Today, however, the moment presented itself quite clearly and I took it.  I hereby post a very fun image of one of the boys in my neighborhood who stopped by between my shoots today selling art of his in hopes of getting to California.  I will share with you he was quite savvy in his salesmanship.  He told Sarah, my office manager, his pieces sold for two dollars.  When Sarah came downstairs (after answering the doorbell to find him standing there and asked if she could borrow a couple bucks), I headed up to see his work and hoped to surprise him with an unexpected tip when I pulled out a five.   Apparently, however, the piece I had chosen was one of his best.  It sold for $5, not $2, so I reached back in to literally get the last two dollar bills in my wallet so I could own this.

What you can see is how happy he is holding the last money I have in my wallet.  You can also see his sketch.  What you can’t see on the sketch, however, is the phrase he wrote in a quote bubble coming out of the man’s head.  It says (and I quote), “Tell ‘em to shove off.”

Hilarious.

Then, we headed back to the deck I supposedly never invite him over to hang out on.  I had a moment of zen watching the sun set, as the clouds turned from white to orange to pink.  It was loverly.

I tried to get a photo of him on the deck.  You know…the one he never hangs out on.  He did not cooperate.

[ Image removed because nobody wants to see me in a unitard that tight. -Jared ]

Then, we attempted to become wildlife photographers, as apparently I’m becoming Snow White with the bagillion rabbits, birds, lightening bugs, and whatnot hanging out in my backyard.  Just when we had given up hope, Jared saw this shot.  Thankfully the camera was in my hand, as it would just be embarrassing for him to take the shot of the evening and not me (though arguably, the shot above would definitely beat this).

Then it really started getting dark and I started playing with settings on my camera I should be much more familiar with.  That produced this.

Which led to me trying to take an image at 9:30 p.m., but exposing it to make it look like it was actually the afternoon.

Which just started leading us towards all sorts of chaos with exposure and whatnot.

Ever wondered what Jared would look like with an ear for a nose?  I can show you.

Creepy, isn’t it?  It’s kind of like a movie poster for “Dr. Jared, Mr. Hyde”.

Then, after many attempts, I think I got the shot I wanted.  The following would officially be my entry for the day.  A much better contribution than the iPhone whatnot from above.

Little did he expect to have as much fun as he did.  Jeremy and I pushed him in the sky chair suspended from the tree in my backyard, and he clearly got more air than any adult ever has.  He giggled so loud, saying over and over, “I LOOOOOOOOVE THIS!!!!!” as he swung back and forth.

I will have everyone know he always preferred it when I was pushing him.  Jer’s a responsible parent, wanting to make sure he didn’t get hurt.  Jer said, “You push him like an aunt would, I push him like a dad…”  Maybe I should’ve been a little more cautious, but no one was hurt.  Promise.

I’m going to rig up a seatbelt system for the next time he comes.  He is quite the daredevil of a child (takes after his daddy…a bit time rockclimber).  Even after multiple times of Jeremy telling him to hold on, Zion would lift his hands off the bar at the peak of the push mid-air.  Let’s just see how happy this made him, though…

Eventually, the heat got the best of me and Jer, so we came inside.  Zion proceeded to stay out in the yard, attempting to push the swing more on his own and then hop inside as it flew by.  It was hilarious.  After he joined us inside when he finally realized it wouldn’t work by himself, I continued to win points by giving him a cherry popsicle.  He tried at one point to brush his teeth with it (crazy kid!)…

But most of the time he just sat there and enjoyed cooling off a bit after the swing adventure…

Zion is becoming a big brother this week to a new little girl.  I’m pretty excited to meet her.  If she’s half as cool as her brother, she’s going to be awesome.

Look below as he tries to pucker up for some sweet mom lovin’.  Hilarious.

Baby yawns.  They’re pretty much like grown up yawns, only 1) they come from smaller mouths and 2) they get much better reactions.

In all seriousness, big huge congrats to the new ‘rents.  It’s fun to see people I love start families.  Can’t wait to hang out more with Baby Robot.

Everyone, meet Sara Swenson.  If you don’t know her, you should.  She is both wonderfully sweet and wonderfully talented.  We’re recent friends through church and the one and only Jared Hurst, but we should’ve been friends a long time ago.  Life would’ve been more amazing had I known her sooner.

Anyway…Sara is an incredible musician.  So much so, she was just selected to be the Kansas City local talent to play at this year’s Lilith Fair.  It’s a big freaking deal.

