It's Christmastime

Whenever I unpack our christmas decorations box I anxiously search out Frosty, the ornament above. He has travelled with me through time to reappear every holiday to be put in the prime spot on the christmas tree. I'm not even sure how old I was when Frosty first appeared I just remember that he seemed to always be there. He reminds me of every Christmas that has past... that magic of believing, feeling loved and cared for, wonderful gifts, sharing moments with family and friends.. and of the christmas's that haven't happened yet.. the promise of more to come. Have a very Merry Christmas!!! (and for those who don't celebrate this holiday.. peace and happiness!)

you better watch out...

Santa is here and he is HUGE!!! This big blow up Santa must have been 100 ft tall (as far as Adam was concerned)... I just love Christmas especially when it's through the eyes of a 6 year old.

"REDRUM"

Hotels with long hallways ALWAYS remind me of the movie "The Shining" with Jack Nicholson... the book is even scarier (of course written by my favorite, Stephen King). Thankfully we had no visitors waiting for us in our tub or phantom bartenders down in the lobby.. next post I will try to be more in the Holiday spirit... emphasis on the 'try".. have a great week!

Reflecting..

Its that time of year again when we look back on all that has past and look with hope towards the coming holidays and beyond.. can't believe that 2010 is almost done! What a great year! We had some rain (thunder and lighting as well) Sat. night and when it was over the city was washed clean and the lights reflecting in the puddles made some interesting photo ops.. Have a lovely Thanksgiving!

Couldn't "Leaf" It Alone

It rained today and when it stopped I walked to the gym for a "quickie". As I was walking I looked down and spotted this leaf with the raindrops on it.. so perfect and unique. I had a quick thought that I should go and grab my camera as this was probably a once in a lifetime photo.. at least of this leaf and these drops. I kept walking as I had a workout ahead of me but I couldn't stop thinking about the beauty of this leaf. Of course I walked almost to the gym and then turned back and grabbed my camera and my son (so he could bring my camera back home for me.. instant sherpa!) It was about 4:30 (but really 5:30 due to fall back) and there was just enough light left to get a few snaps. I'm so glad that I took the time to go home to get the camera.. it's the little details in life that most of the time we miss that give us such satisfaction and beauty..

Who wants Candy??!!!

HaPpy HaLLoWeeN!!! How 'sweet' is this family??.. (Rumor has it that Princess Lolly has been working on her lollipop for two days now..)

look out.. Halloween is coming..

I took one of my boys to Halloween Haunt at Great America on Friday night and had a screamingly fun time. Its too much for Adam until he's older but this has been a tradition for about 5 years now and I look forward to many more years of going. I always end up with a sore throat from all the laughing and screaming and the anticipation of Halloween begins..

Dragonfly

I saw this guy sorta surfing on my branch this morning. Its pretty windy out and the dragonfly would grab on and hang for a bit and then fly away and return. I didn't expect to get such a good shot because these dudes never hang around for long enough except this one stayed. Such interesting creatures....

heart and dagger

Allison and Eric are the proud owners of Heart and Dagger Saloon located in Oakland, CA. It is a great place to hang out and have a beer or two. Check the place out next time you are in the hood. This is the lovely Allison's leg with the heart and dagger symbol.. which came first Ally...the tattoo or the bar??

Scenic change

Today was a beautiful day in pacifica. We haven't seen too many of these types of days lately but once the kids go back to school the sun usually comes out.. (in more ways than one.. lol).. One of my dogs is very high energy and this hike always kicks his butt - and mine as well.. the first one is straight out of the camera.. just perfect.. but I have been playing with my photoshop actions and the one below is called Grandma's tap shoes.. I love this look so much.. it is very retro and reminds me of faded photos..

reflections

I took this photo back in 2007 when I was in Australia on the ferry to Balmain. The cityscape was so colorful as you can see, just incredible! I haven't posted in almost a month! yikes! It is always hard these last few weeks of summer.. we are all itching to get back to the routine of school and work.. one more week and then it is back to business..

boots and boys

okay, so no boys but there are boots! I am happy to say that I have finally started my shoe/boot project. This first image is of a pair of boots that I bought at Ross (for $5!!) and a holster that my brothers probably played with back in the day. I plan to print it onto canvas and paint on it.. I will post an image when I am done. Comments and suggestions are welcome!

Nut?

I am in Hawaii with the family and I keep seeing "new" things growing or laying on the ground-things that just don't grow in Pacifica. I have been carrying this around for two days now and Jack, my oldest son, pried it open a bit and I was able to get a better look at what it looks like on the inside. I am not sure what the heck it is or what it could be if planted in the dirt but it is a very interesting object to photograph. For those of you who want to know what I did to it..I dropped it into black and white and then used a texture overlay to highlight its complex structure and boosted the contrast a bit..

painting with a star

This photo was taken while on our camp trip a few weeks (?) back at the pinnacles.. Pablo Picasso painted with light while being photographed and I was inspired by him. The light source is a star and with the shutter on bulb I moved the camera around in circles and up and down.. there is a lick of flame in the lower right corner from the camp fire.. I did several of these, but this is the only one that came out.. funny how that works, huh?

