After we finished eating, we drove down Beach Drive in Surfside and I took a few photos.  This has been the site of some controversy the last few years in that Texas law requires public access to all beaches.  As you can see from this photo, erosion (from the effects of the Houston Ship Channel and the rock groins, if I understand correctly) has taken a good bit of the beach with it over the years.  A number of little beach shacks on the front row were tied up in legal battles because while they once were set back from the shoreline, they now actually stood on the public beaches.  Several of them have been moved or torn down, but there are still a few like this one still standing.   As you can see, these houses are not safe any longer since so much of the sand has washed away from under their foundations.  While I am sympathetic to the individuals having to relocate, I can’t feel too sorry for them.  These are things that you have to consider when choosing to live someplace like this.

I particularly like this shot … a storm was blowing in.

This old barn is on C.R. 457 between Bay City and Sargent.  I was driving home from measuring some windows for a possible client and spotted this beauty on the side of the road.  I am really trying to keep my camera with me at all times …

I’ve been dreaming about taking this class for YEARS … literally.  Now that I’m in it, I’m wondering if I wasted my money.  Don’t get me wrong.  I am learning.  But I have some issues with my instructor.  Well, actually not my instructor, but my instructor’s sidekick.  They own a photography business together.  The actual instructor is the techno-geek.  The sidekick is the “artsy fartsy” one.  His words, not mine.  He’s the one that’s ticking me off.  I think he is so impressed with his “artsy fartsy-ness” that he can’t be bothered with technical questions.  In the first class, he emphasized that we have to learn how to work our cameras … that’s not something that he can teach us.  Read the manual over and over again until we understand it.

Hmmmm.

Well, my homeschooled kid tested at Post High School level on reading comprehension last year.  I guess I could set the curriculum we purchased this year on the kitchen table and say “good luck.”  Read it and read it again until you understand it.  I’m off to do a little shopping and get my nails done.

Get my point???  Yes, we’re responsible for familiarizing ourselves with our cameras, but I’m paying HIM to lend clarification when something is not clear to me.  I actually said, jokingly, “What if the manual is Greek to me?”  His response?  He is currently trying to figure out how to do something with his Nikon and he’s read the book 14 times and still doesn’t understand it, but he’ll keep reading it until he figures it out.  Sounds like a huge waste of time to me.  Why not find someone who can help you work through the challenge a little more quickly?

Last night they split the class in two — one half practiced with depth of field while the other practiced with fast and slow shutter speeds.  Artsy-fartsy stood in front of a dark background tossing a ping pong ball in the air while we took pics using different settings … striving for blurred images (that’s a first!) and crisp images in mid-air.  When we first went in the room, he said “Set your cameras at 1/15th …”  Well, on a Canon Rebel XT, there is NO fraction on the menu display and that threw me off.  Another girl was having some problems, too.  Instead of coming over and assisting us, he just said, “Let me know when ya’ll figure it out.”  We finally did, but it really ticked me off.

Then we got stuck with him on the depth of field work, too.  He was explaining that you can focus 1/3 between the object in front and the middle object to get a fairly good focus on both.  I’ve always been told that there’s no such thing as a stupid question, so I (foolishly) asked if that’s the same thing as focusing on an object and then recomposing your shot.  He said, quite dismissively, “No, that’s locking your focus.”  And then turned to the next person.

The last part of class was the evaluation of the self-portraits.  There were some good ones, a couple of really good ones and one really GREAT one.  When mine came up on the screen, everyone seemed to like it pretty well and Eddie (the real instructor) commented that I’d sent him a book with it (explanation of the settings I used and how I got the shot).  He said he liked that (more information) and asked me to tell the class.  So I did, and Artsy-Fartsy interrupted me when I said something about focusing the camera and running around the corner … he said, “It’s a little out of focus …” and then said, “What kind of glasses are you wearing that you can hold the book that close to your face?”

Unless something changes quickly, I’m renaming him the Artsy-Fartsy JERK.

1.  I love photography … my first camera was a Polaroid One Step that shot the little square pictures out and then let you watch the “miracle” develop right before your eyes.  LOL  From that point, I borrowed my mom’s instamatic until my parents gave me a Canon Sure Shot in 1984, before I went to visit a friend for spring break in Virginia.  I had a wonderful time taking pictures on that trip, and I’ve never stopped since.  Sadly, that camera bit the dust (I wish I’d kept it … it was really neat in that it had a “telephoto” lens that screwed to a mounting ring on the front of the camera … very unusual.)  I had another Canon Sure Shot, and then for my 10th anniversary in 2002, my husband bought me a Canon Rebel 2000.  A couple of years later, I dipped my toe in the digital pool with an HP 735, and last year for my 15th anniversary, my sweet husband gave me a Canon Rebel XT. 

