I'm back :)

After a long drive up to middle America, I am now back in Texas. And busier than ever! Here's an image of Kim that I recently came across in processing my film - love it.

I hope to share more tomorrow, but it may be later in the week....

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving. Mine was full of family and food :)

Garden variety

Today is a mish-mash of fun girly pics.....the first is digital, the rest are film.

I am heading to Nebraska to see my family for Thanksgiving, so this will be my last post until Monday. Wishing everyone a nice holiday with lots of food and naps.

(this one is kind of a joke, it was my first attempt to catch myself jumping...it makes me laugh....see that creased brow? I sure was concentrating hard...)

Colorful Meg and Vy

Had some fun at the playground this afternoon, the weather was just perfect. As I continue to work on my Girls just wanna have fun series, I'm finding it so fun to work with the unique personality of each woman and girl, and the unique outfits. Lovin it !! Meg is one of my bestest friends, and I just love the outfit she picked out when I explained what I was going for.

I was mostly working on some film stuff, which you'll continue to see as I get things processed and scanned ... but took a few digital snaps as well. I hope these images are a breath of fresh air after my last post :)



(I couldn't decide which of these two I liked better, so decided to go ahead and post both..)

Mas film ! (more film) And changes! mas change.

Ohhhh......

I am la la loving my color film pics from my ole trusty yashicamat.

Here's the lovely Stephanie...

So.

On another note.

Things I'm not loving so much lately: my cynicism, my anxiety, my lack of faith, my lack of confidence, my constant picking at my cuticles, my overall stick-in-the-mud attitude....

I've been reading the Secret, and trying to visualize lovely things happening in my life. I've been inspired by the idea of having a gracious mindset and giving thanks for everything, the moment I get out of bed.

The conversation in my head this morning went something like this:

Thank you, God, for giving me this day.

Oh, but I am so tired, always so tired.

But thank you! I am alive and well!

Oh, but I've already slept too late and I'm annoyed that I won't have enough time for my yoga...

BUT I'm grateful. Grateful I have my sight, my hearing, my ability to walk, my family....

Ohhh but....

Ack..

I want to really change. I really do. I know I've been saying this and saying this, but sometimes it seems I'm going in circles.

And I imagine that some of you have a different perspective of me - whether you only know my online presence, or you are a good friend of mine, even .... I am pretty good at clamming up my negativity and trying to keep from spreading it to others.

I discovered a new blog I like - a lovely artist named Erin Darcy - her entry for today seems to hit the nail on the head for me. She talks a lot about confidence and having gratitude. And I can just sense that in the way she writes, she is speaking from her heart. I'm not sure that I always do that. I think sometimes I'm speaking from somewhere that isn't even a part of me.

And I continue to be inspired by Boho Girl - her unwavering strength in sharing her emotions is so inspiring to me.

I want to be more open like that.

So perhaps that is a good start. Just being a bit more open on here. Being more of myself and not always editing, editing, trying to remember who might be reading this-or-that and catering to this person or that person. I want to just be me.

First things first - I am considering switching my blog back to tumblr. I've seen some more interesting tumblr themes online - FREE (imagine that!) - and I think if I just had a design that better reflected me....not the me I feel like I should be .... maybe that in itself would be a good start.

So here's to beginning a big change. (And to stop picking at my cuticles). (I might even post close-up photos of my hands so you can see. Maybe that would truly give me the kick in the pants that I need, out of pure embarrassment. Hmmm....who knows, I'll give it a shot). Do you like how I just put most of this paragraph in parentheses? haha...

See I'm feeling better already! Making jokes even!

So cheers to a happy weekend and happy Sunday - since it's almost Sunday. :)

Hope you enjoyed my photo, I'll be sharing more this week.

Lots o Love

Daisy

Megan eyes closed

Love this. (If you know her, you can tell she's trying not to laugh...heehee...)

Film !!!

I'm finally getting some of my film stuff scanned .... so excited to share !

This is from a photo shoot several weeks back ...

Kim

My friend Kim has allergies beyond belief, and so she really doesn't like the outdoors much. (I recall floating the river with her in San Marcos years ago, and she was horrified...) She's always kinda been the girly girl. She was always wearing dresses growing up. She's had an elaborate collection of Mary Kay for as long as I can remember - she lives for colorful eye shadow.

So it's a bit ironic and humorous that I got some really good shots of her this past weekend - out in nature. Ha! It was fun times though, and we tried to pretend we were out in Forks, Washington, with Edward Cullen nearby. (Dorks. Yes.)

I've known Kim since I was a seventh-grader, and I'm amazed to see the beautiful woman she has become. Much love to ya, Kime. (Yes, I call her Kime. Don't ask...)

