Recap Photography

Updates

noreply@blogger.com (RiCap) — Sun, 19 Feb 2012 03:10:00 +0000

I haven't posted on here in forever. These days I'm pretty busy with school and work and keeping up with Sylvia's blog. Here are a few fun photos from the past months.

We visited the ice castles in Silverthorne, CO. The kiddos thought the best part was splashing in the melted parts, nevermind the awesome ice structures :)

I shared some love with Sylvia. She's since found her own feet and pretty much won't let go. I don't think this photo would be possible these days.

Sylvia shared some love with everyone else.

Arriving With Flair

noreply@blogger.com (RiCap) — Sun, 09 Oct 2011 03:47:00 +0000

Announcing the arrival of our baby girl, Sylvia Luella Schafer. Born at 3:43pm on October 1, 2011 which daddy notes is binary if you write it 10.01.11 and mom's glad is a memorable date because anyone who hasn't been called on their birthday knows, remembering dates is one of her weaknesses. Sylvia weighed 6 lbs 15 oz.

For her one week birthday we're still hanging out at the hospital with her. When she was born her cries were pretty gargly and she went downhill from there, so they had to rush her to the NICU and intubate her and do a good number of interventions to keep her going. She was put on the oscillator (a high pressure ventilator) at first to help her out and kept sedated. Through the week she's been a champ as we slowly wean her off all her medicine and oxygen and ventilation. Now she's pretty much back to the healthy state we wish she'd started at. The doctors don't really know what was wrong, their best guess was that it was an infection of some sort that then set off problems with heart and blood pressure etc. The tests didn't ever show us what type of infection or confirm that theory, so we won't really know for certain it seems. We're just happy to be able to hold her and snuggle her and take her home soon.

Sylvia with about a quarter of the gadgetry she started out with.

Family photo

Grandma and Grandpa

Only on oxygen with her "hood ornament" IV.

To add to her other troubles she had to be on the bili lights for a "regular baby problem" (jaundice.)

Beautiful flowers from the co-workers

Finally equipment free!

Ode to Roommates

noreply@blogger.com (RiCap) — Tue, 31 May 2011 03:26:00 +0000

Every day I walk by a new little room in my house and smile inside and out. While we were away in Mexico, Sarah and Corey were busy little bees, transforming a corner of the downstairs area outside our bedroom from bike storage to baby room. A little piece of me smiles to know that our little girl has a place for her in the outside world when she joins us.
So here's to you roommates, the wonderful people who make me happy to come home every evening. Because whether it's a nice dinner, a whole new room or even just a hello instead of an empty house, I appreciate the fact that you're in my (our) lives. Love you guys!

Also see below for the awesome work in progress from beginning to end. ::Happy Sigh::

Sledding in Shorts

noreply@blogger.com (RiCap) — Tue, 26 Apr 2011 23:35:00 +0000

If you couldn't tell by the lack of posts, my picture a day for the year was not successful. I didn't make it very far, but once I forgot to charge my camera battery it was all down hill. As someone I know always likes to say, quantity not quality is what's important. So for this year, we'll go with that.
We had a girls weekend in Las Cruces with my mom, sisters and aunt. I was so excited to get to go to White Sands. I've always wanted to go take photos there. Unfortunately we didn't time it so that we got the really good sunset light, but we still had a lot of fun hanging out in the dunes and sledding in shorts.

February Began

noreply@blogger.com (RiCap) — Thu, 17 Feb 2011 00:34:00 +0000

2/1/11
It got COLD at the beginning of February. So cold that we could make snow instantly. You have to know how to do it right though. Sticking out your tongue doesn't help, and room temperature water doesn't work.

Warm tap water works a little better, you can see a few poofs in there, but there's water too.

If the water is boiling though, you get magic. When you throw it into the air it whooshes into snow!

2/2/11 Yes that's a NEGATIVE sign before that number.

2/3/11 This is my coworker with life savers in his eyes... as eyes. He's a fun guy, I really love the people I work with.

January Ends

noreply@blogger.com (RiCap) — Wed, 16 Feb 2011 00:41:00 +0000

I always feel like scenery shots are a cop out for picture of the day, but here's a lonely little dried up flower in our garden. Sometimes I like the dried up flowers as much as real ones.
1/30/11

1/31/11
We produced a welcome video for work. I love watching people try to "act natural" while they're on camera. That evening I made steamed pork dumplings. They're very tasty, but it does take a little while to fold each one. Plus our steamer isn't big enough to hold them all so we have to do a few rounds.

