Pretty Peony.

After the crazy chaos of Little Dude's amazingly messy bedroom, the sublimeness that is the Peony.  My eyes and disturbed psyche thank me.

Considering Composition.

I’m reading Photographically Speaking by David duChemin.  I’m enjoying reading his thoughts regarding how one chooses to “frame” an image - what one intentionally includes and excludes, and how that decision impacts the story the image tells.  “As craftsmen we have many ways of including or excluding elements at will.  We have optics with different angles of view, we have apertures capable of creating various depths of field that include or exclude elements within the plane of focus.  We can move around a subject, sometimes in every possible direction.  We can expose in such a way that we plunge things into shadow and hide them from view…  The role of the photographer is to make choices.  The frame forces us to choose.  And if you are going to choose, then it’s best that you choose while keeping in mind that the reader [viewer] will make that primary assumption:  that you included everything on purpose, that it means something.” 


Just for the record:  Yes.  Yes, I did very much intend to keep every last little piece of visual chaos in this frame.  I included everything on purpose.  I shot wide and at a time of day when the light floods the room.  My aperture allowed plenty of depth of field.  Behold the glory (?!?) that is my youngest dude’s half of his room.  His happy place = my crazy place.  These pictures tell that story.

Sometimes…

… payback can be a bitch expensive.  A little background:  one thing that I know beyond a shadow of doubt is that my husband loves me.  He loves me well.  In our nearly 20 years (!!) of marriage, he’s never made me feel insecure, inadequate, anything less-than-what-he’d-want for a lifelong mate. 

So when his gaze lingers a little too long on the larger-than-life Oakley Girl on the side of the bus, or when he jokingly buys himself “Cardboard Girlfriend” for his birthday, the ONLY conclusion that I can draw is that … he must really like those sunglasses.
So I went ahead and bought a pair.  Because I just knew it would make him happy.

Fishers. And Followers.

Jesus came and settled in Capernaum, which is by the sea …

From that time He began to preach and say,

“Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”

And walking by the Sea of Galilee, He saw two brothers,

Simon who was called Peter, and Andrew, his brother,

casting a net into the sea; for they were fishermen.

And He said to them,

“Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men.”

And they immediately left the nets, and followed Him.

Matthew 5:13-20