Side note: She ended the day with 14 mosquito bites....oh the things we do for art!

More of Mary, playin around....

So I am sitting here exhausted, listening to the rain, just got in from the SO YOU THINK YOU CAN DANCE performance (woohoo!!!), knowing I should be sleeping right now - it is sooooo late (by my standards), and I have to wake up in 5 hours. (by my standards, sooo not good...) It has already been a long week and it's just Wednesday....

But! I have some exciting pictures to share, I've been meaning to post more but things have just been nuts-o. Here's another shot of Mary, and more to come soon of Kim!! Enjoy enjoy.

Miss Mary

My lovely, kind, generous friend Mary. She's my biggest fan. Always so encouraging and supportive. Always positive. Always upbeat. Her good energy overflows and builds me up. I don't know how to express my gratitude. Thank you, Mary.

YAY

So my Red Dress series and Girls Just Wanna Have Fun series are beginning to blur and I can't decide which category this image belongs in ....

although I have the red dress on, it just seems to have the feel of my newer stuff ... hmmm....

Experiments

Is there a lot of stuff you don't understand? she said & I said pretty much the whole thing & she nodded and said that's what she thought, but it was nice to hear it anyway & we sat there in the porch swing, listening to the wind and growing up together.
-Brian Andreas, Story People


Thanks again to Mary for letting me shoot at this spot! I am loving this white brick. I got quite a workout, setting the timer, climbing up to pose, climbing back down, reshooting.....

...la la la a bit of fun in my old prom dress.

and what a great fence, eh?

Lately I've been shooting some square format film as well, hopefully will be posting some of that soon!

Ta Ta For Now

TTFN

(any other girls out there remember this?)

Jump Jump Jump

The light outside looked nice. So I ran out there for a few minutes and took some pics ... I feel such relief. It's amazing the pressure that slowly builds, the irritability the grows, the unsettled feeling I get when I don't create for several days.

And suddenly it's gone.

Whew.

Hope you enjoy, my friends !

just some playin around ...

Fun fun with one of my nieces today !

I have realized that I want to go a bit more artsy with my portrait sessions. I want to create images of people that are pieces of artwork, not just personal portraits. I think this could be a lot of fun !!

Hopefully there are some other nutty artsy types out there who will go for it ...

:) :)

Such a beautiful girl.

To Itasca and beyond

I spent the day working in Itasca, Texas, so after work I ventured off on some country roads ... (ginormous mosquitos out there!)

Runnin

tossin my red sarong

just standing

jumping (one of my favorite things to do lately)

and I'm done. Adios, Itasca!!

But wait. I had to stop and take pictures of the cows. I was so fascinated that they were all standing on a little hill together. What do you suppose they were doing?

See the one on the left? he's staring at me. Probably wondering, what the heck....


I feel great. It's amazing the feeling when you are pursuing your passions, however ridiculous it might seem to others. (so what if my passions involve jumping and taking pictures of cows?? whats it to ya? haha)

I hope you are all following your dreams, dear friends.

More backyard fun

I'm sharing some more playful stuff today, just a bit of skipping and such. I'm getting into this lighthearted thing, I want to create work that is fun and energetic and filled with simple, raw excitement. With no other purpose than to bring out a bit of carelessness in us all.

Someone recently recommended I check out the music of Nick Drake, and I was listening to From the Morning as I loaded my photos and browsed through my images ... and the music gave a new feeling to my photos. I liked it very much. Makes me want to leap back outside and find some likeminded crazy people to join me and skip in the grass some more. (So the moral of the story is you should try listening to the song whilst you view these, it is nice. Or listen to the music and go outside and skip in the grass. Either way, very nice.)

Fluffy decided to join in on the fun in her own lazy way.

She wouldn't move, so the photo shoot became about her. haha.

Woo hoo !

Finally, some energy for pictures. After a week of being sick and working too many hours to have any motivation to create, I jumped around in the backyard for a bit. Thank you God for giving me a boost today.

My mind was focused on my new series, Girls just wanna have fun ...

Girls just wanna have fun photo shoot :)

My lovely niece graciously posed for me yesterday - or I should say, jumped and skipped and ran for me ...

Play time

I am beginning a new body of work - "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun". I have visions of colorful walls and fun dresses and skipping and jumping. (And, of course, all girls!!) I've started a new gallery on my main webpage - check it out and let me know what you think. If you're a girl nearby and want to have fun and play with me, give me a shout!
So I had this theme in mind when shooting these images today .... and then I got a little caught up in photoshop. Just playing around and not really having a clue what I'm doing. But thought I'd share my experimentation.
Happy Sunday !!