Urban Prairie

For a fleeting 48 hours in Oklahoma City, we had a preview of spring. Friday and Saturday were glorious! I hit the door running from work Friday because I wanted to take my camera out to enjoy the golden light of the evening and the 70 degree weather.

While I was out, I was accosted by a soggy Weimaraner with a tennis ball in his mouth, with his owner (an older gentleman) following behind. Sophie was intent on playing with me as I was trying to shoot, despite her master's attempts to distract her. At one point I heard him saying, "Sophie, she's out here trying to get some urban prairie photography, so leave her be!"

I thought that was a pretty good way to describe my photography style in general- urban prairie. And the light was glorious! So here are some pics from that day.


















Hope they keep you warm during our upcoming SNOWPOCALYPSE

Getting better

So I took the leap and moved up in the camera equipment world. I put it off for a while because I knew that when I did that, I would need to really commit to learning more about photography to get full of use of the machine.

Now here I be.

Here are some strengths and opportunities for growth (haha) that I think I have to look forward to developing.

COMPOSITION
I think I'm pretty good at composition, in the macro world at least. In fact, I hate having to crop my photos for prints or whatever. But I need to get better at cropping. I also need to do better with taking pictures level. I am terrible- especially in my downtown shots of buildings, with having crooked pictures. Must improve!

THINGS THAT MOVE
I like taking pictures of flowers. Or berries. Or plants. Or trees. Not really things that move. I would like to improve at this, especially taking pictures of people.

WHITE BALANCE
I kind of know what it is, but I want to get better. It effects color quality.

PHOTO EDITING
Today while I was editing some pics, I was just about ready to delete them all. Granted I was just having a bad day, but I really have so much to learn in photo editing, especially in color. I also want to become better at black and white photography.

BOLDNESS
One of the reasons I don't take pictures very well of people is because I feel totally awkward when I do it. I see incredible street shots so often that I could shoot, were I willing to be bold enough to take them. I will say I did take a step in this direction a couple of weeks ago by asking someone if I could take pictures of their fountain.

Onward and upward!

My weird life- Namaste

Sometimes things happen and I think, "Wow, did that just happen?" This is one of those things. The latest in a series of "My Weird Life."

Sometimes I am a bit honk-happy. I live downtown with crackheads roaming the street, I drive interstates to my commute, I'm a take charge girl, so sometimes I honk.

So Saturday as I was driving home, I was behind a car that STOPPED in the middle of the road. No stop sign, no yield sign, just stopped. So I gave a little beep of my horn.

Then an Indian lady (subcontinent) dressed in scrubs came out of the car and started talking to me, but didn't seem upset. She asked why I was honking. I asked if she was OK. She asked why I asked if she was ok. I said, well, people don't usually stop in the middle of the street. She asked if she could turn left at this particular intersection and I said yes.

By this time she was at my window that was rolled down, and after I answered her question, she just lit up like a Christmas tree and said, "Oh thank you! Namaste!" Then kissed her hands and pressed them against my arm. Then went back to her car.

Then I drove home, making sure she couldn't see where I live. :)

Oh my crazy life.

*Picture not related, but another weird Oklahoma thing I recently saw.

Tales from the sick bed

2010 was the year of the lame blogger- me. Wow. 32 blogs for the whole year! I can't say I'll do better this year, but here I am.

What else could drive me to blog? Being in bed with the flu. Day 4. The lack of human interaction is starting to seriously get me down. I MISS PEOPLE. I've never had the flu before, to mine or my mother's recollection. In fact when I went to the doctor, the nurse didn't want to test me for the flu because she didn't think I had it. This is because I didn't have a fever. But here's a fun fact about me- I can only think of one time in my adult life that I've run a fever (including my months and months in the hospital). I just don't get fevers. But alas, positive for type A. Yes, I did get a flu shot. Yes, I will continue getting them. Bad luck this year.

I got a new camera. Canon Rebel XTi. I love it. My first toe into the DSLR world. I've been playing with it and am totally in love.

In other news, some folks know that I like to go to estate sales (thanks to Auvrey for introducing me into this world years ago). I've started trying to sell some stuff online and have had two big hits of good luck. I sold a lovely 1930's Samsonite train case for approx 8x more than I bought it (plus shipping). Also, last weekend (pre-flu strike) I got an antique typewriter at an estate sale.

If I had picked it up before I bought it, I might not have bought it. :) It was so heavy! (turns out it's approx. 27 pounds) So I brought it home and started googling it. Turns out it is an Annell' No3A typewriter from 1922. You can see a vintage advertisement for it here. Apparently it is very rare in the antique typewriter collector world. I've already had an offer that is 10x what I paid for it. I'm pretty stoked, and can't wait to get it off my hands.

Flipping vintage items definitely isn't something I'd want to do full time, but it's a fun hobby.

Ok, time to go lay down again. Blog you again soon, Lord willing.