Day 157: Breaking Confidence

I'm in the process of going through a bunch of old photos, tossing the bad and keeping the good. With 2011 quickly approaching, one of my new years resolutions is to get more organized. I figure it's better to get started NOW while I have the time than wait for January 1st before I get working on this project. You can start your resolution early and it still count, right?

Day 156: At Attention

My father likes to think he's the smartest and funniest guy in the world. From the looks from my mother and Fat Kitty, perception is not reality. Regardless, I still love him.

Day 155: Fragile Poodles

My mother is an elementary school art teacher and one of the mothers of her students gave her bag of beads and other things to possibly use for art projects. I don't know how these poodles ended up in the bag but they did and the moment I saw them, they screamed for a photo-op. How could I resist? They were just so cute.

Day 154: New Phone

This is my mother trying to figure out how to set up her new phone. It's not an iPhone or anything, it's a simple Samsung flip-phone. Easy, right? Not for the technology challenged. Did I mention I taught this woman now to shortcut copy and paste (Ctrl + C, Ctrl +V)? Yes, this is my mother and I love her. So much.

Day 153: Star Silhouette

So the terrible thing about living in the DFW metroplex is that you've got to drive a LONG way to get away from any city. Even then, there was still the issue of light pollution along the horizon. What do you do? Use it to your advantage to get some awesome silhouette action with the stars! This was my favorite shot from the evening. (FYI - this is straight off the camera, I just tagged and re-sized it for web)

80 sec. exposure, ISO 200, f/4.0
Canon Rebel XTi, 18-55 EF-S @ 18mm

Venus, TX 12/14/10 at 12:06 a.m.

Day 152: Square Nose

Today was a full day of family time and I absolutely loved it. While I was going through photos I had taken of my sister, I took the camera and snapped a few photos of myself just for fun. Suddenly it hit me.... the tip of my nose is square! Why haven't I noticed that yet? I suppose I've been so focused on my stubborn bump on the bridge of my nose that I have neglected to truly notice and appreciate the tip of my nose. Oh Alison, what are you going to do with yourself? Take more pictures? Good idea!

Day 151: Pretty Bored

I got bored and I felt pretty tonight. This is what happens.

Day 150: Police

My friend, Ricky, came over the other night and was patient enough with me to let me play with my flash on him. This is a 5 second exposure (ISO 200, f 5.6), a reflector in front to bounce light back from the flash popped behind him.

Day 149: Handsome Pin

Macro shot using window lighting to photograph a shirt pin stamped with the word "Handsome." I thought it was unique and had to share. Enjoy.

Day 148: Window Lighting

I am such a fan of window lighting. This self portrait was taken using a mirror and widow light. It's all about the angle when you're holding the camera yourself. Also, inhale, exhale, squeeze the trigger, because holding a camera one-handed, can get a bit tricky.

Day 147: Field Mouse

"Little Bunny Foo Foo hopping through the forest picking up the field mice and bopping them on their head. Down came the magical fairy and she said, 'Little Bunny Foo Foo, I don't want to see you picking up the field mice and bopping them on their head. I'll give you two more chances and if you don't stop, I'll turn you into a goon!'"

This is a little mouse the cats caught and tortured. I saved him for a while (long enough to take his picture) and then I gave him back to the cats.

Day 146: Necklaces

If you couldn't already tell, I am in love with squirrels and my new squirrel necklace.

Day 145: My Love

My Love.
My love.
Photography.
Writing.
& You.

Day 144: Aww, Seriously?

This is a self portrait I took while working at the store on Saturday. I was feeling pretty and sassy, so I walked up, faced the window and got snap-happy with myself. *Snap*

Day 143: Triston Plays Nice

Triston and Petey were playing outside one day, and Petey was being just the sweetest little kitty to him. I love these two.

Day 142: Native to the Badlands

This past weekend was Wyman's first Photo Safari and the attendees got to go out and shoot with Wyman and learn a heck of a lot about shooting Wild wildlife on some of the most beautiful landscape around. This is one of the rattlesnake Wyman caught while out on an adventure.

Day 141: Mentoring Mentor

Frankie the Mentor loves Blue (BooBoo) and I catch them together all the time around the veranda. Sometimes it feels like I'm intruding on a private moment, other times I get the feeling they want me to watch them. Strange cats, but sweeties. I'm learning to love these animals.

Day 140: Windmill in Water

This was too good of an opportunity to miss. Wyman and I jumped out of the truck and braved the sticker-littered grass to get just the right angle. This is my shot and I like it because of the moon in the sky.

