Open your eyes...

I was out kayaking the other day for the first time in a while. As I was putting my kayak in the water, I looked down and noticed this little lady sitting on some duckweed right along shore.

Awed by the beauty of the red against the green, I pulled out my camera and snapped some photos before taking off.

The thing is, while the photos turned out okay, none of them were quite the quality I was hoping for...they were either too bright or too dark, or not quite in focus. What I had hoped would be a new favorite shot of mine ended up being mediocre at best. And yeah, maybe some would say I am being to critical...but when you take photos under the mindset of blowing them up and putting them on a wall for others to see...I do have a higher standard for myself.

The other thing this made me think of was how often I reach immediately for my camera when I see certain things. It is my other set of eyes...and some would argue that I rely too much upon it. Enjoy things for what they are - after all, rarely does a photo do what we are seeing justice.

Hey, I like that game!

I'm sitting in my room, when the six year old I live with comes in, takes a glance at the tabletop chess game I have in the corner, and asks 'why do you have that game set up?'

I said, 'it's my chess table, and I have played it a couple times lately, so I have it out.'

'Oh! I like chest!' she retorts. 'Chest is one of my favorite games!'

'It's chess,' I corrected her, 'not chest. There's no 't.' ' Holding back laughter, and the urge to ask her how to play the game.

I used special colors...

Alright, I'm trying this...again...again...again. I have failed miserably thus far at keeping up my blog, which is sad, because there is so much potential. Everyday I encounter things living with another family that make me laugh, sigh, groan, or just plain roll my eyes. This particular one was a laugh. A rather big laugh.

The picture you see is one that the six year old girl I live with drew. We were finishing up lunch the other day when her mom came in, held up the picture, and asked if we'd looked at it. Laughing, she explained to us that her little girl, upon showing it to her, explained that she had "picked special colors for the hole." We all joined her in laughing as we looked at the picture, chuckling not only at the carefully drawn anatomical details, but also at the bird footed claws. Oh, and in case you were wondering, the yellow highlighter line all over the page is pee. The kitty happened to be peeing in the picture as well. :) After all, it's just another part of life, right?

GET OUT OF MY FACE!

I already goofed. It has been five days - and I haven't posted a single picture since the first one. But, rather than give up, I am going to resolve to do better.

This is my baby Cornelius. He is a roughly one year old bearded dragon. Despite the normally pleasant disposition of these creatures, Cornelius is a force to be reckoned with. He doesn't like to be held, and often tries to run away when he is being held.

He's funny though, and has a very distinct personality.

Here's to working on being more consistent...

The Beginning...

I was looking through some photography blogs yesterday, and it refueled my photography drive - and I am starting out on a journey in pictures today - hopefully for a full year. Each day, I will take a photo...and post it on this blog. It was a journey I intended to start a year ago, but failed. This year, a new chance, and hopefully more success.

The first photo - a new bit of green coming up out of the ground during what has been a whirlwind spring so far. Over the past few weeks, what was several inches and feet of snow has disappeared, and suddenly, the yards are turning green again. It happens this way every year - even though it appears to be a gradual change back to life after the cover of snow, the green seems to appear out of nowhere.

Wish me luck on this journey - - the goal is that barring some emergency or lack of internet, I will be posting a photo each day, taken that day. Should be fun to see what comes of it.