Foray into Fall Abstracts

Work and Play

All work and no play makes me a boring individual.... was lucky enough to get a couple of days of shooting in during the leaf season.. hope to grab another day or two before heading back down to Florida for the season..

All is good. Glad to be working so much and from home to boot. I have no complaints except I can't get out to shoot when I want! I have shot a little more this spring/summer/fall than I have previously. Starting to play a bit with macro and extension tubes.. the world of photography is one I can easily immerse myself in and never come up for air..

Homeward Bound

Finally get to go home tomorrow. I have been stuck in Hudson waiting on my renewed passport to arrive. Cap'n Steve and the cats went back 2 weeks ago. I remained with the dogs. I do cherish my time alone. Don't get me wrong.. Cap'n Steve and I do pretty well together considering we are TOGETHER 24-7 90% of the year.. that other 10% I usually go visit friends/family. Being married is not an easy thing for me. It's not hard most of the time.. but I make it a bit harder than it has to be during the trying times. I am afraid of losing myself.. of becoming dependant. I always said the greatest compliment I could pay my husband was that I wanted to be with him, that I didn't need to be with him.. something about need.. that word scares me.. but then I don't think twice about saying I need my girlfriends and value their friendship so very much.. Why can't I say I need my husband.. what am I afraid of? What am I trying to hold on to? I am frightened that I may screw my marriage up because I am going through some crazy mental gymnastics with imagined or real fears. Well these last two weeks have been good - I always like it when I come home (wherever Cap'n Steve is) and can't wait to get there.. that's how it is for this trip. Now if I can just keep myself together for another 3 months (until the next planned trip apart) and not let my fears rule my head, life will be good.

The Blue Angels Give Me Goosebumps!

I love the BA's. Something about jets doing incredible maneuvers.. If you have never seen a show in person..it is unlike anything that I can describe. It is not just about flying.. it is about the human spirit, the military, daring to dream. At least for me it is. My dad got me interested in shows when I was a kid, after all he was a defense contractor! We would go to shows, and we would go to airports to watch the planes take off and land and we went down to the cape for Apollo 11's lift off. So I was lucky the Jennie's brother has ties with the coalition forces stationed at Centcom on McDill.. so he had (and has had for the past several years) VIP passes for McDill airfest. VIP passes are the best. They park you in the front right where the maneuvers are executed. You basically have front row, center seats. Also, by having VIP passes, you are allowed to bring in back packs so it was easy to bring in my photography kit. (regular entry disallows backpacks). So this was my first try at photographing them. My lense (Nikkor 80-400 vr) is not known as the best lense, but I read up and I believe that this lense is capable of getting some good shots, with some major practice on my part. I only really use this lens to photograph whitewater boaters. So here are a few from my first try. I am going to try and get to a practice session or two this summer while visiting with Debra, and look forward to next year and hope that Ben invites me again to McDill Airfest!




For those interested in the photography aspects.. it is tough shooting.. You need to expose to the right more than you think.. because you are essentially facing into the sun, your camera will want to meter off the sky, spot metering is not possible because of the speed.. so you must over expose so that the jets don't wind up as a silhouette.. well I still had to beef up in PS. Also I would be too tight and lose them.. again, it is a matter of practice. I knew what a lot of their maneuvers would be, but I was too slow, or would lose them. It is a wonderful exercise and even though I don't have that many keepers... I know with practice it will get better.. I can't wait for the next opportunity!

A Nice Break from the Routine

I had a nice little pat on the back this week. I am a reader of Pioneer Woman the last few years (since her first SXSW recognition)and thoroughly enjoy her site. If you aren't familiar with her, google her and you will read quite an incredible success story in the blogging world. Anyway, she has a pretty good photography section to her blog and periodically runs assignments/contests. PW is infamous in the blogging community for her contests across all of her web site, she is very generous. I have entered a few pictures over the last year in her photography assignments, but this one hit home for me. The assignment was dog pictures. Well since my animals are my main models, you bet I had a few I could enter for that. I entered 4 pictures and she chose this one as one of her final 10 (out of approximately 10,000 entries). I feel a little special right now.. and very much inspired. It's amazing what a little positive recognition does ones soul. And for those who are interested in the technical aspects: shot with a Nikon D300, 70-200 2.8. I shot this the first week I had this camera and the second week I had the lens. I believe I was wide open and probably at 1/1500 at ISO 200-400 (my standard outside although I may have been on auto ISO at the time since the camera was new) I loved my D50 but the focusing system on the D300 is excellent for action of my calibre and for driving the 70-200 and I knew I wanted to be able to capture more pictures like this, hence the move up in equipment.

