The best part of waking up

is having someone else make you coffee. But if that isn't an option, then I still enjoy making some for myself. Last year my husband and I got an amazing deal on a super fancy espresso machine that I am just barely competent enough to use. I really enjoy having him make fancy coffee beverages for me anyway, so I make him be my personal barista as much as possible.

Then life happened. And our schedules don't line up as much as they used to. Now *gasp* I have to make my own coffee. Life. Isn't. Fair.

But I'm getting the hang of it. I still end up with steamed milk that is really just warm- it isn't the airy, whipped concoction that spectacular baristas pour into fanciful shapes at cafes. But it suffices.

I get coffee. The world is allowed to live. Win-win.

Catching up

As I said previously, it has been a while since I did a ton of photo-ish stuff. I started going through past images to find stuff to play with and realized that I have an entire folder of images from my trip to Chicago in May that I haven't even touched! I'm starting to rebuild a solid workflow in LR and PS, so this one took a while, but it was fun and I found a bunch of other images I want to tweak as well!

I spent a small amount of time removing a sign from the picture, and if I was feeling really ambitious I would have pulled out the  cars as well, but that would have taken a while since I'm SLOW with the clone tool. I think the train and the old-timey buildings are the interesting part of this image, so I may yet go in and remove the cars, but not today!

For reference, this is the original.

I'm getting back into the photographer swing, and the August challenge over at I Heart faces is perfect for me! The challenge is 'Pets' and I had three little hams running around the house begging for attention. Pickle was the most focused on giving me a charming smile though, so he wins!

Fifty50: Pickle

I love photo challenges, but you wouldn't know it from recent post. I admit it- I have fallen off the challenge bandwagon. For several months I had my days planned around what challenges were coming up and what photos I needed to capture, but... it was too much for me. Between work, pets, life (and I guess I should mention the husband), I just couldn't devote that much time to photo challenges.

But... then I realized  the joy of periodic and monthly photo challenges- yay! Over at Chase the Light, Tracey has a variety of fun and no pressure photo challenges to enjoy. This month she started her Fifty50 project which focuses on diptychs (she has a great explanation of what that is). So what did I take 2 photos of?

Pickle, of course!

Well, I was mostly focusing on his ears.

They kind of do their own thing, no matter what he wants them to do.

"Mom- I'm being serious. Stop playing with the clicking black thing and pet my belly!"

"What? These are my serious ears!"

Poor Pickle- he won't ever be taken seriously until he gets more graceful and learns to control his ears.

I hope that never happens!

Colors of Winter

Here in the South, winter does not have the same palette of colors as I remember from the North. Rather than a thousand shades of gray and white, sprinkled with browns, blacks and the occasional pop of color, we have a wide variety of colors down here. 

All the green is a particularly surprising change from what I grew up with- not a bad thing, but very different.

And this time of year, I'm sure there are this many acorns on the ground back home... but they are normally covered under a layer of snow and ice. I do enjoy getting to peek at these little seeds!

I have a faithful pumpkin companion who has hung around since Thanksgiving, and her lovely colors are also part of my winter. This one is a fairytale pumpkin, so there is a lovely purple/blue/white sheen to the orange.\

And, since there isn't any snow to keep them down, the weeds grow quite robustly here. It rained a lot recently, so I pulled out the weeding gloves and ripped a trash can full out of the Earth. Before I did that, though, I couldn't resist getting a macro of this water perched on a thistle leaf.

Puppy Eyes

I was up earlier than usual this morning, and before heading to work I curled up for a few minutes on the couch with Chowder. I got up to head to work, looked back, and this is what greeted my eyes.

Puppies are great at guilting you. "Mom, we need to talk. Really, you shouldn't have moved until I did, and then you should have pet my belly. And given me bacon. And cat food. Rude, mom, so rude." *sigh* I did give him a treat- I am a sucker for those eyes!

My workout

Puppy sweet and soft
Questions why I stand so odd
Perplexing yoga

I cropped the shot, adjusted the white and black levels, then used Pioneer Woman's vintage action to make it look a little dreamier.

Furballs

It is quite remarkable how I never get tired of taking pictures of my little balls of fur. Chowder sometimes poses for me.

Of course, it did take several takes to get that image. He always turns his head away as soon as I click the shutter- I have a TON of motion shots of the dude. Oh well:).


And want to know a little known fact?

Computer chairs- specifically those of people who are suckers for animals and don't like moving them all that much- come with magnets which draw cats like flies to honey.

Fortunately for Pepsi, her daddy wasn't home for the afternoon, so she got to lounge in her almost favorite spot for hours.

Scavenger Hunt

It has been several weeks since I participated in a scavenger hunt. I missed it one week, and kept on forgetting. But this week I took several images that match the prompts without having even seen the list until a few minutes ago. I think that means it is time for me to participate again!

1) Macro/Close-Up

 
2) Found Texture

3) Home

4) Cover

5) The Tree

Quotography & more

I've fallen off the photo challenge bandwagon. However, after a recent photographic experience that had me feeling pretty awesome, I've decided to start participating again! Without further ado- the pictures!

Today at work was rough, but watching my pup 'swim' through the grass upside down made me grin!

I used this tutorial (and btw- she has TONS of great tutorials on her blog!!) to get this shot. I just downloaded a random bokeh shot from deviantart and used it as the background texture. The SOOC (below) was boring, but I LOVE the final product!