Are you kidding me ?

I have officially run out of space on my current external hard drive used for backup of data and photo files. This last session was miserable as there was too much picking and choosing of which files I would even have space to backup.

Holy cow - are you kidding me? It is more than just decision time, it is education time: Firewire, usb, rpm's, c drive, d drive, new drive, high speed, non-volatile storage, platters, fault protection, compressed data, partitions, gigabyte, terrabyte, device drivers, all-terrain, system configuration, OEM, name brands, starting at only $89.99, nested levels, proprietary, pink ones, yellow ones, low profile ones. I just want one that works. Do you feel my pain?

My head won't stop spinning, so maybe I'll take an aspirin and get on it tommorrow. Send some good thoughts my way..............

ERIC The Nerd (meant in a loving way)

Eric, Eric, Eric - - how in the world do you find all this stuff ? Eric keeps us laughing. This is what he sent today. Wanted to share it with everyone, as it is a little unbelievable to see. Judge for yourself.

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Blessed Thanksgiving 2007

Count our blessings?

Yes indeedy

Special thanks to individuals serving overseas in the armed forces that are away from their families on this day. God Bless all of them. It is HUGE what they are doing for the rest of us. Ginny and Ben, a special prayer for your entire family and Michael. may God keep you under his watchful eye. We thank you for your service.

So many families are not able to be together today and some, sadly, don't want to be, which is hard for me to even imagine...... Mine, happily are all here in thought and prayer even though we were not all able to share the meal together today.

Here at home, David and Tristan and my friend Sharon came to join Dan and me for dinner. Hollye and Eric were in Colorado. My family from San Antonio was due to come here and had to cancel their plans at the last minute due to some illnesses. (we won't name names, but they know who they are, hee hee). We did miss them, but we got to eat their pumpkin pie. After dinner, Sharon, Tristan and I ventured over to Market Street for a 4 hour twilight/night photoshoot. Tristan was our photo assistant and model. He is so much fun to have around. Animated, helpful, respectful, witty and just an overall cutie pie. He loves to be in front of the camera, so we put him to work as the pictures show below. Had lots of fun. Sharon and I got ideas from each other through the evening. Earlier in the day we played with the wireless off camera flash which Nikon affectionately calls their CREATIVE LIGHTING SYSTEM...... It is fun, and so easy. Canon shooters eat your heart out.

I hope your Thanksgiving was spirit filled.

Mine was.

Give thought to your own blessings.

I hope there are many......

SILVERADO IS AMAZING

What a GREAT experience I had yesterday.

OH MY GOSH ....

I don't know where to begin ... let me just start rambling.

Did a photoshoot at The Silverado Senior Living Center of some of the Residents with their Families. The experience surpassed my wildest expectations on all levels. I came away with some absolutely amazing photos, and a renewed sense of the meaning of love. These pictures sooooooooooo tell their own stories, however for privacy reasons I won't be posting any of them. I can't stop going through the photos over and over. These people have no idea the gift they gave me that day. And we are heading back on December 15th to do it again.

Knowing it is near impossible for families to get these type of pictures taken with their loved ones, this is where Pam, Jeff and I came in. We ventured in to do portrait photography as a service to the families. None of us are portrait photography shooters so the fun began there. We know a cherished photo is absolutely priceless, and oh my gosh, did it feel good to do this. My hats go off to caregivers everywhere ...... They are special people for sure.

And thank you Pam and Jeff for jumping on board with this whole thing.

Regarding Silverado, I was more than impressed with the facility and staff.
http://www.silveradosenior.com/communities/the_woodlands/woodlands.htm
This place has 2 dogs, 1 cat, a bunny, aviary full of birds, and a bevy of colorful fish in a huge aquarium. Personal pets are welcome to visit too. How cool is that? Jeff said he was thinking of turning in his application for residency. That sounds like a great idea, I wonder if they would make me clean my own room and make my own bed ?

Here are a couple of photos of 2 of the facility residents ..... Rusty and Mango. I will let you figure if you know which is which.

Final note to self at the end of this day:
Any photographer has great power with camera in hand ... wow, something to think about.

www.susanlong.net

Smokey Doodle

Couldn't resist posting a few of our newest furbaby family member. He came with the name SMOKEY, however we are enlisting some help with optional names if you got any good ideas ........

Frankie could be good, I mean look at those blue Sinatra eyes. Yeti was suggested. He is a big ole lug. And I mean big. 19 lbs of lug and love. He is about 7 years old and is as sweet as can be. Lots of fluffy long hair, and yes, it is EVERYWHERE..... We will probably keep 'Smokey' as his 'given name' and perhaps use an alternate name that would be his middle name. We are open - so give us your suggestions. My brother affectionately says that Smokey is so big that he is his own zip code. Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

Look how he crosses his front paws..... it is just the most endearing thing to see. That's why I HAD to grab the camera.

SMOKEY'S ALL TIME FAVORITE TOY

Photoshoot Mania

Saturday was a fun and busy day with the camera and friends ......

Started with a shoot at one of the local firestations. Had a great time with free roam of the station..... the firemen were great hosts. Then in the afternoon with the help of several photo friends, did some mentoring with some youngster photo students. We did this at some local parks figuring this would offer subject matter of interest to them. We all had fun. The kiddos were buzzing around showing off their pictures with new techniques they had just learned. Pretty impressive results they were getting. I grabbed a little free time to shoot some fun stuff myself. Then, after all the hoopla of the day, I ventured out for some moments of solitude at sunset and got some more cool shots. There's only so much excitement this girl can handle in one day, and I enjoyed it all.

FIRESTATION

AT THE PARK

QUIET TIME AT SUNSET

Hope you enjoyed the show. See you later.

Laughter is Contagious

This is just the sweetest little video.

This little critter called a 9 month old baby has so much power to bring a smile to your face. I doubt you could prove me wrong. Turn up your speakers and enjoy the show.

Night Shots and Architectural too

Attended an Architectural Photography seminar this past weekend. Covered everything from history, to technical to critiquing. Learned alot, not to mention that I just added another lens or two to my wish list. Geez, it never ends with this photo stuff, but I suppose if I GAVE IT SOME THOUGHT, I would realize that would be true of everything in life, not just photography.

Here I go sharing a few photos which include 2 of my favorite photography subjects

architecture and night

Have tripod will travel. Enjoy the photos.



Until next time.

Give it Thought - My first post

OK EVERYONE :

Here goes...... my contribution to blogging from my corner of the world.

If you are wondering about the significance of the title GIVE IT THOUGHT... well, just that. Everything around us is worthy of giving it thought, and sometimes mixing in a litte action too. Whether it is something we see, hear, do, feel or taste. Wow, our five senses - how cool is that? God gave us these senses, use them to the fullest. Now, THAT is something to think about.

I will post pictures pretty regularly as that is a huge part of who I am. Hopefully you will come away with a special thought or two of your own about the words written or the photos shared. Let me know if you have any special ideas or comments to share. I'm here to share ideas, thoughts and keep in touch.