26 December 2006

Glass pane. Metal frame. Open. Close.

Twenty-some-odd years of Open. Close.

Sometimes easy. Sometimes not. Open. Close.

Recently been very hard to Open. Close.

Time to find another way to Open. Close.

Hammer. Crowbar. Muscle. Saw. Open. Close.

Two men, some screws and a level.  Open.  Close.

Now French Doors instead.  Open.  Close.

Just about the best Christmas present ever!  Kyle’s mum and dad, our landlady and lord, as well as beloved parents, arranged for the old sliding glass door, that has become such a problem in recent months, to be permanently retired and a lovely french door put in its place.  We’ve talked and dreamed about making this happen for most of ten years, and now, it’s finally a reality!!!  Woo hoo!!  I’ve put little sheer curtains on the doors, and I’ve got a plan in my head for heavier, moveable drapes to hang from ceiling height, to block the light.

The dogs are a little confused, but they’ll adapt quickly.  The humans are ecstatic!  Thanks Mother!  Thanks Dad!

~MB

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25 December 2006

Yep.  That pretty much says it all.  Cool shadows on the ceiling–bedtime, Christmas Night. 

~MB

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Ok. So, not really taken on December 24th, and woefully out of sequence. But, I have finally rescued this photo I took back on December 23rd from Marita Beth’s computer and uploaded it. Talk about some procrastination.

~KR (day fifty-four — 24 December, 2006)

Camera: Canon PowerShot A520
Exposure: 0.067 sec (1/15)
Aperture: f/5.5
Focal Length: 23.2 mm
Exposure Bias: 0/3 EV
Flash: Flash did not fire

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23 December 2006

In Fort Worth, Texas, when they say “stock exchange,” they’re not talking about virtual money like they are in New York.  This is not the NYSE or the NASDAQ.  This is good old fashioned “stock” like cows and pigs and sheep!  Of course, I don’t think much of that is still actively traded within the walls of the Fort Worth Stock Exchange building.  But, once upon a time, it sure was, and these beautiful iron gates kept folks honest after hours. 

I loved the way the light was shining out of the building, all golden yellow.  In order to get this photo, with the natural light, the way my eye saw it, I had to actually lay down on my belly on the lawn of the stock exchange building, and rest my camera on the ground, tilted up toward the door.  And still, I’m not sure the photo isn’t a little blurry.  But, I like it.

Made me remember, once we got home, though, that I really wanted to find that little bitty tripod we bought for Kyle so long ago.  Well, find it we did!   And Kyle has since teased me about leaving the little “three-legged alien” permanently attached to my camera! 

~MB

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23 December 2006

The day before, my wonderful husband asked me if I had any plans for Saturday, and informed me that if I did not, he wanted to take me “somewhere.”  Later in the evening it came out that he thought it would be fun if we went to play in the Fort Worth Stockyards area.  We hadn’t been there in a long while, and with the holiday feeling in the air, and a lovely day in the forecast, it seemed like a fun, fairly inexpensive thing to do!  I completely agreed and the decision was made.

We had a relaxed morning and left home around noon.  Armed with cameras and smiles, we walked, shopped, saw Santa in a red and white fur-trimmed ten-gallon hat, made new friends at a wine-tasting, had a great Tex-Mex lunch, and ultimately ended up attending the Cowtown Rodeo!  In short, we had a blast!  (Being notoriously bad with names, I’m recording here, for posterity, that our new friends are Corbin and Elena from the Wine Bar, and Amanda (newly moved to Arlington) and her friend Michelle from Las Vegas.)

We both agreed that we took so many cool photos while on the northside, we would take the day off from our photo assignment on Christmas Eve, and post two photos from Saturday, instead.

These lovely pansies are planted along the street in front of the Stock Exchange building.  I love the macro setting (which I am still learning, but getting better with) on my camera!

~MB

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Kyle tells me this is a photo of the Christmas lights on a house just down the street and across from our own.  It seems he got this cool effect by establishing focus, and then driving slowly past the house while the camera was actually firing.  I think it’s awesome!

~MB

~KR (day fifty — 20 December, 2006)

Camera: Canon PowerShot S1 IS
Exposure: 1 sec (1)
Aperture: f/3.1
Focal Length: 10 mm
Exposure Bias: 0/3 EV
Flash: Flash did not fire

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~KR (day forty-nine, 19 December, 2006)

Camera: Canon PowerShot S1 IS
Exposure: 0.6 sec (3/5)
Aperture: f/3.5
Focal Length: 58 mm
Exposure Bias: 0/3 EV
Flash: Flash did not fire

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~KR (day forty-eight — 18 December, 2006)

Camera: Canon PowerShot S1 IS
Exposure: 1 sec (1)
Aperture: f/2.8
Focal Length: 5.8 mm
Exposure Bias: 0/3 EV
Flash: Flash did not fire

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~KR (day forty-seven — 17 December, 2006)
Camera: Canon PowerShot S1 IS
Exposure: 0.5 sec (1/2)
Aperture: f/5
Focal Length: 15.6 mm
Exposure Bias: 2 EV
Flash: Flash did not fire

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22 December 2006     Yule

Daylight is just now really dawning as I write my thoughts on this beautiful, crisp (okay, cold) winter solstice morning.  It’s actually warmer in Wisconsin where our extended family lives!  (39 here, 45 there!) I had set my alarm for just after 6 a.m. and got up, donned gay apparel (okay, make that warm apparel!) and headed outside to snap photos.  Atlantis Terrace is a great street name when you’re captioning photos!  Unfortunately, it’s not such a great location for viewing sunrise.  The house faces south, so I walked up the street, to the west and shot back along the length of the street.  The holiday lights in my block were all dark.  But just a few houses up, there were quite a few, and I had perceived the picture in my head with the light of the natural sunrise in the distance, and the blinky, blurry Christmas lights in the foreground.  The horizon here, is too cluttered to actually see the sunrise, so the lights add interest to the photo.  At first, I was distracted by my shadow, and I actually took quite a few different versions of this photo before I was satisfied.  But, back indoors, with a warm cup of coffee next to the computer, I decided I really rather like the shadow, so I used one of my first shots of the morning. Except for the want of a tripod (again!) I’m not unhappy with the photo.  But, of course, I’d rather be photographing standing stones!

Today is the ninth anniversary of the MacRalph clan visit to the standing stones at Castlerigg, near Keswick, England.  Kyle and the Babes (Ginger, Lisa & MB) and Kyle’s folks experienced that incredible solstice morning, shopped ’til we dropped in the afternoon, and not one of us will ever forget that day!

Happy Yule!

~MB

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