Day 213 Tyler at dusk

I love that dusky time of day. It somehow makes you feel young again.

Day 212 Baja Fresh, half a vegetarian burrito

Let the plumber in, pick up dog messes, play catch with dogs, pay plumber, catch dogs as they run down street because gate was left open, watch Animal Cops Houston, do six loads of laundry after the plumber leaves, clean the bathroom, wash the dishes, clean out the kitchen trash can, vacuum, watch the Dog Whisperer, slice open a pineapple, clean out the laundry room, watch movie on lifetime, help my husband put together a new desk for the spare room, run to Baja Fresh for dinner, photograph dinner.

Day 211 Steven Swimming in January

WOW this is the ninth month that I have photographed Steven swimming. I actually had a bit of time this cold month as he was willing to suffer for awhile. Then he says to me as we were walking up the stairs to his apartment, "You are lucky to have me for a son. No one else would do this for you." I think he might be right.

Day 210 House from the Neighborhood

I shot a roll of black and white film on Ninth Street this afternoon. I wish I had gone earlier as it was so foggy. I love the fog. I also only have about one more black and white image scanned in to use for those days when I shoot black and white. Wish list; Scanner, the good kind. Mac book, the nice screen kind. Desk, nice long one so I can have a work space. Dark room, set up just the way I want. Oh no I don't want to much.

Day 209 Ninth Street feral kitten

One of the many feral kittens being fed by Ron and Zaff who work on Ninth Street.

Day 208 Woman and Child, and Bird on Horse on Ice

I'd like to do a whole series of old photographs on ice. The top image is probably the worst photograph I have ever taken. It is my half moon parrot Munchy sitting on a horse statute on my wild patterned bed spread. Fortunately it looks WAY better photographed on ice. The bottom image is of a woman and child at the beach.

Day 207 Nature's Fuzz Balls

The last time I was down South helping my mom learn how to walk again after her surgery, I noticed many of these fuzz balls. I set one aside to bring it home and photograph. As anyone can tell from my lack of posts, I was again down South visiting with my mom. I have no ability to take photos there and upload them to this blog. As I was leaving for my trip back home this time I remembered to bring my little piece of nature.

I have absolutely no ability to make a decision. I enjoy the black scratches of the black plexi glass in one picture but I also enjoy the reflection in the other. So what the hell another post of indecision.

Day 206 Supermarket Roses on Red

It was so difficult to get myself up and take a picture. I almost didn't do it. I mean seriously I know no one is watching and all I was going to shoot as the day passed me by was some stupid thing on black. It seems to be what I do lately. But I do love flowers and those cheap ass supermarket roses which were rotting away on my kitchen counter were begging to be photographed. I cloned out some of the blemishes.

Day 205 Red Hot Chili Peppers

After a very busy day my son took me out to dinner. Having not been able to photograph anything so far, I noticed the chili peppers on the plate of what used to be orange chicken. I loved their deep red and black color shimmering underneath all that grease.

Day 204 Watering the Rose Blue

Another take on the water dripping on the rose concept.

Day 203 Zaff

This image was taken on South Ninth Street. Zaff' of Zaff's metal recycling allowed me onto the property to take pictures.

Day 202 Steven on Ice

Reminiscing of simpler times, I found myself perusing through a vast array of images. Waves crashing against the shore while seagulls ran and squawked made up the majority, however one image stood out. I remember vividly taking a picture of my son walking all those years ago through a beam of light. So today I photographed my son in the sun on ice.

Day 201 Blueberries

Another overcast, cold, and boring day. As I realized the day was passing me by without a photo, I began to look for something at home. Blueberries have been sitting on my kitchen counter since last night. I love the way they look and so they are my subject for today.

Day 200 Red Dog with Green Dilated Eyes

In 1988 I attended my first Flying Short Course. I brought with me a portfolio which included a photograph of an older woman I had taken earlier that year. I was driving down a street in the San Fernando Valley, probably Topanga, when I spotted an old woman in her home. It was dark out and she had her lights on. I went up to her door and asked to take her picture. She kindly invited me in. We talked and I snapped away. Just learning how to take a picture and not at all used to using the flash, I pointed it straight at her. I still have that photograph with her dilated eyes, somewhere. Well one of the fun things about attending flying short courses is that professional photojournalists look at your work and give you advice. One of the men there told me in no uncertain terms "Don't ever put the flash in someone's face".

