The Photography

May I brag a little about our photography club? Yes? You don't mind? Thanks!

A few months ago, Jeff, myself, and several members of our photo club (Megapixels) submitted photos to a contest, sponsored by our local newspaper. The contest was Capture El Paso. The best of the photos were to be published into a coffee-table book. No one was to know the results until the release of the book.

Well, last Friday the book was released, and there was a book-signing party/award presentation at our Barnes and Noble. It was surprising and FUN!

Jeff won "Most Votes" in the Institutions Chapter ($100) with this photo:

I won "Editor's Choice" in the Plants and Animals Chapter ($50) with this photo:

In total, Jeff has 6 photos published in the book, and I have 3! I only submitted 5 photos, so 60% is darn good! Jeff and the other members submitted quite a few more, so my average was best!

;-) I can tease them about that!

One of our club members, John, won the Grand Prize (a new Rebel XTi), and 2 other members, Brent and Sharo won prizes! Several of our other members have pictures in the book too! Brent has FIFTEEN photos published! Jeff is calling him the "book hog". LOL It is well deserved though - he has a great eye and his work sometimes leaves me speechless!

Overall, we all did FANTASTIC!!!!

Here are some stats Jeff worked up for our club's forum:

960 people submitted photos

Number of pictures in the book - 200
Megapixels members' pictures in the book - 41
20% of the pictures belong to Megapixels members.

Total pictures submitted - 15,016
Megapixels Member submissions - 489
Only 3% of the submissions were from Megapixels members, yet Megapixels members have 20% of the published pictures.

Poor, Neglected Blog

Be sure to read to the end of this post for FREE drawing info!

Oh my...time has been flying by, and I haven't had a chance to post on my blog! I'm sorry blog...I'll try not to neglect you so much.

Truth is, I am engrossed in this Presidential race! I have been able to vote in Presidential Elections since 1984. I have always had a clear vision of who I would vote for, but have always thought that each candidate had something good to offer the country.

However, this year, my contempt for one of the candidates is running high, and I find myself having the cable news channels on all day, every day. I think I am driving Jeff crazy. ;-)

I won't say who I am speaking of - I don't want to start any debates here. And I won't mention politics again - I promise. Just wanted to let you know why I've been absent!

Here are a couple pictures I took while I was at my parents' house. They have a gorgeous piece of property in the middle of the desert - like a little oasis. Bugs, birds, trees and flowers are abundant. Sometimes when I go there, the ladybugs are all over the place. This time, it was grasshoppers - and so many different varieties! Of course, grasshoppers are pests, and no one really likes them, but I had fun taking their pictures!

Friday Fly-By

I was right...getting all this stuff ready has taken me all week! I still need to frame some prints, and make sure I have everything packed and ready to go, but I'm almost there!

This afternoon, we will go and set up our tent, gridwalls and tables, then bright and early tomorrow, will set up the displays. I enjoy doing these activities with the photo club, but my goodness, they are so much work!

Here are a few of my favorite pendants! PINK is of course one of my favorites!

I've always had a thing for giraffes!

This Could Take All Week!

I now remember why I don't do craft shows any more. They are way too much work! I guess things would be okay if I didn't constantly have new ideas, and have the terrible urge to try everything I think of! I'm a glutten for punishment.

Art In The Park is this coming Saturday and Sunday (as well as the annual picnic for the gas company where Jeff works). Thank goodness it's a photo club activity, and we will all be taking turns manning the booth. I'll be working on these glass tiles until I'm finished, and it could be the wee hours of Saturday before I'm done. Right now, I'm about half way finished putting the photos on the tiles themselves, but I will still need to add a sealer to the backs, add the magnets or bails, put the pendant tiles on their ribbon necklaces, then package them all up! Whew!

Here are the 2 inch tiles I have finished so far.

The 1" x 2" tiles...
The 1" x 1" tiles...some of these will become pendants instead of magnets.
And now, just pretend that this tile has a bail on it, and it is strung onto it's ribbon necklace. This is how I will be packaging these up.


Whatever is left over, whether it's prints, cards, magnets or pendants, they will all be going into Jeff's Etsy shop when I get back from my parents' house.
I'll try to check in later in the week...until then, you'll know what I'm doing!

Busy Weekend

Bugs & Crafty Stuff

I'm back, and with pictures, as promised!

I love my macro lens...just wish I was a little better with it! I usually take 50-60 pictures at a time when I find an interesting subject, but out of those 50-60, I end up with very few that are decent! Practice makes perfect, right? I'll just keep practicing!

Here's a little fuzzy caterpillar I found swimming in our pool the other day. I rescued him so I could take his picture and set him free. I walked outside about an hour later, and where was the caterpillar? In the pool AGAIN! I rescued him once more, and haven't seen him since! Click on the pictures if you want to see the larger, more detailed versions!

Here's another one of the itty bitty flies I find every day on my dahlias. They are so colorful, and I love the detail in their wings. This little guy is less than 1/4" long.

