Slides

In my college photography class (lo, these many years ago), we learned how to develop our own black and white pictures. But everything color we sent out to a lab to be turned into slides.

That's how I discovered how much I LOVE slides. They're so honest. There's no image manipulation and no color change depending on paper or machine ink.

Earlier this week I pulled out a couple of my old slides and went super-meta, taking pictures of these tiny pictures.

Starring my friend Randy.

I love how dreamy this one is, held up against the woods so that the trees cast a green glow on the small scene.





There's a whole story in my head about that picture. It looks like he could just step out of the slide and into the continuing world of trees beyond.

This one I just like the graphic feel of it. The slide shot is a little blurry (not the original, mind you, just this new shot), but I don't mind. And I really like how he's caught in the circle of the lens.





Yes, I was going to take a hiatus from this blog. Then I decided that I'll just post when I feel like it, not when I don't.

So far, I've felt like it. :)

Whatever day I want it to be

Leftover picture showing my camera progression. Click on the picture and look into the camera lens.

DAY! 3!6!5!

I did it.

I DID IT!!!!

I've gone an entire year on this blog. Three hundred and sixty-five days! Honestly when I started this last year I thought I'd probably go two or three weeks and then the posts would start to slacken or I'd miss a day or two here or there and then a few days and then three weeks would go by without me remembering or taking any pictures. But for the most part, I've posted every single day (barring weekends, which I was never planning on, and vacations). I've accounted for and backtracked to each day like I was getting paid for it.

I thought my interest would dry up and I'd run out of creativity and get sick of taking pictures or that my itch to snap shots of the world around me would fade. I thought I'd have to resort to gimmicky themes just to force myself to get out there and take a picture of something, anything. But while I did have theme weeks and I did sometime take creative liberties, the itch never went away. My interest never dried up.

I thought I would regret my extravagant--by my standards, at least--purchase of a camera. I could have used the money to fix my car a little or to buy part of a couch. I have not regretted it once. If use determines value, this is one of the best purchases I've ever made in my life. I take pictures almost every day and, given that my output has consistently outstripped my space for posting, I'm pretty certain I would have even with this project.

I have, to date, 11 official followers, only half of whom I know in real life, and several others who swing by on a fairly regular basis. I have nearly 8200 views. I have a new blog friend who loves birch trees and beauty and silliness as much as I do. I have an account of my last year unlike any I've ever had before.

I had grandiose plans of an elaborate post with antique cameras and old slides and pictures and all sorts of stuff.

But when it came right down to it, that seemed like too much.

What I really want to say is:



Thanks to those of you who've been here since the beginning. Thanks for stopping by if this is your first time. Thanks to my friends and family who have encouraged me. Thanks for letting me take your picture and post it where the entire world can see it (even about 5.999 billion of them never will). Thanks for listening to me ramble on about leaves and trees and clouds and all that. Thanks for taking me interesting places.

Thanks for sticking by me.


I'm serious.



See?*

Most of all, thanks to my darling cousin Jen who gave me the idea for this Project 365 in the first place. You're the extra special awesomest and one of the most extravagantly creative people I know.

Hooray!!!!

*Special thanks to model Josh who went in for one of my schemes one last time. Please note that both poses were part of his creative process and in no way suggested by me. All I asked was that he hold the sign.

Day 364

Lilacs, my friends!



Lilacs.





That is all.

Day 363

If you know me at all, you know I love books. Books are my friends. I am an adorer of books.

The Christmas of my 7th grade year (I believe--it was Wisconsin, anyway), my mom got me the complete Emily trilogy from L. M. Montgomery.

Okay, there's some background here you should know. Before we moved to Wisconsin, we lived in St. Louis. At some point during our time there, I discovered Anne of Green Gables. BEFORE I saw the PBS movie, mind you. And I loved it so much that I bought the rest of them, one by one, with my own money. Which often meant I showed up at B. Dalton with a baggie full of change I'd pulled from couch cushions, the sidewalk, and any other place I could find them. Books were somewhat cheaper then. Closer to $3 than $7.

I was so proud of those purchases and I devoured every book as I got it. Those were best beloved friends of mine.

