One of my favorite days at work is the day before holiday break.
Being in an elementary school before the holidays can be crazy. But the last day before break is usually filled with lots of love and fun and excitement. And for the teachers and staff, a big sigh of relief that two weeks off lies ahead.
Today was wonderful. I was treated to lots of goodies from my students and my son’s band performed today and were fantastic! He made me proud on the drums…
So yes! Happy holidays indeed!
I am lucky.
When I was younger, I used to dream about being a sound engineer, quite an unusual profession for a girl in the early 80s (or any time for that matter). I used to watch my dad mix music and record local artists. He was always splicing together reel-to-reel tapes and doing all kinds of musical things that I found fascinating. I would sneak up to the music room in our house, and he would always welcome me and let me watch. He created in me a deep love of music that will always be with me.
I never did become a sound engineer.
But in November of 2006, Tony and I began hosting a pop music quiz at a local venue, first Elliott’s Revue, and for the past 6 years or so The Garage. One of my jobs at the quiz is doing the sound. So I get to sit in front of the mixing desk and live out my dream of being a sound engineer, albeit a small-scale one.
It thrills me more than I can say…
Here are some photos from our quiz tonight. It was our Christmas quiz and we got to spend it with some wonderful folks who have supported us for many years.
The moon was still out when I woke this morning.
It looked magical. 
I’ve found that sometimes the simplest gestures mean the most…
Today was our staff holiday lunch at Sawtooth. We all brought food and were going to sit at our student tables and eat together.
Nannette, our youth coordinator, snuck into the room while we were doing other things and decorated the tables for us as a surprise. Instead of having boring white tables, she made them festive and beautiful and put chocolates, sparkling cider, and an ornament at each seat. It was a simple gesture that meant so much to all of us and set the mood for a wonderful time together.
Thank you Nannette!
On the highway coming home from High Point…
…I snapped a photo of these trees against an oddly colored sky. I painted the photo a bit to get the look I wanted.
Jack is our Welsh Sheepdog.
He is crazy and full of energy and takes his job as a herder quite seriously. He is at his best when we take him to run in a field and herd the children. Today, Nick and I took him to Reynolda House to run in the big field in front of the house. He had a wonderful time, as did we. The sun was just about to set, and it had been a beautiful, warm day.
Nick and I had a nice time downtown today.
Here are some photos of our journey to the Krankies Craft Fair, Finnegan’s Wake, and thereabouts.
Thursday is laundry day.
Several years ago my dryer broke, so I started hanging my clothes on the line to dry. No big deal. Last year, my washer started leaking, so every time that I wash clothes I have to put a bucket under the hose to catch the 20 gallons or so of water that backs up and pours out. Big deal. So I just stopped using it, and now Tony and I go to the laundromat every Thursday.
At first I hated it, and I still do on some days. I would love to have the convenience of doing my laundry at home, but I just can’t afford to have it all fixed and replaced right now so that’s that.
There’s a great part of going to the laundromat and that’s knowing that I am there with nothing to do for about an hour and a half. So Tony and I take our magazines (his music ones and my photography ones) and read and talk and just generally enjoy each other’s company for the time we are there.
This Thursday was particularly enjoyable to the point that neither one of us realized that our laundry was done, as we were too busy talking and laughing.
That’s not so bad…
Lucky.
Lucky is my soul pony; we have this wonderful connection that lifts me up whenever I see him. He is a part of the therapeutic riding farm where I volunteer every Wednesday.
I’m supposed to be helping the children there and I do. But the thing is, the children and horses there help me just as much, if not more. It feeds my soul every week, and Lucky in particular makes me forget about my stress and feel a part of something wonderful.
So thanks, Lucky.
This one’s for Tony…
Tony and I have been having a debate recently regarding the ease at which someone can create a photo these days. At the touch of a button on an app for your iPhone, you can create crisp, clean photos or photos that look like they were taken 100 years ago. “Everyone’s a photographer now,” Tony says, and to some extent, I agree with him.
It is possible to create all kinds of effects with the touch of a button and I do it regularly. My primary professional camera, a Nikon D800, is heavy, and the lens that I have on it most of the time costs as much as the camera and is also very heavy. Consequently, I don’t carry it with me often. I use it for scheduled photo shoots, and that’s about it. For my daily use, I have my iPhone, which, I might add, I was very reluctant to use at first and fought the smartphone war for quite some time.
They say the best camera is the one that you have with you, and I tend to agree. My iPhone has allowed me to catch shots that I would have otherwise missed, and the clever photography apps that I have on it are quite fun to use. So I shoot more now thanks to it. But that doesn’t mean that everyone is a photographer and that I am cheating.
I think there’s much more to creating a good photo than just an app. The two things that make a good photo are lighting and composition, neither of which you can reproduce well with apps or post-photo manipulation tools. As a friend recently said, the best lens is your eye. That’s so true.
For me, before I take a photo–any photo, whether it’s on my iPhone or with my expensive camera–I size up the shot. I look at the lighting and consider the best possible composition. I think about what mood I am trying to create and why I’m taking the photo. I’m not random at all. Every photo I take I do so with purpose. If I take it and it doesn’t fulfill the purpose, I delete it. It’s the same thing I used to do in the darkroom as well, just much cheaper than buying loads of film and paper, ergo less wasteful. But the process is the same: deliberate and meaningful.
But just for Tony, today I used my Nikon and an old 17-24mm wide angle lens from 1982. The lens is completely manual, and in order to use it with my camera I have to adjust everything. I even have to focus manually. I have to set the aperture (on the lens itself) and shutter speed, control the white balance, set the ISO. There’s no technology available except for my eye and my knowledge of how to use light to create the shot I want. Even the dark edges are the result of lens falloff and not an app.
So here’s the result, right out of the camera with no post-production except for cropping due to the large size of the images. The photos are of a decaying wooden boat.
Pretty good for a 32-year-old lens, eh?
Mid-Century Me 