We headed out early this morning to get a shot for her album.  In order to have the CDs ready for the merch tables at Lilith Fair, she had to get all the art done by Wednesday (she was notified yesterday she was selected, making today the prime opportunity to get out and shoot something).

I’m counting this as my shot for the day for two reasons: I wanted to take it and I’m not letting her pay me for it.  Well, I’ll hopefully get a free CD and a ticket to the Lilith Fair out of it, but still…  My aperturic annual is all about getting out to take images I choose to take for my own pleasure.  Mission accomplished.

I will also point out, ironically, that taking images of Sara at recent shows was part of what started me thinking I should start the “aperturic annual” in the first place.  Here are a couple images of her on stage this last spring.  Man, this girl is fun to watch live.

This is my dad, enjoying the meal I made for him on Father’s Day (this course: a dessert of fresh blueberries with grilled peaches over ice cream, garnished with fresh mint and drizzled with peach infused white balsamic vinegar).  Here he is, sitting on my new deck – a huge dose of fun for him given the fact that he is healing well enough to be on it…not to mention he didn’t have to lift one hammer to help build it (I’m growing up so fast).  He’s laughing at me trying to take a photo of him.  I love that smile of his.  He rarely smiles like this when a camera is directed at him, so let’s just forget about the fact I should’ve had my 85 mm lens on to focus on the smile and ignore the crazy perspective the 16-35 mm lens gives his hand in this shot.  My original idea was to get an image of him on my deck – one that would better show the setting.  But the silly man just wouldn’t smile until I got six inches from his face.  So…I’m also attaching some before and after photos of the deck now since my original hope of said photo was lost.

Let me first explain how the deck came to be.

Since I’ve moved into my home (over seven years ago), there have been two things I haven’t liked about it.

1) No direct entry into my house from my garage.  I had to either park in my driveway and use my front door or park in the garage and walk onto the screened in porch and then through two doors to get into my dining room.  With the whole Waldo rapist deal, this became something I finally wanted to correct.

2) No pantry in my kitchen.  Obviously, less important than safety, but a girl can only store her cookie sheets in her oven for so long before she decides it’s high time for more cabinet space, seeing as a lot of cabinet space is being used for food since there is no pantry.

I’ve been dreaming now for a while of building a small mudroom that would take over a small portion of my existing screened-in porch.  It would allow me direct access ito my home, as well as space to put in a pantry.  Thanks to a nice little tax return, I was finally able to get this done.

Friends of mine from church (the same ones who worked on my bathroom) came and bid the project.  It came back a bit less than I’d expected.  So I decided to tack on a deck.  Well, I decided to have them blow out a window, put in a door, and then tack on a deck.  I mean…I had to, people.  With that mudroom taking over where my grill used to be, what else was I supposed to do???  In all seriousness, I’ve had this great, huge backyard for quite some time now, but no real decent access to it.  The deck has become a fantastic means of access to it, and overtime I hope to add a patio for a table and umbrella for outdoor eating, some landscaping, and perhaps some beds for gardening so I can grow my own produce.  Ahhhh…glorious.  This is without a doubt becoming the house of my dreams.

I’m sad I don’t have the cabinets in yet for my mudroom, but I will post images of them as soon as they’re in and done.  The wall that’s not completely painted in the “after” photos will have a pantry, a broom closet, and a wine rack.  It’s going to be awesome.  I’m pretty excited.

Here are the before pictures:

And now…the after pictures:

I have to laugh…I know full well I took the images of my deck in it’s “after” stage in the best light of the day, so of course it looks way better than the light I used in the before shots.  Kind of like the before and after shots of people make-overs when the woman in desperate need of a haircut wears a white t-shirt and no make-up and stands under florescent lighting.  Then, after the make-over, wears the best color suited for her skin tone, has had her hair and make-up professionally done, and is standing in window light all aglow.  Regardless, let me just say…

I. LOVE. MY. HOUSE.

And then I turned around a saw THIS bit of color and wonderment.

I’m not sure what barrels she was trying to sell, or why they were $55…but…she was clearly the most photograph-able part of the market this morning.

Took another class tonight at the culinary center.  Enjoy a look at the work of Taryn’s hands.  Yes, as a matter of fact, that is her hand in the background on the right.  No, as a matter of fact, that’s not what I was going for.  Yes, as a matter of fact, now that I point that out, I maybe should’ve cropped this differently.  No, as a matter of fact, I’m not going to because I’m sleepy and want to go to bed.  Yes, as a matter of fact, I am most certainly going to do just that.