Red Daisy

Still had time today to crank this one out.

At Disneyland with Mami

Went up for her 79th birthday. Didn’t stay very long. Just walked around, took pictures, ate lunch at Rancho del Zocalo with Michaelle, rode Buzz Lightyear’s Astro Blasters and did some shopping.

Western Scrub Jay Feeding

One of the Western Scrub Jays that comes every morning to feed on freshly-cut bread cubes. It jams as much as it can possibly fit into its beak before flying off to feast on the pickings, and then returns to load up all over again.

Hibiscus

Possible new flower series I’m thinking of working on.

Malayan Tiger

Photo I took of a female Malayan Tiger at the San Diego Zoo in April. She was waiting for a keeper, who was standing right next to me, to throw a raw meatball to her.

Chopper Chase

Today there was a police helicopter flying back and forth inside the canyon behind our house looking for someone.

Mami and three out of four kids

Mami had a really good Mother’s Day yesterday. Beata and Ozzie came over, we video-Skyped with relatives in Hungary, did some gardening, had some good food and Tommy called from New Mexico.

My new computer!

Finally was able to order a new iMac today. 21.5″ 3.06 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor with a 500GB hard drive and 4GB of RAM, all running Snow Leopard. It’s crazy amazing just how much I am looking forward to creating stuff with it. Out of the Dark Ages and into the Future!

Finally got my camera back…sort of.

After having my camera shipped back to Nikon three times for repairs that couldn’t seem to get done properly, and almost three months of waiting, calling, questioning, asking and wondering, I finally picked up my camera from the repair shop today! Only problem is they don’t know what happened to the lens that was attached to the camera when I dropped it off. The camera seems to be working properly, but temporarily I will have to take either really up close pictures with my macro lens, or from really far away with my zoom lens until they find or replace my lens. But I have my D70 back.

My Annual Home-made Christmas Cards

The first one I created was in 2005.

I really wanted to add some important elements from my life including my kidney stone children and Spock, my pet Betta, into a card that I was sending out to family and close friends.

Christmas Card 2005

For 2006 I wanted to save myself some creation time, so I looked for a good Christmas image to place myself into without having to add too many extra elements.  First I looked for the typical scene of either Christ’s birth or Santa Claus.  Then, almost by accident, I came across this image from the 1946 movie “It’s A Wonderful Life” and thought it’d be perfect.  It’s Christmas, it’s cute and there was room to add me in.  Also made sure to add my kidney stones again.

Christmas Card 2006

In 2007 I decided to go back to a typical Christmas visual…and then have lots of fun with it.  This is a painting called “The Visit of the Wise-men.” The painter is unfortunately unknown.  I wanted to do something silly and the Wii was the big, hard-to-find item that year.  I figured if anyone could get one it would be Jesus.  But of course he’d need an outlet to plug it in to.  The Enterprise schematic and gold Mickey ears were added just to be really odd and out of place.  Kidney stones were now a regular for all my cards, since they are genuinely my children.

Christmas Card 2007

Then, in 2008, I needed another change.  Still wanted a Christmas visual but wanted to go a different direction again.  Hence the Peanuts Christmas Special image.  I thought that putting myself in with the rest of the kids would make it silly and creepy at the same time.  For the first time I started placing some regular elements, like my talisman, the snowman and the lamppost, the Mickey ears, my camera and some straws.

Christmas Card 2008

For 2009 I went back to a classic Christmas setting, adding myself into another nativity scene, replete once again with silly elements from my life.  This is a painting by Jacob de Backer.  I had to flip the image because my right hand had to be holding the camera.  If I would have flipped myself then the Nikon label on the camera would have been backward.  It was just easier to flip the image. This time I added my Plantronics Discovery 925 bluetooth cell phone headset as a life element.  And I just love interacting with people inside the image.

Christmas Card 2009

The day of reckoning has arrived…

This morning is the final setup for the exhibit this aftenoon/evening. Everything is going great so far. Prints were hung two days ago, tags were added yesterday, lighting goes in today and the reception materials will be handled this afternoon. Should be a successful event.

New Mexico or Bust!

Animals are rounded up, horses are drafted and chomping at the bit, wagons are no longer circled, our Conestoga is packed to the canvas crest, our guides are at our sides looking east and we’re heading out on the long trail.  Adios, San Diego.  See you soon.  See you sooner, New Mexico.  Art exhibit, here I come!

Preparing for my gallery exhibit trip

I am heading out for New Mexico with my mom on Tuesday, December 1st.  We’ll be arriving on Wednesday for a 6-day stay, during which time I will have my Animal PhotoArt series exhibited at the Village Arts gallery in Los Alamos.

I will also be spending lots of time with my brother Tom and his family as well as with my friends Marvel, the Cais and of course, Stephanie and Kate (my Starbucks, Facebook and roller coaster buddies).

Huge thanks to my family and the many friends without whom this whole endeavor would not have been possible.

“Bout dern time, too!!”

Finally prepared for new my life of blogging.

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