One last shot and I'm outta' here!

It's with sadness and joy that I post my last entry in my 365 photo blog.  It's been a wonderful experience. Have I become a better photographer than I was on 1/1/2010?  Not so sure.  But I've learned a great deal about photography and about myself.  For one thing, I've learned that I've never engaged in any art that I've found more inspiring and captivating, and I know that creating images will always be a significant part of my life.

After a few days of thought, I'll post my learnings from the year and what's next for me.  I do know that I'll keep posting when I have something worthwhile to show, just not everyday.  There may not be as many photos of my kitties or George drinking, but I know I want to keep this process in my life to some degree.

In the meantime, thanks to all of you who have followed me and given me feedback.  You've been gentle, kind and encouraging and kept me at this everyday even when I just didn't think I had it in me to post one more time.  So Happy New Year and stay tuned for future developments!

Mac within a mac

I have a new baby and as with all new babies, it's requiring a lot of time, energy and love.  Santa brought me a badly needed new Mac for Christmas and I've spent the last several days transferring photos, files, applications, etc.  I finally got Lightroom installed today (as you can see in the photo), so I decided to break it in with my next to last (yea!) daily blog post.  My new baby is so much faster than my old one, but it has served me well so I almost feel guilty posting my last two days on the newbie rather than staying loyal to my old friend.  But did I say how much faster it is?  Oh well....so much for loyalty.

Oh yeah....only ONE MORE DAY!!!!

Water drip

I kept thinking I'd have a burst of creativity as my blog comes to a close, but it's been just the opposite.  I think I have short-timers disease.  In my mind, I'm already checked out (and a little burned out).  There have been times this year when I've seen great images everywhere and then slumps like this one where I can see a photo op anywhere.  So since I haven't played around with dripping water lately, I thought the subject could use a re-run here late in the year.

Caroline

With just four post remaining, this was one of those omg I don't have a picture days.  At dinner tonight I snapped a quick one of my friend Caroline with my Hipstamatic app on my iPhone.  For any Hipstamatic fans, this was done with a Bettie XL Lens, Salvador (DreamCanvas) film, and I didn't use the flash.  Probably not my favorite combination, but it's fun.  Not much of an effort for today, but at least I didn't skip at this late date!  I hope to find a little creativity over the next few days.

Still snowed in

Not in the mood for much photography today.  All I want to do is sit by the fire and get my new laptop (thanks, Santa!) set up.  Here are a couple of quick shots, however, both intended to show the power of the wind that is howling outside our house.  One is a scene of the snow drifts on our screened in porch and the other is an image of the abstract patterns the blowing snow has made on our driveway.  It didn't turn out exactly as I had imagined it, but since I froze getting the shot I decided to post it anyway.

Fun, weird night

This afternoon about 3:00 we met some great friends for drinks and an early supper so that we could all get back home safely before too late.  It's been a snowy, windy day as you can tell by the "pond" we passed on the way to the  Bistro.  It was nice to be in a warm cozy bar with the howling weather outside.  We were having a great time and the about 4:30 the power went out.  It wasn't long before it got dark and the few of us remaining were sitting in the dark by candlelight.  We started singing songs with the one other group in the bar.  It turns out one of the guys at the other table was a Broadway musical actor (at least that's what they said) and had an amazing voice.  Of course, we thought we did too....(did we say alcohol was involved?).  Since there was a wood oven the restaurant fixed us good pizzas.  Finally we left in the pitch dark.  We've been in some cold situations before, but with the 15 degree weather and near white out conditions driving home, it seemed like one of the coldest nights we've ever seen.  Oh yeah, obviously the power came back on.

Christmas joy

Merry Christmas!  George celebrated the first white Christmas of his life today and as you can see he's enjoying it.  We've had a beautiful snow, although it kept us from traveling to visit family.  The second photo is the assortment of presents George's mom gave me for Christmas.  Some of you have heard the stories of her "interesting" gifts and the tradition continues.  A "purse", two appliqued handkerchiefs, a crocheted coaster and a nail brush.  At least it wasn't another girdle!  Wishing everyone a joyful holiday!

People we love

This is part of our extended family - my friend Elizabeth, her husband George, our Godson Larsen and his two sisters, Anne Christian and Nancy.  We dropped by this morning for a Christmas visit and they were nice enough to be my blog subjects for today.  We traditionally have dinner with them on Christmas and since we'll be doing something else this year, we'll miss being with them.

Morning wreath

This morning I saw the dawn light shining in my kitchen door and stepped outside to soak it in.  I liked the way it angled across and highlighted the wreath on the door.  One of these days soon I'm going to quit being so lazy and actually get out with my camera at daybreak.

Holiday kitties

Okay.....these may be the last photos of my cats this year, but at least this time they're in costume!  Hobbes loves (yes really) his jingle collar.  Suzy hates (but of course) her Rudolph ears.  Mojo ran from all the fun and hasn't been seen since (the smart cat).

Simplicity

With all the color and glitz of Christmas photos the past few days, I was drawn today to something simple, serene and minimalist.  This is a small stone I like.  I brought it home from our trip to Utah last spring, and given all the many gazillion rocks we saw on our trip, for some reason, I liked this little pebble.  It has a nice heft for its size, good texture and fits well in my hand.  I keep it on my vanity and it makes me feel serene.  Not sure why it has that impact on me.....I guess some things are hard to explain, and this is just one of them.  So even though this is a very simple image, it seems an apt antidote for overload of holiday stress.

Lights all aglow

Put my lens on manual focus and intentionally blurred these images to take these abstract photos of the Christmas lights around our house.

Dinner party

We had fun with some great friends tonight at a dinner party at our house.  Of course, the price they had to pay was being the subject of tonight's blog.  I guess you can tell how they felt about that......

It's Christmastime in our house

Finally finished decorating today and the house looks so festive!  The images are a little dark, but I didn't have time to play around with them tonight.  I'll do a better set before we take down the tree.  Anyway....fa la la la la!

Night scenes in NoDa

In NoDa tonight for dinner and the streets were decked for the holidays.  Here are a few scenes.

Night out with the girls

Had a fun night out tonight with some good friends at Dean & Deluca wine bar.  The photos are a little blurred and grainy since I didn't want to use a flash and it was fairly dark, but everyone still looked adorable as usual!  I really liked them in this creamy black and white tone.

Christmas cards

My holiday cards are finally finished and ready to mail.  Now will someone come wrap presents, ship, decorate and bake for me?  Pretty please?

Winter boots

As I look back over the year I realize that I've compiled a somewhat deliberate series of images of shoes.  As I was carrying George's snow boots upstairs this afternoon I thought they'd make a nice addition to the series.  I lowered the saturation and added some intentional grain to emphasize the rugged nature of the boots.

Naked

We got our Christmas tree yesterday afternoon but haven't decorated it yet.  It just looks so bare sitting there in the window.....

Snow on the mountain

We woke to 6 inches of beautiful fresh snow this morning.  For a brief time before the upcoming high winds, the trees were covered.  On the way down the mountain, a sliver of sun and blue sky highlighted the fog shrouded valleys.

Crawling out of the snow

With a major snowstorm on the way in Blowing Rock, it looks like this "woman" will never make it out before she's snowed under again.

Bistro Christmas

Out to dinner tonight and in a festive mood.  Christmas decorations look so much better with a little snow.

Men at work

Some shots of the activity going on with our construction today.  I give these guys a lot of credit for working outside on such cold days.  The carpenter in the first photo told me that it didn't get above 11 degrees yesterday, but they were hard at work.  The last photo shows what little heat they have to use.