Yesterday was an extraordinarily busy day, I used my timer trick which seemed to help by reminding me that there are not enough hours in each day, but other than that the timer worked out swell.  Yesterday was also a shipping day for Besotted Brand, which I always enjoy, maybe a tad too much as the shipping encroached on my other responsibilities like taking my photo for the first day of Souvenir Foto School. I knew I was going to shoot quail eggs as my first subject, what I didn’t know was how hard it would be to find quail eggs in the greater Los Angeles area. If I failed with my shoot last night it was not so much the quality of the shots (which I didn’t mind), but the fact that I don’t think I was able to capture how flippin’ cute quail eggs are.  They are so tiny and delicate, just taking them out of their miniature carton I was able to crush the little shell with the slightest of pressure. I am totally in love with quail eggs, but I wouldn’t eat them. Who would?  It seems like such a waste, they are about the size of a cube of sugar, how many quail eggs would you need to eat to even know you had one?  Have you eaten quail eggs before?  If so how? Why?  Just curious, not judging…

It’s 11:42 p.m., I almost didn’t make this edit in time and would have had to start all over next year!  I made it though and to day 32 at that! I am feeling just a tiny bit proud of my minor accomplishment even if this edit looks like I didn’t do much. I did.  I also used a great free action from Red Leaf Boutique, it’s from their film shift collection and I quite like it, I wish I could afford to get the whole collection!

I will be editing a photo a day for the remainder of 2012::Project MMXII, this is my ‘after’, you can view the ‘before’ here.

This was an ambitious edit and I wasn’t sure it would work.  I doubt I could ever print this out because it is so minuscule, but it was a challenge to try. I stole a tiny butterfly from the original image (it’s so small if you blink you won’t see it). To tone down the pixelation I played with my new app Big Aperture, it’s .99 and pretty awesome for creating creamy bokeh.

Tomorrow is our first day of Souvenir Foto School, I am so excited.  I am really sorry for those that don’t want to see another photograph from moi  I am working behind the scenes to put together a brand, new shiny blog design with a lot more varied content, so I hope you can stick with me these next couple of months while I try to keep my focus + sanity.  I promise it will be worth the wait!

I am on cloud nine today. No, not because I had to go work all day for that client that makes me want to go rock in the corner, nope. I am high on the possibility of things to come, an intoxicating feeling, which also seems to land me deep in the present.  For a non-new-agey person, I think I may have sounded definitely ‘out there’ and new-agey.  I am taking another huge leap of faith this week and letting loose said client, which means I will not have the ‘security’ of a paycheck.  I understand what they mean by leap because it feels like a huge one (apropos that I should choose this during a leap’ year, no?).  I am just ready for this, mentally and fiscally. I’ve saved and saved and saved. I haven’t bought a pair of shoes, gone out to dinner or a movie since I don’t know when. I saved like my life depended on it and it does.  I am not King Midas now by any stretch but I have enough to get me through a few months and to see if I can make it without a ‘real’ job. I am not going to be laying poolside eating bon bons either. I have been working hard, very hard, but working and loving what I do is an extreme pleasure that I can’t quite articulate. I love how I feel in the morning when I know I have a whole day of possibility ahead of me. I love that I feel creative, productive and light. I am scared but it’s a happy fear (is there such a thing?). I can’t wait for Souvenir Foto School to start, it’s always a good time and I feel like it’s a perfect way to wish my old life a ‘bon voyage’. Thank you to everyone who visits, your support has helped my dreams come true as you have never given up on me and have been my virtual cheerleaders.  I am both humbled and extremely grateful.Thank you.

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The reason I like this photograph, is not the photograph itself but the memory it conjures. This lone bat was in a tray sandwiched between bird wings and bird beaks in the otherwise bird specific section of the Natural History Museum. Why then a solo bat? There was a note next to the bat, which in retrospect I should have photographed as well that read something along the lines of, ‘although a bat can fly it is not a bird.’. Just in case anyone may have thought a bat was a bird. Even as a small child I never once thought a bat was a bird, but maybe there are other kids out there (or sheltered adults?) that may have been confused until they came upon the lone bat?  Anything is possible I suppose, anything.