Super Weekend

noreply@blogger.com (RiCap) — Wed, 16 Feb 2011 00:35:00 +0000

2/4/11 Icicles because it's cold.

2/5/11 The night before super-bowl and all through the house not a creature was stirring because there was no room, we had it so packed with food and drinks.

Shopping in the snow gives you dandruff or makes you go grey.

This is what the store looks like the day before super-bowl sunday. So packed it was almost impossible to even get in line.

This Week In Photos 1/29/11 aka Pumpkin in my Purse

noreply@blogger.com (RiCap) — Sun, 30 Jan 2011 23:16:00 +0000

I was definitely stretching to get photos this week, thus the many pictures of food and dogs, always a good fallback.
1/24/11
The stick plant in the first picture used to be a pretty orchid that I got in the sale bin for $5 now it's just a stick. But I can't bear to throw it away, even though I have no hope that it will ever bloom again. So we have a stick in our kitchen.
1/25/11
We thought we should test out whether Jackson is a retarded dog, to see if he could get a treat out from under a cup. When that proved too easy we tried the old shell game on him, but clearly he's got a few extra brain cells because he found his treat.
1/26/11
When I need to get out of the office, I call Sarah to go to lunch with me at Mama's Pizza. These are some of the best calzones I've ever had. SO tasty and homey.
1/27/11
I tried to take a picture with my cell phone (which is probably from the year 2000) so the photos are really low resolution. But when I tried to get the photo off my online album, T-Mobile said no. So I took a screen shot, because the photo wasn't that interesting anyway. It was just the books on my nightstand.
1/28/11
Friday night, Sarah tried to make us some pumpkin pie, but apparently there's a pumpkin shortage or there was or the guys at the grocery store were making stories up. Anyway, no pie so we got homemade whipped cream with anglefood cake and berries.
1/29/11
Shopping success! We found pumpkin at Whole Foods, where I always feel guilted into stuffing groceries into my purse if I didn't remember a reusable shopping bag. Good thing we asked where to find it. You will never guess what section it was in.... Did you try to guess? Nope not canned vegetables. Of course you'd guess that. Nope not with the soups, or with the drinks or with the fresh vegetables or near the pies. Ok, give up? It was with the dog food. Makes perfect sense right?

1/24/11

1/25/11

From POD

1/26/11

1/27/11

1/28/11

From POD

1/29/11

From POD

Lazy Weekend

noreply@blogger.com (RiCap) — Tue, 25 Jan 2011 03:13:00 +0000

I'm pretty sure this is going to be one of my last free weekends for awhile with school getting into full swing, so instead of being productive, I lazed about. On Saturday, Sarah and I went up to Boulder for her Christmas present which was supposed to be a photo class, but ended up being 2 hours in the cold with a couple pictures thrown in. Ok, the class wasn't that bad, but it was cold. Afterwards we went to the Dushanbe tea house (no photos sorry) it was a neat little temple place imported from Dushanbe with excellent food and tea of course. The perfect thing to warm us up.

Sunday, Corey generously offered to give my car its first oil change while I sat inside watching football and enjoying the fire he made. I love the mini fireworks in there.

From 11-1-22

This Week In Photos

noreply@blogger.com (RiCap) — Sat, 22 Jan 2011 04:34:00 +0000

School started Tuesday, thus the slow down for the posts. We also learned about whiskey cocktails from a mixologist at a neat restaurant in Denver where they served candy cigarettes as an after dinner mint. They also had a tablecloth/tablepaper that Scott drew me a picture on. The event was a whole presentation on the proper way to mix a Manhattan, Mint Julep, Sazerac and one other drink I can't remember. Apparently those cocktails have been around for a looong time.

The rest of the week there was a little snow, enough to make the commute extra long and to keep Scott in Boulder overnight. I tried out a really long exposure on my camera. It's pretty impressive that I can take pictures of stars.

From January

This is the view from my office building. Not from where I sit, but if I look down the hall I can see downtown Denver and the mountains.

From January

It doesn't help if you read the instructions and they're wrong

noreply@blogger.com (RiCap) — Mon, 17 Jan 2011 23:22:00 +0000

Dear Target,
Thank you for having a curtain rod conveniently on sale for me. As much as I appreciate that, I do suggest that you improve your curtain rod installation directions. See, when your diagram shows two little holes and there is actually one hole with a loop thing and one regular hole which has a large impact on how you mark and hang the curtain rod it might be a good thing to mention. Also when the secondary instructions are on the box with the screws, but you firmly glue that box face down into the bigger box so that when you pull it out they are impossibly to read, that doesn't help much either.

