In December I wrote about my coveting a Narwhal (who doesn’t?). Well, a Narwhal ornament from Anthropologie. Rachel, left a note that she buys her Anthro ornaments when they go on sale after Christmas. I went the 26th all ready to buy piles of rogue Narwhal Christmas ornaments only to find that everyone else must have either A) read that note or B) had enough common sense to figure that sale thing out on their own (I don’t get out much).  I stood where there was once an abundance of Narwhal’s and rued the day I set eyes on one. I decided to see if Paper Source had any left over ornaments–they did! This sad little whale, with his loop to hang him from a proper Douglas fir ripped out looked at me with his beady eye and whispered, “Lady, please take me home”. I scooped him up and now Winston the Whale lives in my studio and earns his keep by being a fairly obedient model. I love that you can see (and read) his paper mache body, it only adds interest to him. I don’t regret not having any Narwhals in my life since Winston came into it. Sometimes when we want something and don’t get it, we find that we get something even better.

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.

 

I think I preferred my ‘before’ photo to tell you the truth. I was in a bit of a rush tonight with my edit as I worked all day (finishing up this week!). I stole these pansies from my neighbor, she always has a luscious garden, filled with flowers that spill into the alley that separates our concrete jungle from her rain forest. The worse part is not that I stole (which is bad, I know), but that when I walk by with my girls and see her lush garden each morning I am convinced that she must use dead bodies as fertilizer. I saw this forensics show once where these older ladies had a gorgeous rose garden, the best in the neighborhood and it was because they buried their victims in it. It just seems odd to me that the neighbor rarely tends to it, yet it flourishes way beyond everyone elses in the neighborhood. Yes, if you had the only lush garden in an otherwise barren neighborhood I would think you too had buried bodies in your begonias. Television, it poisons impressionable minds.

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!