Yesterday, I discovered these little white things on the hibiscus. With my naked eye, I couldn't tell what they were, but they were being attacked by a million tiny ants. Enter the trusty macro lens! I'm still not sure what they are, but they look like roly-poly bugs that have been doing their roly-poly-ing in a bowl of flour. Don't they? For all I know, they could be something completely different! Anyone know?

Now for the crafty stuff! I MUST whittle down my fabric stash! I have vowed not to buy any more fabric until I make some kind of dent in what I have. Sachets don't make a big dent, but at least I'm trying! I have this problem...there are so many things that I want to make, that I can't decide what to make! I needed to get something done though, so I decided on the super easy sachets. Tomorrow's another day...maybe I'll throw all my ideas in a hat and go that route to make a decision.

All In One

This will be a mixed up post...I'll announce the winner of my Birthday Drawing, share a few pictures, and tell you what I'm going to tackle this Tuesday...all in one!

I hope you all had a safe and fun holiday weekend! My birthday was yesterday, but we celebrated over the weekend. Nothing big...just a trip to the zoo and dinner out. I told Jeff he better not get me anything because he bought me those wonderful new machines and digitizing software a few months back, and now it looks like I might be needing a new computer soon. I'm completely happy with that!

Down to business! We have a winner! The random number picker chose poster number 10...now who could that be?



Bunny B! Congratulations, Bunny! I'll email you today to get your mailing address. Thanks to all of you who entered! Of course, I'll give something away again next month, so please come back and visit me again.

I love zoos. Here, our zoo is nothing spectacular - it's small and they are working on lots of new exhibits, but it is a nicely maintained zoo so I enjoy visiting. Jeff and I went early Sunday morning, hoping that it would still be cool enough for the larger animals to be active. No such luck. They were all being lazy and hiding. However, the birds were cooperative, so that's about all I took pictures of. Here's a few shots - remember, you can click on each picture for a larger view.

A Road Runner! These guys are so skittish and FAST in the wild that I thought I would never be able to get a good shot of one. I had never seen a Road Runner in the zoo aviary before either, so I was surprised to find him there. I have known people who have never been to the Southwest, and who thought that Road Runners didn't really exist. They thought they were only in cartoons! YES, they do exist and they are pretty cool birds!

I don't know what this bird is, but I'm assuming it is some variety of cardinal. I'll ask my dad if he can identify it - he's an avid bird watcher. I thought he was pretty. Update: Dad says it's a Brazilian Red Crested Cardinal. Thanks, Dad!

A dancing White Wing Dove - he seemed to like the camera!

Again, I don't know what this bird was, but he was hilarious! He was about the size of a full grown duck, but had longer legs. As I was walking through the aviary, he walked right beside me. When I stopped, he stopped. When I started walking, he started walking too. I stopped and started many times just to see if he would continue. We couldn't keep from laughing! Silly bird.

A cute Emu...she came right up the fence and posed for the camera.

The turkeys didn't like us taking their picture though...this is how they told us to go away!

Well, since this computer is acting up, I think today my Tuesday Tackle will be to make sure I have everything backed up on my external drive, then do some cleaning up and defragging of my other drives. Better safe than sorry! Have a great day, all!

A Do-Nothing Day

I rarely have these days, but every once in a while, they are so nice! I did two constructive things today. TWO. I packed Jeff's bag first thing this morning (he had to go out of town for a short business trip), and I looked up a Latin phrase on the internet (I might explain that at a later date).

No laundry. No cooking. No cleaning.

After I got Jeff out the door, I went looking for bugs on my flowers. Jeff bought me a nice macro lens for my birthday last year, and I am just now putting some real effort into learning how to use it - less than two weeks before my NEXT birthday. It's not as easy as I thought it would be, that's for sure. Until just a few weeks ago, I would get frustrated and put it away without making any progress.

When we were on vacation, I used it a lot, and felt like I was actually learning something! Having Jeff by my side, guiding me really helped. He's usually at work when I decide to give it a shot (and get frustrated). It gave me the confidence to keep trudging along, and now I think I'm obsessed with looking for bugs and pretty flowers. Anyway, here's a bug I found this morning (click on it if you want to see the details):


And here's a couple pictures I took while we were on vacation:

I completely ignored all the pictures of my stuff that I still need to edit and went straight to editing the bug pictures. I'll get back to the stuff tomorrow. And I'll get back to the things I need to do. Or at least the laundry and cleaning.
Tomorrow evening is our monthly photography club meeting, and we always have it at a local restaurant, so I won't be cooking. This meeting could prove to be quite interesting, and Jeff is going to miss it! I wish I had one of those little tape recorder things.

This will be only the second meeting Jeff has missed since we joined the club - and both times because he had to be out of town for work. He's president of the club, and ironically, the other meeting he missed was the one where he was elected!

And I completely forgot about WFMW today - sorry. But I think I do have a tip for everyone...

If at all possible, take a Do-Nothing Day once in a while! It's healthy for your psyche!