Day 139: Appreciation Pics

I just bought a ring on Etsy from Vintage and Glam Jewelery and I absolutely LOVE it. :) I was looking for a ring that was flat and wouldn't knock into anything and also let me show off a bit of personality. Sure enough, Etsy had it. The artist who designed this ring was also fabulous to talk to and to show my appreciation, I took a few photos and came up with this! Sent it to her with some very positive feedback. I love that about the website, it allows you to put up "Appreciation Photos" of the gift you purchased to the seller.

These images are straight off the camera, 8x10 crop and -10 desaturation and then tagged with my logo!

Day 138: Goodnight Flower

As the sun slipped past the treeline, the flowers closed up to say goodnight.

Day 137: Exotic Yellow Flower

I love the details. Macro photography is a niche I enjoy and here is yet another example of my love for it.

Day 136: Sexy Petey

Petey is awesome. It took me a while to realize I was falling in love with this purring fart machine but once I did, I learned about a new kind of happiness. When I was little, I had a severe allergy to cats. That was an allergic reaction from hell. This allergy made me shy away, avoid at all costs and become slightly phobic of having cat hair and dander on me for too long. I was the epitome of an OCD freak when it came to my post-cat-touching ritual. Then when I was in High School, my baby sister adopted a kitten without us knowing about it and my allergies while the cat was in the house didn't change at all. I was terrified to test those waters but I did. My allergy, while still present, was not severe but mild. It was the same as my allergy to dogs. (For those who don't know, I'm allergic to basically everything that grows on this planet and breathes on this planet).
My hesitation towards cats has definitely decreased and Petey is just so sweet. I still have a reaction toward him but it is very mild in comparison to what it was when I was five. Petey will sit on my lap and fall asleep there, purring the entire time. He likes to follow me around when I'm outside. He likes to perch himself on my shoulder and kiss my nose.

Now do you see why I have fallen in love with Petey?

Day 135: Mantis Lesson Two - Intimacy

I was intruding on a private moment, but they didn't seem to mind.

Day 134: Mantis Lesson One - Copulation

Hello children, today we will start our lesson about copulation using the photograph as our example. Copulation is...

Oh I feel I am failing miserably at making this tactful. I shouldn't be blogging when I'm so sleepy. I'm just gonna say it, my favorite part about this photo is that they are both looking right at me while I photograph them in the act. You caught me, I'm a dirty bug pornographic photographer.

Day 133: Coolest Spider Ever

Coolest Spider Ever. That's what I'm going to call this guy because he's wearing my favorite color in the world. Green. Green is fabulous. Green is magnificent. Green is Beautiful! Not only do I like bugs, I like the color green and that means I double like this photo. *happy sigh*

Also, check it out....

Day 132: Hungry Spider

This little guy was enjoying his meal on the edge of my door. I had to chase him over to the wall because my door is black and I wanted him to really stand out and not fade into the background. I really like this image because, while I've shot many spiders being spiders on their web, I've never shot one with such a big meal in his grasp.

Day 131: Pondering Mantis

She was such a good little model for me and her curiosity for my camera lens really made this shot. Did I mention before I love bugs?

Day 130: Hopper, Grass

The bugs were incredible out today. It is as though the Autumn weather has sparked a sudden increase in their population. The next few posts will be of bugs. Bugs, bugs and more bugs. I love bugs. They're a challenge and they're also so fascinating to photograph.

Day 129: Cheer Tower

The cheerleaders for Knox City High School are spirited ladies. In a small town, everyone does a little bit of everything. In this small town, one of the cheerleaders was also a saxophone player in the marching band and went out on the field with her instrument and in her cheer skirt without a second thought. It was an entertaining game, and these girls sure were excited about their football players.

Day 128: Football Fan

I went out to watch the Knox City Greyhounds and while I was there, instead of focusing on shooting the game, I looked for the fans reactions. There were so many kids running around and they were all so cute, dressed up in the colors of the team they were rooting for, I couldn't resist.

Day 127: Too Much Tongue

Sweet Sue just can't keep her tongue to herself!

Day 126: Chewing on a Pig Hoof

Sam was really getting into chewing on his pig foot. I shot this with my 300mm out of respect for the moment Sam was having with his snack. :)

Day 125: Blue on the Prowl

Oh no, it's a picture of a cat. But this is a photo of Blue! He's on the prowl through the jungle of foliage in pursuit of the juicy snail I was positioning on a rain covered leaf!

Day 124: Snail in Evening Light

Sue was trying to figure out just what this little snail was about the other day and out of curiosity I wandered over to visit with her and saw it lying in a pool of wolf drool. I may have rescued him from Sue, but I'm pretty sure Blue got to him later. You may be wondering, "Why would anyone save a snail?" My answer - I've never shot a snail in good afternoon light.

