Confessions of a Photography Addict - Long Hollow Photography

On a Thursday In Austin, Texas

2013-05-20T00:02:00.000-05:00

I spent most of Thursday in Austin,

running errands with my daughter,

hanging out in a genealogy library to pass the time,

having dinner with my son,

and then attending a magazine writing panel

hosted by the Writer's League of Texas.

Naturally, I had my camera with me.

I hope the folks above don't care that I snapped their photos.

Like I had nothing better to do than play with this photo this week.

Which one do you like the best?

We ate at Opal Divine's.

The food was really good...

...and so was the scenery.

I fell in love with these little faces!

This building looked really, really old.

I hope someone salvages it.

I love living in (well, near) Austin!

May Day, May Day

2013-05-13T11:30:00.001-05:00

On a whim,

coming home from work on May Day,

I pulled over

and photographed the wildflowers

waving to me from the roadside.

The next day,

the roadside had been freshly mown.

I'm so grateful I listen to whims.

Our Hoary Bat

2013-05-09T22:51:00.000-05:00

Did you know some bats fly during daylight hours?

And some are loners?

I didn't,

until Tom and his brother John

witnessed one swooping low over our pond

in the middle of the afternoon

before trying to hide in the foliage of a nearby willow.
Actually, a willow overtaken with grapevine.

It was larger than the Mexican Freetail bats

that Austin is famous for,

so Tom hurried to the house to get me.

(me = my camera)

John snapped the first few shots,

then I wobbled down the bank in my flip-flops to shoot some more.

I couldn't help it.

It was tough because he was really hidden in those leaves.

I've cropped and increased contrast

so you can see him.

Thanks to Mr. Google,

we determined he was a

Hoary Bat.

Our best guess, anyway.

We were too excited over seeing him to be

(too)

disappointed he wouldn't be bringing his friends to Long Hollow

to help eat up the mosquitoes.

(Dang it.)

But isn't he cute?

Doesn't he look like a panda bear?

Although I admit I'm not tempted to cuddle him.

I sure hope he's still hanging around!

(Get it? hehehe)

The Color Purple

2013-05-04T09:04:00.000-05:00

Prairie Verbena

I'm not sure what this is, but the bees and bugs sure loved it!

Wine Cup

Prairie Onion

Wild Chicory

(this actually hasn't bloomed again yet, but I'm keeping an eye out for it!)

"I think it pisses God off if you walk by the color purple in a field somewhere and don't notice it....

People think pleasing God is all God care about.

But any fool living in the world can see it always trying to please us back."

~Alice Walker, The Color Purple, 1982

Trust me, it was beautiful!

2013-05-01T22:55:00.000-05:00

My son and his new bride forbid me from bringing my camera to their wedding.

Can you believe it? Something about "relaxing" and "enjoying the moment" and "paying big bucks to someone else"...

So I don't have any photos of my own to share of

The. Most. Beautful. Wedding. Ever. Amen.

but you can click on that link to see a few that others posted on Facebook, and I "borrowed" to share on my Long Hollow blog.

I do, however, have photos from the rehearsal and the rehearsal dinner, and here they are!

(I still had fun!)

Oh, well, congratulations to my precious son and his beautiful wife!

Walking along a dirt road in April

2013-04-23T23:18:00.000-05:00

Just about every morning, rain or shine, I take a walk down my dirt road with my puppies.

Unless it's raining, I have my camera and my eyes are constantly searching for something to shoot...a new flower, an interesting weed, or merely the play of light on a leaf.

When I find it - whatever "it" is - Belle and Max wait patiently while I examine the something from every angle through my lens.

They are so good.

You can imagine how many photos I have, then, if every morning I take between two and twenty.

During busy times, I might not even glance twice at the photos, much less edit them or post them on my blog.

There just aren't enough minutes in the day for that.

But there are (almost) always enough minutes to take a walk on a dirt road before the day gets swept away.

(By the way, I apologize for being AWOL from your blogs. My son's wedding is fast approaching and I've been focusing on those last to-do's for it. Thanks for popping by to see me anyway - I miss you all!)

(One more thing...my photos are a mess. How do you organize yours?)

Linking (for the last time!) with
Lissa's Walk and Click

Do All Things With Love

2013-04-15T20:49:00.000-05:00

I can't believe it's been more than 10 days since I posted here.

There's been so much going on...birthdays, funerals, up-coming weddings, taxes...

