And so, while I am not exactly dreading plunging back into the real world very soon, my awareness of the last few moments of summer break have awakened a certain nostalgia for what I’ll be leaving behind for the next nine months. The funny thing is how random and surprising my list turns out to be.  I love going to the grocery store on weekday mornings, having the time to bake leisurely, being able to pop in at my mom’s place of business with a coffee, attending yoga classes at all times of day, watching movies in near-empty theaters on Wednesday afternoons, letting the ginger cat loose in the grass while I water the flowers, and spending Thursdays on the lake with my dad.  I’ve been able to go to three yarn stores in one day this summer, which is just as ridiculous a delight as there is, and I’ve spent whole days camped out on the couch with movies and knitting projects.  I’ve dawdled to my heart’s content, which is a miracle considering how efficient I pride myself on being.  I’ve ventured to Albuquerque and Estes Park, and headed to Fort Collins on a whim on more than several occasions.

The school year just doesn’t allow for that kind of freedom…of course, most jobs don’t, so I shouldn’t complain and  I’m not.  Really.  I don’t view my reluctance to give up these things as a gesture of dislike for my job.  Rather I think of it as gratitude for the opportunities I’ve had this summer.  It hasn’t been an extravagant break by most measures of the word, but it has been an immensely wonderful one.  So, here’s to the remaining hours of summer laziness and the start of a new school year.

P.S. Look closely at the first of the “Runner Up” pictures for today.  A mountain goat is at the bottom right.  Generally, I try to avoid honking my own horn, but I just gotta in this instance because I was literally 20 feet from this fellow and quaking in my boots.  Obviously he wasn’t too concerned about my presence, but I felt sure he was going to charge me at any second.  I think I may have even had one leg in the car the whole time so that I could jump back into my seat at a moment’s notice if need be.  But seriously…he looks downright ferocious, right?

]]> http://photodork.org/2010/08/10/an-hommage/feed/ 0 http://photodork.org/2010/06/07/the-last-of-it/ http://photodork.org/2010/06/07/the-last-of-it/#comments Mon, 07 Jun 2010 14:00:35 +0000 Photodork http://photodork.org/?p=190 Alright, so today is the last day that I will squeak by with using photos from our recent trip to Eaton Grove.  This last set of images was kind of the catch all category: stuff that didn’t necessarily fit in with my flower or animal pictures.  I always just shoot whatever catches my attention or interest, so I really never know what I’m going to get (much like a box of chocolates).

This was one of the first things I loved about photography: that element of chance. Of course, its much more pronounced when you can’t just look at a little screen on the back of the camera and see what you got. Not to say that this isn’t convenient and all, especially when you’re photographing a wedding or whatnot, but something magical lies in prying open a developing tank and stretching the film out before you with no idea of what you’ll find. Sigh…please pardon the nostalgic moment.

Aside from the trip down memory lane, I suppose the advice I’d dispense for the day (’cause that’s what keeps you coming back, isn’t it?) is to photograph everything and anything that catches your attention, no matter how odd or unworthy of photographic attention it may seem.  I can’t tell you how many times I’ve become distracted with some weird little detail only  to emerge from the little world I sometimes go to with my camera and find someone staring at me like I’ve gone round the bend.  Usually it’s my dad…we have different ideas about art.  Very different.  Anyhow, that’s part of being a photographer, or at least the person with the camera in their hand at that very moment, if you don’t fancy yourself an artist.  You get to decide what’s important and direct your viewers’ attention to it.  Just make sure you use your power for good and not evil and you’ll be all set.   Remember: with great power comes great responsibility.

The highlight of the day was a trip to the semi-local plant nursery, where Dylan and I loaded up on flowers for our newly constructed flower bed.  I took my camera along and had lots of “Ooooh shiny!” moments, so the trip will actually serve as fodder for my Photo of the Day for the next several installments.  I think I took somewhere in the neighborhood of 140 images, so I’ve broken them into categories.  Eaton Grove also has a collection of animals (birds mostly) that will be tomorrow’s focus.  I mean, is it really fair for flowers to have to compete with a goose/swan (there was some debate over the species)?  I thought not, too.

This is not to say that the flowers weren’t spectacular.  I was dazzled by the sheer variety and number of lovely little blooms at the nursery and had quite a bit of fun just moving between the plants and photographing them.  Maybe one complaint?  (Because, you know, I have to be a bit of a pill sometimes.)  I find it really difficult to move away from using my macro setting when I’m around flowers.  I tried a couple of times to take wider shots and capture the way that the little containers of flowers went on forever, but I always some them coming out differently in my head.  And so I stayed pretty firmly in macro mode and felt a little gimmicky.  I mean, I guess I wasn’t taking pictures of babies in little flower costumes stuck in oversized terra cotta  pots (sorry Anne Geddes, that was kind of offsides), so at least I had that going for me.