I’m not real big on posed shots, preferring candids (“sneek and shoot” heh heh …) and architecture.

2.  My favorite book of all time is probably “Gone With the Wind” … I was in seventh grade the first time they played the movie on t.v., I couldn’t watch it because of a church function.  So I checked the book out from the library.  Then my parents gave me a 40th anniversary edition with a foreword written by James Michener.  I read the book SEVEN times in one year, until my mother threatened to take it away from me.  The shortest amount of time it’s ever taken me to read it is just under two days, breaking only for potty breaks.  LOL

3.  My favorite author of all time is probably James Michener.   After reading the foreword in GWTW, I had to find out about this fellow who wrote historical novels.  I read Centennial, Hawaii, The Fires of Spring, Sayonara, The Drifters, The Source, Chesapeake, Tales of the South Pacific, The Bridges at Toko-Ri, and Caravans.  I must confess that I had a difficult time with Poland and Texas … but my understanding is that his later works relied heavily on the assistance of graduate students at The University of Texas – Austin.  So they are not “pure” Michener, like the earlier works.

4.  I can’t stand Hemingway.  Or Faulkner.  Hemingway didn’t use enough adjectives.  Faulkner used too many.  And literature teachers who insist on finding symbolism in each and every comma of a work should be shot at dawn.

Please keep my friend, Miss O’Hara, in your prayers.  She lost her dear little buddy, Remington, earlier today.  If any of you have had a special furry friend in your life who’s gone on to the other side, you know how heartbreaking it is.  I lost my dear Australian Shepherd three years ago, and there are days when I run across a snapshot or two of her that my heart aches just as strongly as it did December 8, 2004.

So please say a prayer for Jen and her husband Zach, for comfort, strength, and peace during a difficult time.  Thanks.

Record cold for northern Minn.: 40 below

This is my favorite girl in the whole world.  She’s 12 years old today.  Time is flying way too fast!(This is an older photo taken a few years ago at the beach about 10 miles from our house.  I just love this photo … her favorite color is red and one of our favorite places is the beach.)

What’s Normal About You… And What’s Not?
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I don’t know what made me do it, but about 3:00 p.m. today I called over to the window blind office that I’ve been telling you about.  Only to discover that they were given instructions by the owner (who left for Thailand this weekend) to shut it all down TODAY.

1.  So they won’t be making the last order of blinds that they promised me on Friday.

2.  And they won’t be repairing the order that I installed two weeks ago that had quality issues (they weren’t strung properly).

These two issues are not total disasters in that I will call #1, explain what happened and either refund her money or start from square one with new options, with her deposit going towards whatever she chooses.  As far as #2 goes, my old shutter installer knows how to repair blinds and will only charge me $25 for each blind that needs repairing.  I had not paid for the blinds yet, so I will use the money to pay him for the repairs.  There are 12, so it will be $300 to repair them.  The balance due was more than that, so I’ve got enough to cover it.  Right or wrong, I do not feel guilty about not sending the manufacturer the balance because he did not feel guilty about leaving me in a very difficult position with my clients. 

He’s already removed all the computers from the office (over the weekend, I suspect) and so there’s no way for them to look up my invoice anyway.

The thing that freaked me out and caused me to “race” as quickly as 4:00 o’clock Houston traffic would allow was this:  the company had picked up some blinds from a client of mine from two years ago to make some warrantied repairs and the blinds HAD NOT BEEN RETURNED TO HER.  So I had to race up there to pick up the five blinds that had been repaired, but not returned to the client.

If I had not called them at 3:00 to check on things, I don’t know that I would have been able to get those blinds back.

I SO need a new career.

I read this column this morning, and while I have to say parts of it irritated  me, the man is absolutely right.  I don’t like it, but he’s right.

My organizational project continues and I am feeling pretty good about the progress I’m making.  I promise to take some pictures when it’s all done and show you “before’s” and “after’s”.  But for now, schoolwork and laundry are calling mine and Jami’s names.  Have a good one, and maybe I’ll be back on later today.

Well, I went to Houston to pick up the last two blind orders only to discover that the material needed for the last order had been used for another order and they had no more.  She promised to make the order using real wood stock with no increase in price (good thing, too!) and told me I could pick them up this week or they would deliver them.

When I left, I called my shutter installer to tell him what had happened.  I mentioned that the crew must have left a little early since it was Friday (it was about 4:15 when I called him).  He informed me that the production crew had been let go and his understanding is they are going to finish up their last few orders using the office staff (some of whom used to work on the production line).

Would have been nice if they’d told me that when I was there.

So I guess the company is truly closing up shop completely.

I have some serious motivation for getting this photography gig rolling …