my aperturic annual – 06.23.10
June 23rd, 2010
My old roommate Whitney and her husband Ian had a little boy last week. His name is Justus. From what I saw of him tonight, when I brought the new parents dinner, he seems pretty 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.
my aperturic annual – 06.22.10
June 22nd, 2010
Let’s be honest. There will be days I just won’t be able to shoot an image. I’m trying. I really am. But yesterday was back-to-back appointments with an unexpected fender bender (not mine, but a client who had their car rear-ended while it was parked in front of my house). By the time I thought to take a photo, I was crawling into bed completely exhausted. AND…I had to get up bright and early to photograph THIS beautiful woman:
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.
my aperturic annual – 06.20.10
June 21st, 2010
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.
my aperturic annual – 06.19.10
June 20th, 2010
I headed this morning to the farmer’s market for the first time this season. I brought along my camera thinking I could get some beautiful shot of fresh produce. Something maybe full of color and wonderment. I took a couple shots. Things a little like this…
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.
my aperturic annual – 06.18.10
June 19th, 2010
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.