One of my photos placed in a contest!

I belong to a couple of Facebook photography pages where you can enter their photography contest.  The first photo that I entered for the first time place (tied) for second!  I was surprised and tickled that it did so well.  This is the photograph that I entered.  The theme for the 2 hour contest was "Beautiful".

Night Shots

I've joined a group on FaceBook that does photography contests that take two hours. They send out a theme, then you have two hours to go take the photos, edit, and submit a photo to the contest. I've been a member of this group for a couple of weeks and just participated in my first two contests.  These were held during the week rather than the weekend, so it was just a way to get into the swing of things with this group. I really had a great time doing this.

The second one I participated in had the theme "When Darkness Falls".  Since I haven't take much night photography, I was looking forward to this one.  I took my camera and headed down to the shopping center at the bottom of the mountain. These are some of the shots I took.

Mother's Day Weekend

Here are some photos that I took over Mother's Day weekend. On Saturday, we went to Balboa Island Beach. We ate at Ruby's on the pier and had a great day. The weather was awesome!  On Sunday, we went for a drive down to Dana Point and visited the harbor and beach.

Balboa Island Beach & Pier

Dana Point Harbor and Beach.

Jackson's First Piece of Ceramic

I've been doing ceramics for a couple of years now. I really enjoy painting the ceramic pieces and seeing how they turn out when done.  I've just finished my first piece for my first grandbaby... who will be Jackson Andrew. I'm so looking forward to meeting him in September!

Are You Kidding Me???

The guy that killed my nephew in a drunk driving nightmare is up for parole in June 2010.  After 3 years and 8 months?!  Are you kidding me?  This is a tough stance on drunk driving?!  My sister asked me to write an "impact statement" letter to the parole board.  Here is what I wrote:

To Whom It May Concern:

Jason was just a few months younger than our oldest son, Michael. Since they were toddlers, they were the closest of cousins and spent many, many hours playing together, exploring together and summers finding out what it was like to be a kid living in the country with so much around you yet to be discovered. Since you killed my nephew, we have had to carry on life without Jason. We’ve had to- we’ve had no other choice but to do just that.

In the three years and eight months since you killed Jason…

Our son has graduated from a Technical School with two degrees. Jason never will. My husband and I are so very proud of Michael, my sister and her husband (Mary and Jerry Felts) will never have that chance to be so proud of Jason. You took that away from them.

Our son married a year and a half ago. Jason never will. We watched as Michael cried as his bride walked down the aisle with her father. My sister and her husband never will have the chance to witness that with Jason. You took that away from them.

Our son and his wife are expecting their first child in September 2010. Jason never will. Becoming grandparents for the first time, we are excited beyond words. My sister and her husband will never know that joy of Jason becoming a father or the joy of themselves becoming grandparents for the first time by him. You took that away from them.

We have missed four birthday celebrations with Jason; four Christmas’; four Thanksgivings. We have missed numerous family gatherings where Jason should have been there. We miss his smile; his sense of humor; his love of live; his laughing eyes and his love of family. We have missed the family vacations where he should have been there with us. You took that away from all of us.

Because you decided to drive drunk.

Three years and eight months? We don’t think so.

Why should you be able to return to your life after such a short amount time? Why should you be able to go home? Why should you be able to return to work? Why should you be able to pick up the pieces and carry on? Why should you be able to return to your family’s home and be comforted by their love? Jason never will. You took that away from him.

Because there is a choice in whether or not you receive parole, we sincerely hope that the parole board takes into account your actions, your disregard of life and what have done to our family. We are praying you are not recommended for parole. We hope we can take that from you.

Ultrasound Says... It's a Grandson!

Got a text message today from the oldest son.  Never one to be an assessive talker, the message simple said, "It's a boy."  OMG, OMG, OMG!  I walked my 2 mile walk on air and finished before I realized it with the goofiest grin on I've ever had!  I'm so tickled!  Actually, I would have been as stoked and tickled if it had been a girl. Maybe even moreso, I don't know. Jackson Andrew is due September 21st.  Stay tuned! 

Serendipity

Yesterday morning, I was reading my forum where we talk about a live safari in South Africa... as we do when times are slow, we branch out into other topics of discussion- depending on who is "on" and where  our interests lie.  "Lily", a lady from Canada, posted a link to the National Geographic's new Birding page on their website.  As birds are also an interest of mine, I took a look at her link. 

This is "Lily's" posting:  "A national geographic page with so many amazing bird pics --- hope it works
http://animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals/birding/bird-photos?source=email_photo".  Interesting, so I kept looking at the website until I clicked on this link: http://animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals/birds/ and about fell out of my chair!  THAT WAS MY PHOTO ON NATIONAL GEOGRAPHICS' WEBSITE!!  The Mandarin drake (multi colored duck) was taken at the San Diego Zoo on our very first visit to the zoo. 

I was shocked. I was flabbergasted. I was tickled. I was now running on 100% adreneline! It took me a few minutes to recall that I had indeed downloaded that photo to the website in a photo contest (which I have no idea if I won or not... but doubt it) a couple of months ago... and promptly forgot about it! I only downloaded the one photo.  I guess by the National Geographic using my photograph on their website justifies my original thought that it was a decent photograph!

My first call was to my Dad... who wasn't home. He was at work and it about killed me to have to wait another couple of hours to tell him about it! So, in the meantime, I told everyone else! Buzz kill. Out of everyone I know, only one other person seemed to be as happy, excited and in general as "blown away" as I was. From my family, I got 1 email from my brother- I emailed all immediate family members with email; texted my sister that doesn't have email.  From FB, I got congrats from several High School friends I haven't seen in decades, and 1 congrats from my "ex" sister-in-law.

When I did talk to my Dad, he was genuienly happy for me, but was more worried about my having a photo credit than the fact that were using my photo on their website.  Yes, not as great an honor as having your photograph actually IN the National Geographic, but being used on their website wasn't shabby either!

Later in the day, I got a couple of emails from "Lily" explaining how she found the link to begin with.  Seems she is signed up to get an email copy of their "Inside National Geographic" newsletter and they used the photo on the newsletter.  She was so taken by the photo, that she sent it to her daughter. After posting the link in our forum, that was how she found out it was my photograph. 

Serendipity.  Yes, I like that!