Back to Wisconsin. I'd read all eight of the Anne series and reread and reread them tirelessly. And then in a Shopko in Oshkosh, I saw the most amazing thing: another series by L. M. Montgomery. A trilogy on a girl named Emily. I nearly cried right there in the store...I'm sure I squealed loudly. I told my mom I didn't want anything else for Christmas as long as I got those.

And I did.

I'm pretty sure I waited to eat Christmas lunch with the family before I sped to my room and opened the first book. But for the next day and a half or so, I didn't emerge from my room except to use the bathroom and be forced to eat by my mom (who, if I recall correctly, took pity on me and started bringing me sandwiches).

It was glorious!

During my weekend in Kansas City with the fam a couple of weeks ago, my cousins and I made a detour to a couple of bookstores. And that's where I found this:



This is the second book in the Emily series. It's far older than any copy I own, of course. Which is an enormous part of its charm.



Even these weren't the earliest incarnation of the books. Can you imagine a girl of the 1930s sitting down and falling in love with the same story I did over half a century later?



I wanted to take this home with me in the worst way. Unfortunately, it was priced at $40. So it stays in Mission, Kansas, up on the shelf in an obscure little used book store, waiting for someone to take it home.

I hope it will live with a little girl who will love it every bit as much as I still do.

Day 362

Tonya and I went shopping this weekend. We were searching for a shirt to match a very specific skirt she made from neckties. It's a pretty sweet skirt, but, as you can probably imagine, difficult to match given the wide variety of ties that make up the skirt.

We had much success, finding several shirts that will work, and one color that would work perfectly had we been able to find more than one shirt (too large) in that color.

But this isn't about the shopping. Oh, no. This is about Tonya's other creativeness.

She makes mustache necklaces.



Perfect for any hipster occasion! Or just any given Tuesday you feel like being more hirsute than usual.

Day 361

In two days, my BFF will have been married for exactly one year!! And in about two months, she will have their first child.

It's all very strange and wonderful.

These shots are from that day a year ago. I have clearly upped the contrast to accomplish an iconic "bride applying lipgloss" silhouette that I love.



There's a horizontal version of the one below that I like even more, but Blogger reads it as vertical, curse it. So I make do.




Such a lovely bride, she was. And what a lovely couple they are. I love you both(or, I should say, all three of you)! May you have several decades of wedded bliss to come.

Day 360

Day! Three! Sixty!

Crazy.

As I mentioned yesterday, we spent Saturday morning at Shawnee Indian Mission.



If you've never heard of it, look up the history. It's fascinating!



This building, one of the original dorm/office buildings, is now a private residence. I cannot decide if that would be unbelievably cool or really tiring to constantly have tourists at your door. Though except for school groups, I'd be willing to bet it's not a terribly popular spot. Which is a shame. We should connect to our history more!



Ahem. Sorry. Anyway, so you wander down that sidewalk up there and head across the little bridge and there's a covered wagon for your perusal. Granted, it's a little smaller than the big Conestogas many people had, but it gives you a fair idea of what it would be like to pack all your worldly goods into the back of a wagon and trek for months across the prairies.



A LOT of stuff got dumped along the way.

And there was no need for gas.

But there's a pump here anyway.



And for my greatest juxtapositional find, I give you: sparkly pink sunglasses on a pioneer homestead!!!



I swear I walked around a corner and just found them there.

Day 359

You know what I'm thankful for? Among other things, of course. I'm grateful to come from a family that appreciates history.

Which explains the fact that on our day out on Saturday, we headed straight for the Shawnee Indian Mission and spent the morning there.



These buildings are original to the site, I believe. Or at least modeled closely on the originals.



That rather lovely brick building in the back IS original. It's one of the three remaining main buildings that were part of the mission/school. More pictures from the interior later, most likely.



And here, learning things, are Mom and Don.



Mom out and about, despite the wheelchair? Smiling (or in this case, squinting) into the sun? One of my very favorite things about the day.

If you get a moment, and you're this sort of person, mind taking the time to pray for her? The bone she broke back at the turn of the year isn't healing. They're talking bone grafts now. And replacing the other knee. Which they can't do until she can put weight on the broken leg. It's all kinds of fun!

I want more moments like this for her--only without the wheelchair.

Day 358

They seemed to be doing a bit of remodeling at our KC hotel.



And that sign clearly didn't make the cut.



Always good advice.