The Fungus Amungus

These following two photos are from my trip to the Pinnacles a few weeks back. The colors in person were way prettier and didn't transfer to digital as well (i am thinking about shooting film again..). I decided to apply an "acid" filter on it to desaturate them a bit and to make them more interesting.

Mom's day is so over...

Mom's day has come and went and my flowers that my hubby and boys gave me lasted a pretty long time.. I don't know about you, but I like to keep the flowers around until the petals are practically falling off. Tulips are especially interesting when they start to wilt because they take on such a different look.. so I brought out the camera this saturday and photographed the flowers before I tossed them into the yard.. let me know which ones YOU like..

this one....or this one....
this one.....
or this one...

thistle while you work....

Took a trip to the pinnacles over the weekend and will be sharing photos from our trip over the next few weeks. I had spied this flower on our way into the park and filed it away in my brain to grab a shot of it on our way out. It was so windy and this flower was moving all over the place.. not to mention that I was standing in the middle of the road in oncoming traffic.. so it is probably not THE best photo I could have gotten of this intriguing plant, it is THE best one that I got at that moment and sometimes that is good enough..

Trees

I had to pull over when I saw the sun coming through these trees above the cliff house in SF. Does that ever happen to you? You see something so beautiful that it stops you dead in your tracks? It was like something out of a dream.. so magical that I had to capture it with my camera.. and even then it still pales in comparison to the real thing..

Is it really only a weed? (part 2)

I am still not done with this weed.. if you click on the picture it will give you a bigger version.. look into the seeds, it is like a whole other universe... Horton Hears a Who anyone?

It's just a weed you say?

Walking my dogs tonight as the sun was going down, I spotted this "weed" and was hit with a sense of wonder for the little things that I take for granted each day. I went and grabbed my camera and felt so excited and inspired to create something. It is easy to just keep going.. get up, go to work, come home, go to sleep, get up and do it all again the next day that sometimes we forget to stop and bask in the wonder of all of creation-from the smallest weed to the largest oaks. I hope that this image inspires you to take up whatever art form you prefer and create something.. and share it.

The Dempsey's

These are who I call the Dempsey's. They are really made up of two Drakes, one Love and two Dempsey's and they are all part of my family. My brother Tim was married to the beautiful one in the middle for many years and they had three kids, two gorgeous blonde girls and one very handsome brunette boy- the good looking big guy to the left supplying the rabbit ears is their son-in-law.. We had a great day catching up and getting some great photos and it was such a nice day in the park..

urban cupcake

I love that there is so much going on in this photo, it is like an "I SPY" picture. I made this picture around Xmas time last year and uploaded it and forgot about it. I am trying to clean up my files and I came across it and thought it would be a good photo to share. I threw a grungy layer over it to "urban" it up a bit.

Baby Adam

This is my little "nephew" baby Adam.  He is the son of one of my bestest gal friends and I just think he is darling..  

Blue

Hi there! Haven't posted in awhile. This is a little happy mistake that I made the other night. Didn't have the flash on and was messing around with the settings on my new camera and this is one of the photos that happened.

Had some Kurt and Kathy time yesterday for about three hours (thank you Jennie and Joaby!) We took the bike to the city and enjoyed the spring-like weather. This is a picture of Chrissy Fields where it got cold and we turned around towards the warmer Mission area...I am having trouble naming this one.. any ideas?

Waiting by the car

I got a new point and shoot and I swear I bought it only because Ashton Kutcher told me to..lol.. how many of us own a Nikon coolpix because of him?? It's on it's way back to BestBuy once my 'other' new camera comes from Amazon, though, it's too slow for me and I do NOT recommend it..(sory AK) ...anyway, I was out with the gals waiting for someone to make a decision about where we were going to go next when I pointed my camera at my friends shadow..

Flakes

These are snowflakes that had hit the window of the tram that I was riding in. The people that were riding with me must have thought I was a bit off as I probably seemed to be taking pictures of nothing...

Flock

I took a trip up to Tahoe with the boys this past weekend and the weather was not the greatest. The boys snowboarded at Squaw Valley and after a series of mishaps I attempted to ski there as well. I took the tram up to 8200 ft and it was blizzarding like crazy so I came back down and happened upon this view. I entitled this "Flock" because my gal friend told me later that she had first thought that this was a photo of sheep. That made me crack up cause where in the heck would I have found sheep to photograph??? After looking at it several more times, the shapes began to take on the shape of sheep-- so now thats what I am stuck with.

Looking down

Sometimes a photograph happens in the least likely of places. Me and two of my boys were coming home from a stay at the Embassy Suites where we had spent some post-Christmas time with two of my longest-and dearest friends and their kids. I took a walk across the parking lot to see a plane land at SFO and when I turned back to look at the car here was this reflection. As you can see, the sun was hitting it just right and the palm tree made for some good contrast. Reflections seem a bit magical to me as it isn't just what is there that you see but also what isn't there and to me that makes it an interesting photo to see and think about..

Mushroom..

before.....

after......

I found this mushroom while I was taking a hike with my dogs and I brought it home so that I could play with it ie; take photos and such. It has amazing colors, shape and texture and I knew that it would photograph well. The first photo is straight out of the camera and the second one I threw a texture over. Which one do you like best?