cinnamon rolls and thunderstorms

job postponed till the afternoon. impulsive decision to go to briar rose for cinnamon rolls and coffee. since when did a driving rainstorm ever keep us at home?

shifting

 

i used to be concerned with photography taking over my love of running. i'm very much of an all or nothing type of person, not much grey area when it comes right down to it. for years i struggled with balancing my love of the two needs: am i a photographer who is also a runner, or a runner who is also a photographer? lately, i've noticed a shift in myself, a shift to where  that question answered itself, and i'm happy with the answer:  i'm right back to where i began when i first laced up my running shoes and went for a run.

days

 

mundane days. busy days. life filled days. quiet days. noisy days. peaceful days. chaotic days. winter days. barren days. grey days. color-filled days. routine days. up-in-air days. endless loop days. regular days. irregular days. sunshine days. thunderstormy days. empty days. full-to-the-brim days. christmas days. day-after days. sad days. joyful days. dreaded days. anticipation days. nonsense days. sensible days. silly days. serious days. adventure days. normal days.

all-in-a-day days.

 

just write. just sit down and stare that cursor into submission and let the words come out of your fingertips. don’t worry about grammar, punctuation, phrases that make sense, paragraphs that go on and on and on without any rhyme or reason.

just write. don’t be like anyone else, don’t let anyone else’s voice enter your head, don’t let anyone else’s style mess with what you want to say or how you say it. don’t worry if what you write doesn’t make sense to anyone else but you . . .if it makes sense to you, then you’ve accomplished what you set out to do. don’t worry if you offend someone out there in the world. don’t worry about stepping on some random person’s toes . . . they’re your words and no one else’s, your opinions and no one else’s. others can’t think for you so don’t worry about what others think of you.

just write for the art that lives inside your head, of getting out of your head all those whirling dervishes of thoughts and thinks, of memories and stories that are banging at the door of your mind, desperate to get out and live in the world. write to make sense of everything around you, things that you want to remember, things that you want to forget, to organize the chaos and to let the exhausted peace that comes after getting all those words settled and in one place, to let that peace exist inside you.

just write.

Such a wonderful feeling of freedom, of merry making, of festive-ness. Recipes to perfect before Joe comes home for two weeks in January, of Christmas tree buying, of taking pictures only for me. Lights and Christmas songs, crowds at the bookstores while I look through the cookbook section, the waiting for packages to arrive on the front porch. What a perfect time for all this to happen. 

Nikon Z8, 135mm, ISO 2500, f/1.8, 1/1000 sec.

I'm not exactly sure if I want to continue blogging.  I like to tell stories but lately all I seem to write about are the mundane details of my days. I liked it when I posted old photos from the trips that we took pre-COVID and wrote little vignettes about those photos. Perhaps I should start those up again.

Nikon Z8,  135mm,  ISO 1600,  f/1.8,  1/2000 sec. Ozark Enduro Lite Race, Coler Bike Preserve 8/11/24

Today, just worked out, walked and edited last night's chill bike event. Just a quiet kind of a day.

Nikon Z8, 85mm, ISO 50, f/3.5, 1/640 sec.

 

I love how you can have bright and cheery Cosmos, and the next minute, simply by turning off a flash and cranking the shutter, you have dark and moody Cosmos. 

Nikon Z8, 85mm macro. Left image: ISO 100,  f/5, 1/25 sec.  Right image: ISO 100,  f/4, 1/1600 sec.

"Imperfection is beauty, madness is genius, and it's better to be absolutely ridiculous, than absolutely boring" - - - Marilyn Monroe

Nikon Z8,  85mm,  ISO 1000,  f/1.2,  1/1600 sec. from a little trip we took over to Tulsa for an evening of street photography.  For more photos from our trippette, just click this link: Tulsa At Night

Sometimes stripping away the color of the world leads you to finding beauty in the in between.

Nikon Z8,  ISO 100,  f/1.2,  1/3200 sec.

An idea worth pursuing.

Nikon Z8, 35mm,  ISO 100,  f/1.8,  1/1600 sec.

I check on the giant sunflowers now every morning when I go out to the patio with my second cup of coffee. It makes me smile in wonderment how they know which way to face the rising sun, how they manage to chase it throughout the day, even on cloudy overcast days. I also decided that I'm going to flood next year's flower gardens with sunflowers of all colors and sizes, have nothing but happy smiling sunflowers in our back yard. I think the goldfinches will be thrilled.

Nikon Z8,  85mm,  ISO 64,  f/1.2,  1/1600 sec. Godox AD100Pro strobe set to 1/128th power.

I have never had such a fun morning or shot such a fun event. There were adult races, kids races, dog races, bartender dashes . . . and they all had to be finished by 9:00 because there was going to be a train crossing just before where the finish line area was. Such a fun, fun start to the day!

Nikon Z8,  135mm,  ISO 250, f/1.8, 1/1000 sec. Dickson Street Mile

 

I love my new lights. 

Nikon Z8,  85mm,  ISO 100,  f/1.2,  1/4000 (first picture),  1/8000 (second picture) Godox AD100 Pro

 I really need to start getting out of the house with my camera. 

Nikon Z8,  135mm,  ISO 100,  f/1.8,  1/3200 sec off camera flash in a reflector

All of a sudden, my strobes began working again. Maybe they knew I had ordered replacement lights and decided to cooperate for me. Tried my broken external hard drive, keeping my fingers crossed, but it remains broken. At least I have reliable outdoor lights again. I'll take that as a win today.

Nikon Z8,  135mm,  ISO 160, f/1.8, 1/4000 sec. off camera strobe set at 1/8 power

With the weather being stormy and knowing the woods were going to “daaaaaaaaawk”, I decided to conduct a little experiment with yesterday’s race and brought one, and only one, lens. Having no choice but to shoot with what I brought, it freed me up to play with composition, position, made me much more mobile, cut down on second guessing myself and overall just made the race much more enjoyable and fun. May have to start doing that more and more.

And the rains held off throughout the race only to start pouring down no sooner than we shut the car doors to head home. Sideway sheets and sheets of rain kept us company all the way back to the house.

Nikon Z8, 85mm, ISO 1250, f/1.2, 1/2000 sec. Ozark Enduro Lite, Siloam Springs, AR

We talked of ex-husbands, children, depression, marriage, our moms, anxiety, Etsy, stained glass, photography jobs. We laughed and drank coffee and interrupted each other as new subjects came up to talk about and forgot what we were going to say and talked and talked and talked until almost lunch time. It was a good morning.

iPhone

Tucked away pocket of daisies and evening light.

Nikon Z8, 135mm, ISO 250, f/1.8, 1/2500 sec.

I realized yesterday that you really can’t be mad when you see a sunflower. They’re just such happy flowers.

Nikon Z8, 85mm macro, ISO 800, f/4.0, 1/160 sec.