Day 357

One of the things I most enjoy about roadtripping is the ability to stop whenever the mood strikes. One of the things I most enjoy about roadtripping with my family (or friends, but this was a trip about family) is that they get it.

Somewhere in Missouri we stopped for gas. Just off the exit right across the street from the gas station was a fairground/farm museum.



Jen and I immediately pulled out our cameras to take pictures from the car and started planning to run across the street when the cars stopped.

Except that we didn't have to. Because Aunt Sandy knows us well. She just pulled over through the gate and said, "There you go. We'll pick you up on our way out."

Yay! Pictures!

Friendly engine in the distance.



The very colorful tractors lining the fence to draw people in managed to glow even on this cloudy day, even with their colors fading and flaking.





Even with the random skull.



Because really, what kind of farm museum would it be without the random skull on a tractor?

On the other side of the gate was a little train engine just big enough to fit one engineer in the cab. Off the back, note the train car, its interior retrofitted with bench seats all around the edges on which tourists can sit.

If you look in the background of this shot, you'll see the gas station that was the original point of the stop.



Somehow this shot looks really late 60's/early 70's to me.



After crawling all over the train, we headed back across the road and joined up with the group, about two hundred pictures richer and sated.

Thanks for indulging our photo addictions, Aunt Sandy!

Day 356

Rest stop bits that amused me:



I know what it SAYS, but I think they may mean sand.



Cause that doesn't look salty. Maybe a mix?

Whatever the case, if you do hit black ice, maybe crash, manage to limp off the road to a convenient rest stop and need to call for, say, a firetruck for your engine fire or an ambulance for the arterial spray or gaping head wound...you may want to pick a different rest area.




911 doesn't work at this one.

Day 355

Wait...what?

Day 355?

But that means I've only got ten days left in my year! *panicpanic* I'm not ready! I haven't taken all the pictures I want to! I don't have plans for a party celebrating my enormous achievement! I have a huge backlog I still need to post!! I...I...ahhh!

I need to calm down.

Ten days. Wow.

Okay, to celebrate, I'm going to share a couple of my favorite pictures from last weekend's road trip to Kansas City. We stopped at a number of rest areas and I kept wandering off to take pictures. And having to run for the car when everyone was ready to go (only steps behind my cousin Jen, who was also wandering far afield for pictures).

These are two of my favorite rest stop shots.




I can't get enough of the texture of this tulip. Every wrinkle and weft is so clear and lovely in the sunlight. Click on the picture to blow it up and get the full effect.

And then there's what may just be my favorite picture of the whole trip. Maybe. I don't know. I just love everything about it. I took a lot of shots I was very happy with, but this just makes my heart gladden somehow. It's so...cheery and morning light and hopeful and brave and ... you know, pretty.



I just realized both these shots got saved as daffodils. Which is quite obviously not true. Apparently yellow = daffodil is my new Pavlovian tic.

Day 354

I love sharing things with people...rather, I love when people find something I share interesting.



Take tulip trees, for example. This particular tree is in the front yard of my cousin's house.



Until I posted last week, she had no idea what this gorgeousness was called. She also didn't know it was part of the magnolia family. A saucer magnolia, to be precise.



All she knew was that it was pretty and a sure sign of spring. And that I wouldn't have to sneak into the yard of a stranger to take pictures to my heart's content if I visited her.



Knowledge is power. And the ability not to trespass.

Day 353

I probably won't get a chance to post tomorrow. Which means I won't be posting again until Monday.

In light of that, I'm giving you many pictures of daffodils to tide you over. Enjoy!











There now. Wasn't that nice?

Day 352

The tulip trees are blooming!!





Every year I see them and think, "I should take a picture!" And every year, they're done blooming before I get around to sneaking into a stranger's yard to do so.





This year I snuck into a public garden instead. I did have to park illegally to do so, but not a single other car went by while I was there. So I didn't feel too guilty.




If I ever actually own my yard, I'm going to join the Arbor Day Foundation and get my ten free trees. I'll pick the flowering tree selection (at least during the first year) and hope that said collection includes at least one tulip tree in my zone (wait! No, the "Wild Bird Garden" package, because that does include a tulip tree!). And that a Japanese maple or two slip in the shipment accidentally.

Arbor Day isn't until the 30th of this month, but why not start celebrating now? It's only $10 for the year and you get trees!