But there is sort of a downside to this story.. I don't have my raw file of the above shot. In fact, I had to download the picture off of my smugmug account, as I didn't even have the jpg. In December I made a major boo boo and blew away (like the alliteration?) my external hard drive with all of my photos on it. I have a general backup here in Florida, but it didn't contain this shot (I lost most everything I had shot last summer)and I am keeping my fingers crossed that I backed up the photography external to another general external that is at the cabin. I remember distinctly backing up before we came down, but I am thinking I was backing up from my hard drive rather than my photography external.. so I am bummed.. in a bittersweet kind of way. I also blew away the photos in the previous post of the dogs in the snow last spring.. and only have the web sized photos of those too. Not a good year - but I have learned my lesson and now have good a good backup procedure in place so I hopefully won't ever be in that position again.. makes me so mad at myself. But hey! Watchya gonna do? I know that I would never be able to enter any picture in any professional contest (if I ever choose to) without having the raw file to back me up.. Anyway - it was fun to be a small part of PW's site and see the comments from her readers. It has inspired me to keep on keeping on!

I confess... I am totally having an affair

..with our "new" puppy, Rosie. Well we have had her a year, and I am amazed how much I am in love with her. I don't know if you have ever heard the saying "What's time to a dog" - meaning they greet you with the exact same enthusiasm if you've been gone an hour, a day, a week... you get the picture. Well to paraphrase that saying, I am so in love with that dog, it happened very quickly and it's as if I have loved her for years and years. But I was that way with Mattie, and with Tucker. Some animals reach into your soul so quickly (if you let them and they want to) in a way, it alters time. You can't imagine your life without them.

After Lass passed, we weren't sure about another dog. We didn't know if Mattie would accept another dog. We considered a (older) rescue, but since we just came off a 10 year situation, we didn't want to subject ourselves or Mattie to that again. If we were to get another dog, we figured it would be a puppy and it would be the best opportunity for Mattie to be accepting of another dog.I love the aussie temperament and kept my eyes open locally but nothing jumped at us.I also watched aussie rescue (in Florida and Georgia) for 6 months for a puppy. I knew I wanted a dog that I could do agility with but also hopefully do some therapy work with. Aussies aren't like Golden Retriever's, a friendly outgoing dog to strangers. And we live in the country most of the time which means a fair amount of isolation. We came across a breeder of aussies who did a lot of therapy work with some of her dogs and her dogs seemed ideal. We fell in love over the internet..


Rosie comes with papers.. but what she also comes with is a history..at this moment in time, we wanted a (false?) sense of security in this dog. 10 years of living in a powder keg will do that to you.











Mat loves this pup as if it is her own. I am in love. In my dog hall of fame I count Tucker, Mattie and now Rosebud. We are excited for the future.

Blowing away 10 years of photos in 2 seconds or less

I was trying to format a free drive on an external.. trouble was, I got mixed up in the 8 drive letters and formatted the wrong drive.. Formatted my whole external where I keep and process most of my photos.. AAAARRRRGHH.. I do have a backup with me and one at the cabin.. BUT.. I haven't shot a ton this summer and I hadn't backed up the last several months. I had one set of pictures that I really felt were worth saving at any cost. Trouble is when you go to recover, you don't get to pic and choose.. you get what the program gives you.. and I didn't have enough room any where to recover 140Gig - even though what I really needed was just 10 gig off that drive.. SOOOO I had to take it in.. I told the people they were photos, that they should look for specific extensions (Photoshop PSD&XMP, Nikon Raw NEF and JPG)- told them I was able to recover without a problem using Photo Rec - but I just ran out of room.. well 10 days later and 3 programs on their part, I get the drive back.. and they didn't use a photo recovery program.. the SOB's... they used a general program.. in fairness, I was luckily able to retrieve the photos I was most concerned about (after renaming TIF files to NEF, but no PSDs, which I will live with. But it really disheartens me, because I know they could have been recovered better, but these idiots wouldn't listen to me, even after they told me they were having problems with their recovery programs and I told them what I had been successful with.. it was a freaking free program to boot! I should have been more assertive.. and I should have let them put the data on another external, instead of letting them copy back to the original drive after recovery and let me keep the formatted drive in tact so that I could try to recover on my own again..(in the time they had the drive I was able to order another external) So I realize I am at fault more than they are.. and I am thankful to have the pictures that I do.. but my lesson has been learned (luckily without being burned too bad except in the money department) I will be much more diligent in my backups.. this is a good opportunity to initiate the Lightroom DAM (digital asset manager) that I have been holding off on for the last 3 years.. so here goes nothing.. Chris comes in tomorrow.. Puppies got groomed today and I need to take Christmas photos - I can't believe Christmas is a week away.. It all seems to go by in 2 seconds or less...(picture on the left is taken on N.Boulevard in Tampa - Nikon D300, 70-200f2.8 @70mm f13 with a 13 sec exposure.