Funny the things we remember, I have been thinking lately it would be fun to do a whole series of portraits with dilated eyes.

Day 199 Coffee Splash

I thought it was about time to try for another splash photo. I've been thinking about doing it with orange juice as there is a commercial with an orange juice splash that keeps making an appearance, but I really love the way cream makes a beautiful design in the coffee.

Day 198 Ninth Street, Ron

This morning, a terribly foggy one, I walked up and down South Ninth Street and took a few pictures. Which means I get to post one of the black and white pictures I already have scanned in. I only have three or four more pictures scanned. I really wish I could buy myself a scanner.

If you remember on Day 104 I mentioned I photographed Ron with black and white film before I went back and took a few pictures with the digital camera. This image comes from those black and white shots. This is Ron again with one of the feral cats he cares for.

This is absolutely me favorite image of Ninth Street.

Day 197 My Junior College Campus

A couple of years ago I bought one of those old cameras. You know the kind that are really heavy and you can use sheet film. I never use it because I have an impossible time trying to see the focus line. But when I did first acquire the camera I went to my junior college and shot a roll of film. The black and white processed film has been sitting in one of my dresser drawers.

It is an absolute miserable day outside so I thought I would just take a picture of a picture. This is fair. I pulled out this sleeve of negatives and photographed it on a light table with a macro lens. Once loaded in photoshop I inverted the image. And there you have it. A black and white picture of my junior college campus.

Day 196 NIcky and Nicholas

I walked down South Ninth Street this morning. I didn't get the kinds of pictures I was hoping to, but I did find evidence of compassion, which I photographed. So I get to post one of the black and white images I have scanned in. This picture is of Nicky and Nicolaus. I met them the very first day I decided to photograph Ninth Street.

Day 195 A Walk in the Park

If you look closely you can see the guy sitting on the park bench in the bottom picture. By the time I got to him he was standing.

Day 194 Splash of Blue

I said I wanted a series of these splash photo's. You could take a bucket of water and ask people to throw a bucket for you everyday day for a year and have splashes of water everywhere! That would be an awesome series. I am using the bare trees because I love bare trees in photographs and since it's January I might as well take advantage of it. But really a splash of water can go in front of anything and on anyone. My son threw five buckets worth today and these are my favorite two images. I think I like the bottom image best.

Day 193 Covey walking away

I've been wanting to get another picture of my old man Covey, it's been so cold out that I have avoided it, but tonight even though the air was cold there was a pretty blue color to the darkening sky.

Day 192 Splash of Green

I'd really love to do a series of photographs based on yesterdays picture. So today I tried it again. This time my son threw the water for me. We threw water in different places and used different colors. These are my favorite for today.

Day 191 The New Year's Breakfast and Water Play

Since playing around with water I've had many thoughts about how to photograph it. Many months ago I thought it would be fun to catch water flying through the air. I have seen this done before it's nothing new, but I have never done it. Keeping this idea in mind I began to wonder about different scenarios, one of them being adding color to the water. I tried it this afternoon and love it as much as I thought I would. I have all kinds of ideas about throwing water, locations, color etc... that I can't wait to try.

I have ideas all the time. More ideas than I can possibly keep track of. One of them is to photograph everything I eat for an entire year. Not impossible, but would require dedication. Maybe next year. I also love my avocado picture so much that I thought I could photograph all kinds of food on those brightly colored bowls and piece together a project when I have enough pictures. With that line of thought I noticed how my breakfast kind of begged to be photographed. My husband made me some oatmeal, I added a little brown sugar and a package of raisins from oatmeal I had yesterday at Starbucks. This would have been my first breakfast of the year had I not toppled the bowl while attempting to turn off the flash and spilt it all over the carpet.