...and then the explosions today in Boston made me stop,

take a deep breath,

and put it all in perspective.

Let's keep trying to spread the word,

just as all of those who came to the aid of the victims
did with their actions.

Strangers helping strangers.

That's what overcomes evil.

That's love.

Prayers for the victims in Boston and their families...and the ones who hurt them.

Why I love road trips in springtime...

2013-04-04T18:09:00.000-05:00

Red and blue, playing nicely together.

Indian Paintbrush

and

Bluebonnets

are beautiful by themselves...

but together

they truly bring out each other's beauty, don't they?

These were some of the lost files my friend Bruce recovered for me.

Thanks again, Bruce!

And this is where I stopped to snap these on my way back from Houston a couple of weeks ago.

Doesn't it look like someone passed by with a leaking bucket of blue paint?

And that's why I love road trips in springtime.

The end.

Deepwater Blooming

2013-04-01T21:34:00.001-05:00

I took these last week while visiting my parents and intended to post them days ago.

Sigh.

That's just the way it's been lately.

(Deepwater is the name of the neighborhood I grew up in, by the way.)

Awake, thou wintry earth -
Fling off they sadness!
Fair vernal flowers, laugh forth
Your ancient gladness!
~Thomas Blackburn, "An Easter Hymn"

Wisteria dripped from thick vines woven through a trellis on the back porch.

Morning Glories turned the chain link fence into a work of art.

My grandmother planted these brilliant azaleas in the front of the house.

They shout SPRING IS HERE!

Wisteria petals dotted the patio table.

So delicate.

These are blossoms on a Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow plant.

The petals change from purple to lavender to white.

Amazing and gorgeous!

Just a carpet of tiny yellow flowers decorating a field in the middle of the neighborhood where all of the schools are located.

I hope you all had a wonderful weekend.

I'm spinning in circles again, but will try to come around visiting everyone this week!

P.S.
My friend was able to recover my lost NEF files, by the way. He used a program called Rescue Pro by Sandisk. Whew! I'll be eternally grateful to him for taking the time to retrieve them and help me learn a little more about photo files. (And all it cost me was a 12-pack of Budweiser!)

Check out his beautiful website and if you have friends getting married in the Austin area, send them his way: Bruce Coville Photography

Lessons Learned...and Snake

2013-03-25T22:18:00.000-05:00

Last night I imported a week's worth of photos via Lightroom. I edited a few, uploaded some to Facebook, posted a few on my other blog, and went to bed.

This morning I realized my computer was frozen. I rebooted it and went to work.

After work, I hopped on, eager to play with more of the photos. Amid other things from the past week, there were beautiful morning glories, wisteria and azaleas at my mom's, bluebonnets and Indian paintbrush lining the highway...and the snake you'll see below.

But they were gone. The previews were still there, teasing me, but Lightroom swore the original files were missing. I looked everywhere, but sure enough, the NEF file was no where to be seen. I checked Carbonite - the last backup was this morning. No NEF file from yesterday.

And, of course, being the efficient photographer I am, I had re-formatted my card as soon as I saw my photos were safely imported.

After hours and hours researching and trying different things, I finally gave in, spent $17 and bought FileJuicer, which was able to retrieve jpg formats of the preview files somehow.

Better than nothing. Sigh.

So what did I learn?

Don't be so quick to re-format my card, for one.
Manually back up my computer on Carbonite each night.
And as soon as possible, bite the bullet and buy an external hard drive for my Mac.

And now, I'll tell you about the snake...

This poor rat snake was doing his job down by our creek, minding his own business, when our dogs mistook him for something dangerous and injured his lower body. Tom rescued him and let him go in the pond. He swam around then slithered out onto these rocks. But you can see his lower section was still dangling in the water.

Tom used a stick to pull it up onto the rocks to show me how long he was.

Longer than me!

We weren't sure what to do with him.

We knew he wouldn't make it on his own. Ants and birds were already showing interest.

Poor thing.

Still trying to act fierce.

But we knew better.

Tom used a stick and scooped him into this terrarium he'd lined with a soft towel.

Then he put the terrarium in the laundry room so Snake could die in peace, without being harassed by ants and birds and who knows what else during the night.

And he did.

Just one reason I love my husband.

(I promise I'll post the flower photos next...)

Thank you, Hilary!

Beginning to Bloom

2013-03-19T07:03:00.003-05:00

Just in the nick of time, too!