Facebook, Twitter, Texting and Blogs - Oh My!

I'm baaaack!

For a middle aged woman I feel I am in tune with some of the world, completely out of tune with other parts and totally deaf for even more of the world. I am pretty geeky so the world of computers, the internet etc does not intimidate me. But I just can't get my head around Facebook and Twitter. Maybe because I don't maintain a large social network or even a very good business network, I find these two applications annoying. As I understand it 20 somethings see text and FB/Twitter as the way to communicate. Email and phone calls are something you do with your parents and business communication. (I am getting better at texting, though I am still pretty slow). Also I am not a huge "follower". Don't get me wrong.. I have an RSS reader full of blogs, so I do follow.. but I don't hang on every post or feel the need or want to keep up with someone via twitter, whether I know them or not.. I guess a lot of "commercial" posters keep their followers on twitter via giveaways etc.. I am not that hard up for a free t-shirt.. I can go to the thrift store for that!

I do see the appeal of FB and Twitter for businesses.. so social network, I am not into them. Professional network..you betcha.. I definitely understand that media side of the apps.

What I have a really hard time with FB and Twitter is the inane status updates and millions (okay hundreds) of pictures of the FB profiler themselves. But I have been reminded that it is called FB for a reason. It all seems very narcissistic to me. "Look at Me Look at Me" - to 200-700 of my closes friends.. eeuuuw... but that seems to be the 20 something's social modus operandi. I just value my privacy a bit more than that. I know I know.. I am writing a blog.. but you don't see my birth date, my face very much and I don't tag my pictures for google to index.. so there is a decent amount of anonymity this way while still sharing with the friends and family that care to read the posts I put up.

So I will be posting a bit more on here.. I will have a link on FB for the blog so any one of my few social network friends who get bored can come cruise if they want..
During the last year we got a new puppy, "lost" a future daughter in law through a break up, and gained a son-in-law. Mattie, Cap'n Steve and the cats are all doing well. So we will get caught back up over the next few weeks.

Christmas at the Cabin

We really had our Christmas back at Thanksgiving when the kids came to visit at the cabin. It was so wonderful to have them there.. so today I post some of the pictures. I shot some portraits because my candids are always so poor...We were so happy to meet Letisia, Chris' fiance and welcome her to our small family. Abbey and Chris were in great spirits and we thoroughly enjoyed having them both together.. they are Steve's blessings and I am so fortunate to get to come along for the ride.. great kids...

If you build it... they will come....

It's going to be a nice Thanksgiving here at the cabin.. well actually it may be more Christmas than Thanksgiving.. Both Chris and Abbey are coming.. It has been years since they have both been here (in Ga.) together..and Chris is bringing a new member to our small family.. a fiance! We are looking forward to meeting her and getting to know her. The weather here this time of year is not nearly as nice as SoCal.. and we actually look a bit dreary with no leaves on the trees.. but I hope to rectify that a bit in the cabin. We are all stocked up on wood as the darn cabin stays pretty cool this time of year without a nice fire going. Abbey hasn't been here since 2000.. though she did come for a wonderful visit a couple of years ago to the Florida home. Wish Abbey could get her friend Heather to join us.. think of her as part of the family too.. but anyway - excited.. imagine they will be camping out in the guest quarters. We put in a wonderful gas stove up there that really heats up the place toasty warm.. plus it is well insulated.. much more comfortable than the cabin.. which is one reason we built it, so we could live there in the winter if we needed or wanted to.. Seeing the kids will be such a nice diversion from all of the politics and financial meltdown.. this has all left me rather disheartened...

