I’m just checking in to report that it has been about 24 hours since I I have had to fight with technology. The camera, the blogs and the computer have all been playing nicely. At this rate, I may have to resort to fat burners to increase my heart rate since I’m not being stressed by the equipment, LOL!

Here’s a picture I took just a few minutes ago of some of the stuff in the corner of my desk. I’ll admit I should clean my desk if you will admit that looking at other people’s clutter is kinda fascinating.

Looks kinda like one of those I Spy scenes, doesn’t it?

That’s how long it took me today to get a thumbnail to show up on my stash page. I inserted it and it was fine. I messed with some code NOT IN THAT LOCATION and it disappeared. Then it showed up, but another one disappeared. And then the images started playing peekaboo in the photopress window. I fought with it for an hour until I said fuggidabowedit and just resized the original. And that worked. Five minutes of work lasted an hour! I think I can skip the Leptovoxtoday, since I burned off all those calories being aggravated, don’t you?

Today, I do have a picture to share with you. It is not one I took today, but it is one tat I decided to take JUST because I needed a PAD and didn’t have one yet. It’s my youngest daughter who has grown up quite a bit since you saw her. She’s still faster than my shutter, though, as you can tell by the blur. I guess auto parts would be easier to capture, but they wouldn’t be near as cute.

Yes, she wanted the sticker because big sis got one for her school work. They are all princesses, you know.

to the PAD. I was thinking last night, after I forgot the camera again, that even though I mostly took boring pictures when I was doing the PAD, I did take pictures. So, I decided that I would start doing it again. I may not post them every day, but I will take a photo every day. Today I took one of someone who wishes to remain nameless, but did complain today that her blemish acne cream was not quite working as well as she hoped it would.

As you can see, I did not do so well trying to take a macro of a zit with no flash and portrait setting. Some things are best not accurately captured, I suppose. But, HEY! My camera was in my hands today. That’s a total win!

And then, because I was a little bored, and thought I should play with the zitpic, I did. I opened picasa2, I did a focal black and white, and then a film grain and then a sharpen. Clearly, I have no life to speak of, but I do have a more interesting picture.

I forgot my camera again. Which was really bad, because there was actually stuff to take pictures of! No unlocked cell phones, but plenty of soccer players and foot ball players, too. And the cheerleaders. And the other day, I saw the cutest pair of tiny pink shoes just sitting in the grass.

I did have my picture made tonight, for my ID card. Does that count? No? Okay. I’ll try to remember.

Its like I forget I have a camera. Seriously! I never remember to grab it as I am heading out the door. And it’s hard to take pictures without a camera! Real hard. I mean, I need a camera to record things, because I cannot draw. I cannot draw a straight lines with a ruler. I cannot draw golf balls with a compass. This chicken little does not draw. I need the camera.

I asked my foto-friend, Alli, how she took such amazing shots, and you know what she said, right? “I always have my camera with me”. Yep, every time I have made a great shot, I’ve had the camera in my hand. Isn’t that interesting?

Today, I did a little playing with the Picasa2 photo editor. I am still not convinced that editing photos is really the best thing to do, in a world where we are already setting impossible standards for ourselves. BUT! It’s fun, and I like fun. It’s better than a poke in the eye. Or progesterone induced homicide.

So!

Here’s the original:

And here’s the soft focus:

And here’s the soft focus with focal black and white:

So what do you think? You can play with the size of the focal point, and also how soft the focus gets. Someday when I have more time, it would be fun to see if I could get just my eyes to be colored.

So, I had a brainstorm the other day. It was more like a brain toot, as you will understand when I explain, but … I finally realized that I can use online money machinations to help me with budgeting and planning for the big ticket items I want. Face, I am not gonna have $400 to $500 fall into my lap that I can spend on a camera. Or 700 for a computer’ But I will end up with $5 here and $10 there and maybe even the occasional $20. So. Paypal? Or INGDirect?

I have seen several of these caterpillar type centi-pedey things near or on my passion flower vines over the past several days. Aside from needing some natural skin care products to cure that prickly ugliness thing it has going on, does anybody know what it is? Will it become more beautiful with time? This is seriously the first solid colored caterpillar I have seen.

Like most people I have some photos that I think are “good”, that go beyond just capturing the physical objects that were present in the moment, and tell a story within the frame, or at least begin it. Sometimes, instead of a story it’s a essay, like the photos that show light and dark, or natural habitats that are not quite right.

So, my question for you is this: what do you do with those photographic trophies? I have some of mine in the header here, but not all of them, not even close to all of them.