Some spackle, a literally antique sewing machine and an assist from Corey the handyman later, VOILA! Curtains in our room.

Decor

noreply@blogger.com (RiCap) — Mon, 17 Jan 2011 00:28:00 +0000

I spent the day deep cleaning our bedroom. I can't believe how much dust has collected in such a short amount of time. The sad thing about scrubbing instead of just picking up is that it takes twice as long and only I know that I spent the day cleaning it. Oh well. I also took some photos to go over the bed. I have two 8x10 frames and an 8x8 frame. My semi-theme for the room is natural materials and textures so I took pictures of a few different trees. Like yesterday, I can't decide which edit I like best. More vintage or more clean B&W?

6:45 AM Saturday

noreply@blogger.com (RiCap) — Sat, 15 Jan 2011 16:54:00 +0000

6:45 AM. On Saturday. That is early. But I was out at Delaney Farms at 6:45 AM. It's been proven over and over again, if I don't like something, like the cold or exercise or early mornings, all you have to do is tell me there's a photo-op and all my arguments are thrown out the window - like a Pure Moods tape that your father got tired of hearing complaints about. (I bought him a new one for Christmas.) - and I'm there, lugging my camera up a mountain, down a frozen street or into the morning pre-sunrise. I also love my clients and couldn't possibly say no when they ask for photos.

Color or Black and White? Which do you like? I couldn't decide which I liked better.

From Delaney Farm

Friday 1/14/11

noreply@blogger.com (RiCap) — Sat, 15 Jan 2011 16:33:00 +0000

Oh Friday. It's so nice when Friday comes around and you get out of work 10 minute early, thinking you'll be home in no time because it's Friday, and traffic is light and you're ahead of the game. Then you come to a halt. You listen to the radio and they tell you about "some slowing". Ha look at those people getting off the highway thinking they'll go faster they're going to go create their own traffic jam. Then you sit there some more. You decide that the objects on the side of the road must be interesting. Oh look! a glove! You could probably get out and pick it up if you wanted to, but who wants a mucky glove when there's only one of them? But you could pick it up. Instead you start calling everyone you know and have half hour conversations with them all. But you still aren't home even though it should only be ONE Mr. Ed from work to home. For those of you not in the know, Mr. Ed was a TV show back in the day and that's how I used to mark time in car trips because I didn't know how long a half an hour was. So I'd ask how many Mr. Ed's away we were and I'd proceed to sing the intro song and make up an episode or watch one I'd already seen in my head. Sigh. Eventually I did manage to get home and have some lovely dinner with the roomies. We saw this neat little ice-cream shop building and of course had to stop. The sad thing about little cameras is that they really can't take pictures in the dark, so you'll just have to imagine that you see the building shaped like a milk pail. Added bonus this place was delicious and served generous portions of amazingly affordable ice-cream. I'm definitely going back.

Happy Long Weekend everyone!

From 11-1-14

Maybe it's Mars

noreply@blogger.com (RiCap) — Fri, 14 Jan 2011 02:55:00 +0000

Ok, so I know it's not supposed to be Mars. It's supposed to be some sort of earthen sculpture bridging the earthiness of education with the futuristic research side of campus where I work. One of these days when I'm on the other end of campus I'll take a picture of the futuristic side for you. There is also a video I've seen somewhere, I think on YouTube, about the artist and it's construction, but when I went to find it, I couldn't. You'll just have to wait for that piece of entertainment.

It's so nice to walk to my meetings on a sunny day and enjoy the beautiful campus where I work. I really want to get a pedometer to see if I get as much walking in as I think I do.

Attack of the 14 Squeakers - 1/12/11

noreply@blogger.com (RiCap) — Thu, 13 Jan 2011 02:45:00 +0000

Here is Jackson and his 14 squeaker-ful lion. He's a big dog, but compared to the length and sheer squeek-a-tude of this lion he looks small. He always perks his ears so attentively when you squeak one for him, but the ears raise an indignant extra degree when you squeak another one at the other end. You can just hear him exclaim, "squeakers can't move!" He really loves dragging his squeaker lion around. I had to take a photo because I wasn't sure it would last much longer since one of Jackson's missions in life is to de-squeak-itate all toys.

we were not telling him bad dog or anything here. I think we may be telling him to stay. But he sure looks cowed.