I'm not the only one who's happy about it, either!

The day the Lord created hope was probably the same day He created spring.

~ Bern Williams

A Mallard Morning

2013-03-13T10:24:00.000-05:00

There's nothing like walking through the woods with your puppies on a crisp morning just as the sun creeps into your hollow,

the woods around you alive with birdsong announcing Spring's imminent arrival,

giving thanks for the glorious morning just as it is

and then

having it get even better...

I was fiddling with my glove when this Mallard couple first flew over.

They took me by surprise and it was a few seconds before I remembered I had my camera, worked my glove back on and snapped the shot above.

I was sighing, sure the photo would be a blur but grateful for the mere sight of them.

(It turned out much better than I expected!)

Then, guess what?

They came back, making a couple of wide circles before finally disappearing.

Alas, all I had with me was my 50mm lens, not my 70-300,

so I've cropped these quite a lot and the resolution is pretty bad.

This is how far they really were away from me.

I hope they were scoping out the neighborhood and found a place they like!

Linking with

and

Skywatch Friday

Stalking Sparrows

2013-03-10T22:30:00.001-05:00

As promised,

A Walk on the Wild Side

2013-03-06T22:05:00.002-06:00

It's March, can you believe it?

I'm not happy that the year is flying by,

but the signs of spring I find around me make me want to dance.

The Hollow is coming back to life.

Most branches are still bare, but the redbuds are getting the party started.

Mourning doves are back, greeting me on my morning walk...

...and cooing their mournful song from the trees.

There's been enough rain to keep Max's favorite pool open.

And he's not the only one enjoying it.

Adventurous and hardy Prairie Verbena is always one of the first to emerge and last to disappear.

American Robins have decided they like the Hollow and are lingering a bit.

Our little front yard (home of the bird feeder) is becoming a popular hang-out for the neighborhood critters like this squirrel.

I don't know why this Mexican Jay is giving me the Evil Eye.

A small party of fluffy American Sparrows arrived and posed for me.

I'll share more of them tomorrow.

What signs of spring are you finding?

Linking up with

and

The Shower

2013-03-04T23:06:00.000-06:00

When your son finds the girls of his dreams and asks her to marry him,

it's time to party...

...Shower Style!

My friend Mary Kay searched all over Austin for M&Ms in just the right colors for these favors.

She's crazy like that.

That's why I love her.

I made these Antipasto Skewers all by myself, with only a few skewer injuries, in honor of the honeymoon in Italy.

These kids take after my own heart and love wine, so each of us brought a bottle adorned with a tag offering some kind of marriage advice. Cute idea!

Pre-party preparation, with love.

More scenes from the shower and after-shower party at The Salt Lick.

Once in awhile,

right in the middle of an ordinary life,

love gives us a fairy tale.

~Anonymous

{More} Boy and Dog

2013-02-23T18:22:00.000-06:00

Better than television any day.

Walking in the Country with Boy and Dogs

2013-02-20T21:32:00.004-06:00

Middle son came home a few weekends ago.

I had a rare Sunday afternoon free of work or other obligations...

...so of course we took a long walk with the puppies (and my camera.)

Doesn't this look like an oasis?

Robins and yellow flowers...

...spring must be just around the corner!

Daniel took me on a path I'd never walked before and showed me these huge vines.

Amazing!

I spotted the hole in that tree and took this shot with my zoom to get a closer look.

It reminds me of, ahem, certain body parts. Am I the only one?

It kind of goes along with the tree in this post, doesn't it?.

Does anyone know what these little pom-poms are? I love them.

It's like the tree is having a party.

Belle lounging in the dirt

Daniel, the sweet and kind and funny...and all grown-up.

Sigh.

P.S. Many thanks to Hilary at The Smitten Image for bestowing a Post of the Week on this post and this post of mine! Two in one week! You can only imagine how big my head is right now! Be sure to visit Hilary, see her beautiful photography, and read the other Posts of the Week.

Linking with Lissa's

Mexican Jay

2013-02-17T00:06:00.001-06:00

Gonna find me a bluebird, let him sing me a song

Cause my heart's been broken much too long.

~Marvin Rainwater, Gonna Find Me a Bluebird Lyrics, 1955

A Slow Day at the Winery

2013-02-12T20:40:00.000-06:00

It doesn't happen very often, but every so often we get a slow day at the winery bistro where I work.

Slow enough to bring out my camera and start shooting.