It's Girl's Weekend here at the Cabin - Woo Hoo!

Geeking For Good

Well I have been spending some time lately doing volunteer work for a local animal rescue group.. Second Chance Animal Sanctuary. I called to donate some things to their tent sale and got to speaking to Penny, one of their volunteers, and she said something about they didn't have any computer help at the moment, and I said I could help out.. and so I have been. I helped put together a newsletter for them as they had not put one out in a year.. The group has suffered the death of one of their co-founders, the death of another member, and the woman who normally prepares their newsletter was caring for a terminally ill parent and trying to get married... so it was a pleasure to be able to step in and help them. I have donated to them before.. but I knew I couldn't foster any dogs and not really any cats, so I never contacted them... Anyway.. come to find out during this last year they also let their Internet domain expire thus rendering them out in "no man's land" with their website.. So I set them back up and offered to redesign so that we could incorporate some of the latest coding techniques for search engine optimization. Also developing the site to help bring in donations.. Anyway - the bones of the new site are in place and now I just need the embellishments... I think everyone is pleased and I have offered to continue to be their webmaster and anything else I can do for them, computer wise. Which works out well for me because I can do the computer work from the winter home. I am looking forward to volunteering with them and hopefully help them recruit some more volunteers to help with some of the things that need to be done. In fact, the Volunteer Page of the website is high on my list of "to dos"..along with some internet exposure.

I have done my share of volunteering.. My favorite was doing therapy dog work with the corgis through the Happy Tails group in Atlanta. I did that for several years until we moved up to the cabin. I really really enjoyed that.. I found I really liked going into Assisted Living facilities with the animals. It is so hard when you get older and you have lived with animals all of your life and you can't have them anymore. I became friends with several residents and especially looked forward to the monthly visits with them. I try and remind Cap'n Steve that I will come visit him with the animals when he needs to have assisted care... he doesn't laugh...I can't understand why..

Lost and Found Part Deux

What do you do when a beloved animal dies
(our sweet Miss Lass)
that has a special place in your heart?

If you haven't read part one, you might want to catch up with it before continuing.

It's been just over a month now since Lass died. We still have heavy hearts, the tears still well up pretty easily, but we all are moving along.

After I hastily sent an email to Lass' original owner, I received an unexpected thoughtful reply, within hours. Yes, he was the one that gave Lass over to rescue. He said he did it to try and save a 6 year relationship with his girlfriend who within a year of giving up Lass, he married, and not too long after that divorced. He said he thought of Lass often. He had two other Border Collies, in fact one was Lass' mate and the other was her puppy. LASS HAD A PUPPY ... sort of a huge aaaaawwwwww moment for us. He said he loved her dearly and it broke his heart to give her away. He wrote that he contacted BC rescue to make sure Lass was okay and that he would take her back, but they told him she was in a loving home. His note showed how much guilt he had for giving her up. He kept Lass' mate and her puppy until they both passed away as old dogs. His note brings tears to my eyes as I reread it now. He offered to talk to me about Lass and I took him up on it, but via email. I emailed him two times right after receiving his email. One email was about the struggles we had with Lass, and the other was about the joy she brought to us. I haven't heard from Lass' original owner since his only email. I can only suppose that I stirred up some emotions that he did not want to remember. I can respect that. I was so excited to hear from him and see that he was a caring person.

I guess there are several morals to this story. The first biggie is: Don't ever give up an animal that you love for another human being. I learned that in the demise of my first marriage, which involved my corgis, and my parents to an extent.

Giving up an animal, whether to rescue, or a friend or a family member is a difficult decision. When you are looking at what is THE BEST situation for that animal, trust yourself that you are doing the right thing. It is interesting that 3 people close in our lives have recently given up their dogs because of their living situations. The dogs were all loved, but all three of these people knew that the dogs could have even better homes, homes that could give them the time and attention that they needed. It was a difficult decision for all, and I respect them for making the hard choices.