1/11/11

noreply@blogger.com (RiCap) — Wed, 12 Jan 2011 04:25:00 +0000

I should have started my new year today, all those nice Ones. With this 365 photo thing I have to admit that I'm both looking forward to and afraid of the fact that I'll frequently be taking pictures of the same things. I really want to use this project to help me look around and discover things I might not normally pay attention to, but really I've got a pretty standard routine going back and forth across I-70* every morning. Home, Work, Home. Sometimes there's variation, but not as often as there is routine. Anyway, I think it could be neat to see the same thing every day but see how it changes. Or it could just get dull.

This morning traffic was bad enough that I was pretty much sitting in a parking lot, which allowed for photos of the commute. Don't you just love the smell of dog food in the morning? I drive past the Purina plant, which depending on what part of the food they're processing or maybe just how hungry I am, can smell sort of good or sort of gross. It's usually nice and steamy, but it was extra steamy this morning because it was so cold.

* Did you know that Arizona type folks say "The 70" and Colorado type folks say "I-70"? I get it mixed up all the time. I also say Arizona Mills when I mean Colorado Mills pretty much constantly.

This is what happens when the temperatures never gets above freezing, but the sun hits the black metal mailbox. Snow ribbons.

Happy New Year!

noreply@blogger.com (RiCap) — Tue, 11 Jan 2011 03:35:00 +0000

So I decided that because I was busy running around the country for the holidays I'd start my new year, resolutions and all this week instead of on the traditional 1st day of the year. It gives me a little leeway to eat the leftover Christmas cookies. So, HAPPY NEW YEAR! This year one of the things I'd like to try is a 365 photo deal. Scott got me a little camera for Christmas so I feel like I can make this happen. It's not always easy to pull out the big camera every day. I don't promise to post a photo every day, but I'd like to at least take one a day. Not sure how often the posting will happen. One other gadget that I'm looking into is a wi-fi memory card so I can automatically post a photo.
We got a good amount of snow over the weekend. I still miss our little Civic sometimes but I'm not sure it would have made it over the drifts.

From Snow

I pick Scott up and drop him off here every day so he can catch the bus. Even when it's literally 10 degrees outside.

From Snow

I love the light coming through the snow covered trees. Sarah braved the cold to trek down to the corner with me just for a picture. People are so supportive of my photo madness. This is another example of how motivating photos can be for me, who'da thunk that I'd go out when it's so freezing?

From Snow

New Motivation

noreply@blogger.com (RiCap) — Mon, 06 Dec 2010 04:28:00 +0000

I would like to remember to post more and especially post more photos. Or maybe it's less of a matter of remembering and more a matter of finding or having the motivation to take a picture, upload it and write something about it. In New York, interesting things were going on around me on my way to work, and since I didn't drive I had lots of time for observation. Although I love love love Denver, that's one thing that I do miss. But I'm pretty sure I can still have it, I just have to make the effort.

So I'm trying to figure out what sort of goal I should set for myself. Whether it should be a post a day for a month or a picture a day for a year or maybe something less ambitious, like a post every other day. One thing I like about that is that it does motivate me to go out and observe the world a little. To take note of the funny little things going on around me. Yesterday I went to Wal-Mart and I saw an amazingly large number of Disney shirts on adults. Including one that said "It's all about the attitude" I was a little confused about why that was paired with a picture of Tinkerbell. I guess she has attitude. I also saw a Santa ride by on his motorcycle with a dog in a cage in a Santa suit on the back of it. I'm still not sure whether the dog was stuffed or real.

I need to wake up and pay attention to the things around me a little more. "participate in life" as someone I know once said.

MOPS Photos

noreply@blogger.com (RiCap) — Sun, 05 Dec 2010 04:10:00 +0000

I promised photos from the Mom's group called Mothers of PreSchoolers (MOPS) I worked with back in October. Here are a few of them. I loved meeting all the beautiful, sweet and wonderful families. I was sad to see them go after only a half hour. Part of the fun of photography for me is getting to play with the kids and having them warm up to me even though I'm sticking a big crazy black thing in their face. There were something like 27 families, so this is just a small sample.

I got to see Hudson (the flying one) again this weekend! He got a new little brother shortly after this picture was taken. I'll have to share some photos of him being a good big brother soon.

Workin' Hard

noreply@blogger.com (RiCap) — Fri, 12 Nov 2010 03:32:00 +0000

Phew, having time for a blog post seems like a luxury! Between full time work, plus grad school assignments plus 40+ photoshoots and all the editing that goes with that, I'm a busy lady. I did make time for Corey's (the roommate) surprise 30th birthday party. His parents came to town and kept him busy climbing mountains while we got the house ready. Sarah did all the hard work planning and cake baking.