Fancy belongs to one of the employees and often spends her days at the winery.

Isn't she precious?

Views from the back patio, above and below...

(No, the vines aren't dead. Just resting.)

"Life is beautiful!"

My office.

Such a beautiful place to work.

Travis, one of the sous chefs, with a gourmet wood-fired pizza fresh from the oven.

Where culinary magic happens.

Another cutie who comes to visit.

I can't remember his name, though!

I loved the contrast of golden light against approaching storm clouds.

Hanging on.

Hope you enjoyed the visit!

Linking up with

Thank you, Hilary!!

Down at the Swimmin' Hole

2013-02-07T23:27:00.000-06:00

We're having spring/summer-ish days here (I'm sorry, Northeast!)

Max needs to go swimming to stay cool.

Our little pond is so much better than one of those little plastic things you get at Walmart.

Belle would rather stay on the side, thank you very much.

She's a dirt dog, not a water dog.

And she loves Max.

Waiting his turn to go in the pool, um, I mean pond.

My house, reflected.

Work of my artist-husband. More about this HERE.

(Do you see the water birds?

I knew when I saw these at Goodwill, we'd find a place for them.)

Cedarbrake

2013-02-06T07:29:00.000-06:00

Cedarbrake is a nonprofit retreat and renewal center owned and supported by the Diocese of Austin, and located just outside of Belton, Texas.

I've been wanting to visit for years,

and finally made a quick trip there this past weekend with other members of my church pastoral council.

Not nearly enough time to fully experience its beauty,

but enough to give my camera a workout.

This screen porch ran the length of our little 'house'.

I loved the way the morning light filtered through the trees and warmed the porch.

I'm a sucker for porches, anyway.

Narrow roads and paths meandered through the trees and cottages.

Another path through the woods featured the Stations of the Cross.

Little surprises like these bronze sculptures were scattered around the grounds.

I'd never walked a labyrinth before.

Such a great place for contemplation.

I'm not sure what the real significance is of the rocks in the center, but I placed one there,

sort of like lighting a candle for continuous prayer.

This sculpture of the Risen Christ in the little chapel inspired joy and hope and a true sense of renewal.

During Mass my eye was drawn up toward this beautiful stained glass celebrating the simple works of God all around us.

(I didn't take these during Mass. I snuck back in later!)

I sat for awhile near this little waterfall.

So peaceful!

Have you ever slipped away to any kind of retreat center?

If not, I encourage it!

Linking with Lissa at...

Secrets of the Moon Whisperer

2013-02-01T16:28:00.000-06:00

Moon Whisperer.

That's kind of a joke,

a name a friend gave me because back in 2010 I took a zillion...

no, TWO zillion photos of the full moon.

About ten came out (semi-)worthy of posting.

I loved to zoom in really close.

Here's the post I wrote that explained my process:

Moon Fever

I still love zooming in close,

but to be honest,

the moon doesn't change much from month to month.

Now I challenge myself to capture different images of the moon,

like the one below.

So my process has changed.

I usually start at the settings in the post above,

see what I captured,

and start making adjustments.

Repeat.

I mostly use Lightroom for post-processing now.

For this one I reduced noise

sharpened

added clarity and brightness.

That's it.

You'll find my camera settings for this particular image below it.

Happy Moon Chasing!

Exposure 1/125 sec at f / 5.0
Focal Length 140 mm
ISO 1600

Night Dance

2013-01-28T22:11:00.000-06:00

Twirling and swirling scarves of gray and gold,

the full moon dances across night's stage.

(small stone # 26)

Ten from January

2013-01-23T10:09:00.002-06:00

Do you ever get bogged down by photos?

I haven't had a lot of time to post, but I never stop snapping.

It can be a problem!

Here are a few I want to share with you from the past few weeks...

My sweet Belle. A pile of sand is heaven to her!

Is it just me or is there a person trying to get out of this dead tree?

It reminds me of a ship's masthead.

Winery gift shop wisdom

If these Diva wine koozies were for sale, I'd buy them all!

Sunset on the way home from work, (iPhone 3 via Instagram)

I stood and watched the sun bring the colors of these trees to life, by way of their reflection in the pond.

Max is running!

I just love old cedar posts and barbed wire.

And silhouettes of trees against the sky.

This is how we heat our whole house, even on frosty mornings, thanks to my design-genius husband.

Follow Your Heart {semi-wordless wednesday}

2013-01-16T19:26:00.000-06:00