When giving up an animal, do you tell the recipients about the problems you are having with the dog? I wonder... I don't know the answer to that question. I do think that Lass' optimum home would probably have been where she was the only dog and that someone was home most all of the time. If we had known that she might have had a history of "issues with other dogs" (and we still don't know her history) - we wouldn't have taken her.. but we didn't know.. I believe when you take a rescue, you have a good chance of getting a dog with "issues"... just be prepared to make the commitment to the animal and work as hard as you can. If I could say one thing about doing dog rescue, it would be make sure you have a lot of time to spend with the dog. Preferably that you don't work outside of the home. Dogs with issues need a lot of time, love and attention. But it was so worth it... We can't imagine never having had Lass. I am glad we were able to adjust our lives to hopefully better hers.

I am currently doing some volunteer work for a local rescue group. I am offering my computer skills and I am in heaven. I call it Geeking for Good.. but anyway - one of my tasks is to update/redesign the website. They have a quote on there that I love.. Saving one pet won't change the world, but surely the world will change for that one pet. When I am done with the redesign of the site - I will link to it from the blog.

Grooming tools for my pets

I have just finished brushing The Squeek, Queen Kiki and Mattie and thought I would pass along a couple of tools that I think are indispensable, for both dogs and cats. First is "The Furminator" I just purchased this jewel a few months ago and it is wonderful for animals with undercoats and animals with short, medium or long hair..equally. It is "da bomb" (I am so with current vernacular... NOT lol).. I can't say enough good things about it and wish it was available when the corgis were alive!


The next thing I want to recommend is a comb that I first heard of 10 or more years ago off of Corgi-L. It is called a "Grooma Comb" I've never seen it in a Pet Smart or Petco (at least in the dog/cat grooming sections). It is really marketed toward horse owners as a mane detangler. I really like it for Mattie's tangles. I have had the same one for 10 years and I think it works very well. That's not to say it magically detangles, but it helps me get through some matted hair that I would otherwise be getting the scissors for and snipping away. I purchased mine in a local tack shop in Atlanta. Anyway - just thought I would pass along..enjoy your holiday weekend!

Drum Roll Please.........

Okay - don't faint.. we both are still catching our breath but TA DAAA....
The garage apartment aka guest quarters aka Steve's Quarters aka the Man Cave is essentially completed!! I know I know... pick yourself up off the floor.. it's only been what.. 6 years?





If you don't know that whole saga - just do a label search on guest quarters and you will see a few of the construction phase pics..

So without further ado.. your own personal guided tour! Friends who have decorating capabilities - you are welcome to come up any time and go shopping with me for those little special treasures that will warm the place up. I am going to photoshop in some of my pictures before I blow them up and have cap'n Steve frame them. Oh I think I should find a new name for Cap'n Steve - maybe like Old Saw Steve or some such...with the emphasis on Old..as that's what we both have become while he has meandered his way through this project, plus his birthday is coming up and I just like to remind him of his chronological place in this household! :)

You should note that Steve did 99% of this work by his lonesome. I helped maybe a total of 3 hours and he did have the plumbing roughed in. Otherwise this is his baby.. and no nail gun for him. Every nail was lovingly pounded beneath his hammer, and a few fingers. And this was his first stab at things like tile work and custom door knobs and handles..

Remember you can click on any picture to see a larger version:

Here's a shot looking back at the entrance - yes we have to paint the door - will probably be a forest green. The carpet is a berber with natural colors and some green in it..we thought it provided a good contrast to the pine walls. We went with the rustic feel because we didn't want whomever staying up here to miss out on the "cabin" type of experience if they weren't staying in the cabin.



Okay - the living/dining areas..






Both bedrooms - don't ya just love what I've done with the place.. Hey - it's only been 48 hours since the carpet went in and we have been cleaning and unpacking stuff that has not seen the light of day for 6 years.. oh I found that fry baby strainer I was looking for...oops - I digress... sorry..






The bath..



And last but not least.. the kitchen






And here are a few of the finish work...Steve did a nice job.. the curtain rods are small branches...and you know how I was fretting over those curtains.. I like them - they came out pretty good, especially for a first try...(I did the curtains - so I have about 18 hours total into the garage to Old Saw's, what? 10 million?)