From Corey's 30th Birthday

I did a ton of photos with a group called MOPS or Moms of PreSchoolers. Actually 37 families total. I posted some of the photos on Facebook and I'll post some here when I have time. I also did a shoot at Lair O' the Bear a great little hiking spot in the mountains with a kid named Mick. Here's a photo from our hike.

From Jones 10-30-10

Photos and More!

noreply@blogger.com (RiCap) — Fri, 01 Oct 2010 13:44:00 +0000

I've been so busy lately with photo-shoots that I've had to raise my prices. It was a struggle for me because I really love being able to provide a service at an accessible price. I don't want people not to have pictures just because they can't afford it. Yes, they can go to Wal-Mart or take pictures of their own, but it's not quite the same. Or it wouldn't be to me. I really enjoy taking photos, I don't do it for the money, I do it because I love hearing from clients and people who I've taken pictures of who are happy because they have a memory to keep forever. One of the best compliments I ever received was from someone who said that he liked my photos because he looked in my photos how he felt he really looked. I may have worded that confusingly, but I knew what he meant. It's nice to look at a photo and say, yeah that really captures who I am, instead of having it just be a photo where you notice that the way you tilted your head gave you a double chin. I just don't have the time for the amount of business I was getting so I raised my prices, but I'll have to look into some sort of contest or non-profit connection that will let me provide photos at a cheaper price or for free occasionally for people who would love to have photos but might not be able to afford my higher prices.

Enjoy a few of the photos from last weekend's shoots!

Two-Month-Old Lucy

Zucchini on The Loose

noreply@blogger.com (RiCap) — Wed, 11 Aug 2010 00:19:00 +0000

Mmm the garden is growing and I don't know if we'll be able to keep up with production. I thought I'd planted conservatively, but I should know that 3 zucchini plants is not conservative. Maybe I'll do a before and after shot, because I swear I go out one day and see a cute little baby zucchini about the size of a hot dog and the next day a giant monster zucchini closer to the size of a new roll of paper towels is sitting out there waiting for me. I also got a yellow squash so I made calabacitas.

We didn't have tortillas in the house, so I decided to make some, but we didn't have shortening either. I made tortillas with butter, which turned out more like pastries. No bend to them at all and very buttery tasting.

As if that wasn't enough kitchen craftiness I thought that I needed some homemade mozzarella to go with the fresh tomatoes and basil. So Sarah and I gave it the good ole college try. Well..... that didn't exactly work out. We ended up making something with the taste and texture of ricotta cheese. I think it had something to do with the temperature. Not sure if I'm going to try again.

New Look

noreply@blogger.com (RiCap) — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 04:29:00 +0000

I'm working on changing up the look of the blog. It's a work in progress so if you have to do some funny scrolling for awhile. I apologize. Eventually things will get better. The ultimate goal is to have this hooked up through my photography website and to make it so pictures can be extra large! I'll have to brush up on my coding skills before that all gets done though. Saw a lovely rainbow at our house yesterday.

Climb Every Mountain Until You Find Your Golden Ticket or Your Spirit Animal

noreply@blogger.com (RiCap) — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 02:57:00 +0000

Once upon a time in the land known as Colorado, I saw a varmint cross the road. I was probably around 12 years old at the time. Thus I was not only lacking in my animal identification skills, but alas there was no Google around to help me identify the creature. I knew it wasn't a groundhog, but it looked a little like one.

Fast forward 15 years, I once again find myself in the land of Colorado hiking along a trail at high altitude. Although there wasn't much oxygen, I was fairly certain I wasn't having a vision when I saw a fat rodent-like-beast come towards me with a hopeful gleam in his eye.

The creature was a Marmot and they seemed terribly tame for living way up at 13,000+ feet. They must have been fed a lot of granola bars, because they walked right up to us ready to have some lunch. Here I thought I was trekking into the wild.

We reached the top of Mt. Chiquita, (no relation to the banana that I know of.) and realized that our hopes of summiting a second mountain were about to be dashed by the ominous rainclouds on the horizon. I was alright with that, so we said goodbye to our friends the Marmots and ran down the mountain, barely avoiding a mountain downpour.

Looking back at the photos, I realize I look a little like Johnny Dep's version of Willy Wonka, but the wind was crazy up there and I didn't care what I looked like.

From Estes Hike