Dr Cason's Friday Photo Challenge - on Saturday

Post for Dr Cason's Friday Photo Challenge - go HERE and check out the other entries.

Piles of Junk

Love that lens! Oh - and Go HERE, scroll down a bit and play DBWalkers slide show - its great.

Another Mt Rainier - For My Mom Whom I Love So Much

Landscape this one.

I will take care of you Mom - I promise.

My Photographing Partner in Crime This Day

I decided to go on a photo safari since the SUN was actually shining, and decided to bring my favorite assistant. We had so much fun.

A Grainy Street

A street of warehouses in the Port (slightly corrected for light and dark) Shot at 1600 ISO and posted for Understand Your ISO at Dr Cason's.
She rocks. Its alot of fun playing with ISO - my favorite is to Aperture Priority - black and white. YAY!

A Lone Goose

Or What!?!?!

Happy Birthday to my Brother Matt - I think he learned to drive a stick shift in a similar old Ford.

Another View From On High

Colorful Summer Girl

Dang, she's got a dirty face in this one. Can't get around that sometimes. Dirty face or picture? Picture usually wins.

Can't Get Enough of Mt Rainier

I hvae very few photos of this mountain. But the first time I saw it - I screamed my head off because it popped out from the clouds as I came around a curve in the road, and I flipped.

It's a pretty awesome mountain. I need more photos of it.

Birds Eye View

Looking down from the 11th St bridge. Himself was pretty nervous to go across, but got over it rather quickly.

2 Nails in a Telephone Pole

Greeblemonkey January Entry - Inspired by my Dad

Talk about inspired! This is a picture of my fathers hand, one of the two people (the other being my Mom) in this world who have inspired me and motivated me and helped provide me with the foundation of Who I Am Today. Everyday I am thankful for my parents.

And this photo is representative of that. My Dad being who he is, stuck his hand in while I was taking this picture. The cool thing is it shows his stubby finger, which is something I'll remember forever, but I've never seen a photo of it. Click on the photo for a larger look.

This is my entry for awesome Aimee's January greeblepix contest - go check out the other entries here.

Tonights Photo Safari

On photo safari this afternoon with Himself - trying out my new lens. I like this one.

Summer Image

From the nearby elementary school - they tore this stuff out a couple months ago.

I'm Being Interviewed!

Saw this over at Canned Laughter - http://cannedlaffs.com/a-hotfessional-interview/ and woo-hoo!! - now Joie has chosen to interview me - (mostly because I asked her too - wink) and here it is. (And if YOU want to be interviewed - just follow the instructions at the end of this post)

1. Your photos are AMAZING! Where did you learn to take pictures?
Thank you! I have seriously been interested in photography since I was in… 4th grade I think? I got some little box camera for christmas, took a photo class at school, and just always like taking photos. I took photography for one quarter in high school – borrowed my neighbors 35 mm camera (and a couple nice lenses) and had a ton of fun even developing and printing my own photos. I got my first 35 mm camera – a Minolta SRT201 when I was 19. hmmm… a history of photo taking but not where I learned. Mostly I take photos to please myself – and when I see pictures that others have taken I try to memorize what I like most, and use that next time I’m out. If you look at this post it is based on another photo bloggers photo. I do that kind of stuff all the time. And I’m still kind of old school in that most of my shots there is a little cropping, very little color correction, sometimes I’ll change a color photo to b/w. But mostly I try to take photos that I like SOOC (straight out of camera – I had to look that one up.) I work at it all the time too, I hope I’m improving. Sometimes tho, there are so many amazing photographers out there – I wonder why I even bother. So I keep trying to do better.

2. Do you have any photography idols?
Ansel Adams – the detail and texture and composition – there is no comparison
Annie Liebowitz – I love how much personality she puts into every photo.
I really like fashion photography and could just eat a vogue a day! I’m sure there are more but my brain doesn’t work as well as it used to and I'm drawing a blank.
I am inspired by many photographers every day – Aimee at greeblemonkey, Sheila at Dr Cason’s, Dave at DBWalker , Scott at The Sartorialist to name just a few

3. Do you ever worry about your delicious photos of children falling into the wrong hands?
Yes, yes I do and it has most definitely given me pause on more than one occasion. I don’t use their names, and I try to use unique labels for the photos, so sometimes I search for the images on google but haven’t found any yet. But my blog is also pretty obscure.
I do so love to photograph my kids – the joy from capturing a moment or expression (yeah I am a major dork like that) of one of my kids, the emotions those pictures evoke in me, I Can’t Not take photos of them, and post them. Plus my Mom, Mom-In-Law and many relatives look at my blog and they seem to want to see pics of the kids.