Day 123: High Contrast Portrait

I am exhausted and it does not help matters that today is a warm day. I really like high contrast images of myself because I am crazy in-love with my eyes. Honestly, I believe everyone needs to have such controlled high opinions of themselves. Confidence is key. Yeah baby!

I've been off in my head a lot lately, trying to figure things out, and while for the most part I do know exactly what it is that I want to do, the process of getting there is still a little foggy. There are so many paths to take but which road will I choose? I can't help but be thinking it over.

Day 122: Little Dancer

Jordan is such a beautiful lady and such an incredible person to be around. A group of us loaded up in a car and drove down to Abilene, TX to swing dance for the evening. It was hot, but the place was gorgeous and while the scene was small, they were very inviting. Before we left, I took a couple of pictures of Jordan (literally, these are the only 2) and while the lighting was terrible, I took it as an opportunity to get a bit artsy in my post-processing of the images.

Day 121: Mushrooms Overnight

After the rains came through these mushrooms popped up all over the yard. I shot this with my 75-300mm at f/5.6, ISO 200, 1/320.

Day 120: Rusty Plastic

How dangerous does this look? It was just sitting around the store waiting to give somebody tetanus. Eek. As terrifying the thought is of getting poked by this thing, it's still pretty cool.

Day 119: Portrait Session with a Praying Mantis

This little guy was just chilling on my door, so I threw on a 10x filter and caught a few shots of him giving me his best "Praying Mantis" look. I think he did a good job for his first time modeling. :)

Day 118: Benjamin Lightning

Believe it or not, this was my very first time to ever photograph lightning. I don't know how I have gone this long as a photographer, with beautiful West Texas skies around me without, but it was exciting and frustrating.

At first when the storm rolled around the lightning was staying in the clouds but then as the storm moved over us the lightning began to break out of the sky. Walking down the road a bit was all I needed to get this shot.

There's supposed to be another storm tonight. Hopefully this one has an even better light show.

Day 117: Knock Knock

Who's there? Old towns have old doors and old doors have old locks and things like this fascinate me.

Day 116: Keep Me Dry

While I adventured around Haskell, I made sure to keep my eyes open so I didn't miss anything out of the ordinary. While I was walking down their main road toward the town square, I happened to look up and see this. The texture makes me smile. *Smiles*

Day 115: Rusted

This was the hinge on the safe I just posted. I couldn't get any other details shot of the safe since it was outside, facing a wall and these things are HEAVY. I thought about trying to move it, then I thought otherwise because since getting out to this area I have been warned time and time again of snakes....and this seemed like a pretty cozy place for one to be around. I do love the detail and ornateness of it though.

Day 114: Safe

Yesterday I was able to walk around the city of Haskell, TX with my camera while Sylinda was at the Dentist. Unfortunately for me it was around 1:30 p.m. on a partly cloudy afternoon when I started my adventure. I figured I had an hour (dentist appointments usually take that long) so I searched for shade, interesting stores, interesting people, etc. These safes were pretty sweet to stumble upon and they had a small companion between them.

Day 113: Not Afraid To Get Close

I'm not afraid of spiders. As long as they stay on their web and off of me, I'm totally cool with them. Respect the bubble, spider and I'll respect your bubble too.

I used a 10x multiplying filter on my wide angle to get this shot. It's pretty overcast today, so the light was nice and diffused. I've got several friends in mind who would prefer not to look at this shot, but you've gotta admit, spiders are beautiful creatures.

Day 112: Crystal Heart Ring

I absolutely adore window lighting. This is another one of the rings for sale in Santa Fe On The Brazos in Benjamin, Tx.

Day 111: Cowgirl Ring

This is one of the cowgirl rings in Sylinda's store, Santa Fe On The Brazos. This ring is a "one-size-fits-all" because it's got an elastic back. I had to photograph these rings in groups in a bucket (see website HERE) and while I had the rings out, I also photographed them separately.

Day 110: Ashton Boots

These are a new pair of boots we got in to the store today. If you're not driving through Benjamin, Tx anytime soon, that's okay, just check out the website Santa Fe On The Brazos or specifically click HERE for the boots above.

I love having the opportunity to photograph everything in the store. Sylinda has good taste and fills her store with all kinds of fun stuff.

Day 109: When Sue Fights Back

Here is Sue fighting back with Sam. They love each other, but like most siblings, they can get a bit too rough sometimes. They're just so enjoyable to watch and to play with. They are part of my experience while in Benjamin, TX.