Dailyish Pictures: September 2008 Archives

I'm sure I've posted a picture of Queen Annes Lace before, but it is such a photogenic plant, airy and organized all at the same time, I felt compelled to post another. Perhaps as inspiration. I feel particularly unorganized at the moment. Of course, as Queen I'm sure Anne has servants for that sort of thing.

Despite her encroaching laryngitis Kyna was a camping star. She ran around like wild animal and whenever she opened her mouth it sounded like Janis Joplin had joined us for s'mores. Here she is looking incredibly angelic and I'm wondering why I don't photograph her more often. Photograph her sneakily, like I did here, so I can capture a little piece of her soul for my heart.

The fall garden, where things get structural.

This is the underside of a black widow spider, displaying a perfect red hourglass, and although I've heard that they live all the way up the coast, I'd never come across one before moving down here. Sadly this is not the first one to meet it's maker in my garden. My mother, Chris,and I, have all incurred many multiples of seven years bad luck over these gals. Truthfully, it breaks my heart to kill them, but until Kyna moves out I'll continue to do so. Any other spider is welcomed and protected to the best of our abilities both indoors and out (although we do move the indoor ones out when we find them), but I just can't offer these sinister beauties the same charity. I know fatalities are rare, but  Kyna is half the size of me and I'd rather kill the spider than go through the panic and stress of an emergency room visit.

I'm a little early, I know, but I really love Halloween. Last weekend I took myself on a craft trip to Michaels. This, this, is the result. I spray painted a twig wreath black, attached some peacock feathers and black roses, then glued on a cute little blackbird as the pièce de résistance. I also bought some silver sparkly spray paint, but I haven't decided yet if that would be overkill. So far my masterpiece has one avid fan, owing to the fact it has a bird on it, however, other than Kyna, its ripples on the art scene have been weak at best. That's San Diego all over, though. Total cultural backwater.

When Kyna and I were at the farm, I made us stay up until eleven at night, which is when the sun sets up there in the summer, in the hopes that we could see phosphorescence down at the beach. This is a photo of the last rays of the sun, but alas no phosphorescence. I'll have to try in the winter (when the sun sets at four thirty). I'm dead keen to photograph some now that I've thought of it.

Kyna being a giggly little scamp. As usual. She is in as much upheaval as I am with her new school and it's nice to see her smile.

I love yellow and blue as a color combination. Specifically pale gold and pale blue. It feels warm and calming at the same time. This photo was taken from a walk down to the beach when Kyna and I were on Denman Island. 
  

On our trip out to Jacumba, we passed an amazing automobile junk yard. All sorts of vehicles from every era surrounded this huge old warehouse out in the middle of nowhere. It was exceedingly creepy really. I took this shot from the train tracks behind it and kept having Stand By Me flashbacks.

Ok, this picture is really about the fancy-shmancy border that it took me an hour to do in Photoshop. Now that I put in the time in the trenches it only takes five seconds. If I use it on every photo I ever take from now on, maybe it will eventually amortize out to be worth it.

Speaking of windmills, I wish that we could hook ourselves up to them to recharge our energy levels. Or maybe it would be better to have little solar panels stuck on our heads. Maybe it's time I went to bed.

While I'm on the topic of dragonflies...

A dragonfly cooperating for a structural photo.

On our drive out to San Diego's East County we stopped in Jacumba. Where Kyna and I stumbled on this heartfelt request in the unisex bathroom at the local spa. Yes, you read that correctly: spa. Gives you quite the visual doesn't it?  The part that tickles my funny bone is that they felt the need to create special Jacuma letterhead.  As if the entire town sanctions the ideals documented thereunder.

Another shot from our East County trip.  Warm sun on green stems.

Yesterday, to recover from last week, Kyna, Chris and I took a long drive into East County. I took heaps of photos, Kyna called out the color of every horse she saw (and she saw a fair few, let me tell you), while Chris passed people like a man on fire every time we hit a passing lane on the winding two lane road. It was group therapy at its best.

I had a request for water photos from the editor of East County Magazine. Being the resourceful person I am, I took a series of shots of my bathroom faucet. I have no idea if this one will be used, but I really like it. I spent ten minutes actually cleaning the faucet, then I used a toned down flash and a quick shutter speed to catch the drop. Et viola! My bathroom actually looks clean!