the whole time and we talked. It was an easy visit.

Yesterday I had a de-kenneling class at the Humane Society.  Walking past eager dogs, hoping for their turn...walking past wanting to touch but knowing not to.  They could have all come home with me, all the good dogs.  I say I wish I had 500 acres, but then I'd be a hoarder and they'd take them all away.

Today was Culinary Arts. We made salmon patties and cabbage salad in a corn tortilla.  It was really good.  I think every school should teach how to cook.  Teach how to garden too.

Tomorrow me get 2 kittens.  Just to foster.  Just for awhile.

A Beautiful Mess.

This is where I'm spending a bunch of mental energy these days.  My two favourite things, farming and photography.  I've got some projects in mind that marry the two...and this is when my creativity explodes, ideas overflowing and bursting at the seams.

Artists often say they know something is right when it gives them unparalleled energy.  Despite the demands of everyday, of kids, of house, of life, adrenaline and excitement rush and surge.  That is now, my desk a mosaic of lists and ideas strewn on random pages torn from random books.  Two hundred thousand things on the go and I feel more alive than I have in a long time.  

This is when it starts to get fun.

Because every blog needs a blossom photo.

Finally!  It's our turn.  

They say we could still get snow until the end of May.  Hard to believe when the days are barefoot and sweltering.  Spring has come hard and fast, trying to catch up with the rest of the world.  The world is awash with pink and white.

Mayfaire.

This is what school should look like.

The moon in 5.

This may not seem like much to you (if I were to see this posted on someone else's blog I would probably think "Big deal."), but it took 5 shots to get, fiddling with my aperture and my shutter speed, to get a successfully clean shot.  

This was the first...

                                       










This was the third...

These are my baby steps.  Making mistakes and learning from them, figuring this thing out.  

Tomorrow the school is having its first Mayfaire with dancing and colour and fun.  I will lug this big thing and capture what I can.  Tomorrow the photos will be different, and I will have learned something new.

The firsts.

The first few with my new camera.  I realize I have a lot to learn about exposure and lighting and lenses, and everything.  But, it feels good in my hand, to my eye, like I used to do in the olden days before digital.

The first of so very very many.  The first of my next big thing.