4. Do you prefer nature photography or industrial photography?
Both are wonderful and inspiring. Sometimes I find the nature part – especially this part of the country - to be almost too easy to photograph so I have to challenge myself and seek out the more industrial areas and make it look… not exactly beautiful, but aesthetically pleasing. Black and white is great for that.

5. What prompted you to become a blogger? Is it the same reason why you are still blogging today?
I started blogging because I get compliments on my photos, and I just kind of wanted to share, to see what other people think of something that is so very personal to me, and to challenge myself – I want to post a photo at least once a day for a year. Also, I like having my own blog to link to when I’m commenting. And I’ve met some very cool people from blogging, its nice to be part of that group.
I guess I’m still blogging because yes, all the same reasons apply. And as I go from one or two comments a month to one or two comments a day – its fun. I read recently that comments are the currency of blogging – I think that’s wonderful and I try to spread the wealth around. Its gratifying to have other people, complete strangers say Hey – nice photo.

Thanks for playing and don't forget the rules:You have to link back to the original post(http://immoralmatriarch.com/questionsagain) and also to my post http://cannedlaffs.com/a-hotfessional-interview/ and include the following in your post:

OK! your turn. Want to be part of it? Follow these instructions:
1. Leave me a comment saying, "Interview me."
2. I will respond by emailing you five questions. I get to pick the questions.
3. You will update your blog with the answers to the questions.
4. You will include this explanation and an offer to interview someone else in the same post.
5. When others comment asking to be interviewed, you will ask them five questions.

Dr Cason's Friday Photo Challenge

This is a duplicate photo post - but Sheila over at Dr Casons Photo Challenge wanted photos of children, and this one just grabs my heart and holds it. Its my girl, affectionately known as Herself.

Someone Got a Haircut

I emailed his teacher and asked if Himself having a mohawk would be disruptive to the kindergarteners learning environment. She said she really appreciated me asking but that it would be just fine. Couldn't resist some moooooood shots of his new 'do.

My Old Minolta

I took a bunch of pictures of my old camera gear to sell on ebay - most of which did go (tho I screwed up the shipping charges and barely broke even) but I kind of really like this photo.

Windswept Ocean Cliffs

Copalis Beach, Washington coast.

I think I Missed It - Nat'l Delurking Day...

Go ahead and expose yourself! (by commenting) erm, ah. I mean, comment if you're a lurker.

Big kisses!

Ah the Good Old Days.....

A New Begninning

Sometimes the best way to get to the new beginning is to take a look in the mirror.

This is Hubby's Shamrock Mirror that was his mother's, brought over from Ireland.

Holy Cow! I Won At Dr Casons! (and some more SUMMER)

December's Friday Photo Challenge Winner - me. I'm so... humbled, I almost didn't post about it.
People voted for my photo and it won.
So cool.
So humbling.
Wow. wow.

Day to Read January 8th!- a Book, Not a Blog (and a daily photo of course)

I was looking for a bookish type photo for this post, and remembered one I had taken when I very first got my new camera, of the bookshelf in the living room. Except... turns out its mostly movies. At least there are some good ones.

Read a book, or a magazine, or a newspaper, tomorrow! No computers, no blogs, nothing electronic - go to Soccer Mom In Denial's page and read all about it, then turn off your computer for Day To Read 2009.

I am going to have withdrawl tomorrow! Ok, so my book of choice will be probably two books - "Memoirs of Hecate County" by Edmund Wilson, and 50/50 by Dean Karnazes. Need some Dean to inspire me to continue my N Y Resolutions.

More Summer...

my guy, Himself.

August Was A Great Month

For taking photos. I needed a little blast from this past summer, and found Hot-Rod-A-Rama (actually started looking at it because I read Autumn's post and was inspired) and all sorts of fun photos. I realized too that I haven't been doing enough black and white of late. So I converted a bunch of photos to B&W to scratch that itch. But I do need to head out soon on my own winter photo safari.

Almost Forgot...

To post a photo. I was about to log off and suddenly I remembered.

Day to Read January 8, 2009

Check it out.

Red Slide Girl & Happy New Year!

Pretty much every time we go to this playground I take photos of Herself in the slide.
I love the Redness of it all in this one.

And Happy New Year to everyone.

I'm A Finalist In Another Photo Challenge

Over at Dr. Cason's blog (which btw she is an amazing photographer), she's been having a photo challenge on fridays, which I entered and I am a finalist - yay! Anyway, go here check out the other finalists, then vote for Me (if you want ha-ha).

Sunny Summer Beach

Cool Old Microphone

Can't you just picture Frank Sinatra or Sarah Vaughn crooning into it? Making your heart ache...