{Captivated by the Season}

My original plan for today's post was to write something very profound. I was going to write something deep, perhaps even wise, and make you all stop to reflect on your lives. I was essentially going to change the world.

Then I sat down with my laptop and I could not bear the thought of all the effort it would take to change the world. Since it's Monday and I never really got to enjoy the weekend, I'm making today an extension of yesterday. Today it's gonna be all about the fluff of my life. Lots of pictures, not many words. It's my Monday gift to you...

Currently my iPhoto library looks like this:

Gorgeous.

Why? Because I went to Oregon. Why? To be with Poor Kyle. Why? Because I love him. Why? Good question. (Smiley face.)

Anyway, I was glad to go on the three-day road trip even though I had just returned from Mesa the day before. After taking all these photos of fall leaves and anything that struck me as beautiful, I'm even gladder [more glad?].

I hope you are as captivated by the season as I have been. Enjoy.

Everyone should take a long drive through fall foliage at least once in their life. It's really very healing. I wasn't even sick, but I feel healed.

Don't you feel healed?

If I could tear out the trees in front of our house and replant them with these beauties (above), I would. Only I don't know what they're called. Any ideas?




I thrill at the sight of a long, straight bit of railroad track. There's so much hope in a railroad track.







Oh, and also...I don't brush my hair anymore. Not worth it. I threw away every brush I own, so any hairstyling I do from now on will be with fingertips, bobby pins and Trash Ties™. Just thought you should know.

Leaves in the gutter--how lovely.

Again with the railroad tracks--I'm sensing a theme.

There. All better. Like chicken soup for the friggen soul.

{Happy Monday.}

Picture This: Your Face.

Confession: I left the last post up for two days because I liked reading it every time I opened my laptop.

I have never met anyone so intrigued with their own life story as I am with mine. But that's another post for another day.

This day is Thursday! Time to answer a reader's question! Hooray! Enthusiasm!

I know one person in particular is going to be thrilled with my choice of the week.

Question, from Raygon [to whom I would link, except her blog is all fancy pants and private, so most of you wouldn't be able to access it]:

What kind of camera do you have? Do you Photoshop your pictures (like the pics of the flowers)? Or are they naturally that colorful and vivid? Please, oh please, answer my question...I have only asked 100 times! Come on, Camille!

Answer, from Me:

Oh, Raygon. Thank you for your long-suffering support of my blog. I'm sorry it's taken me so long to answer this question, and even more sorry that I won't be able to answer it the way I wanted. Ideally, I would have a photo of the cameras I use, and maybe one of me using them, but life is not always ideal. I thought I'd better go ahead and answer this week, for fear of losing you as a friend altogether. Sorry for the delay.

The answer is...

...it depends. There are two cameras in my life that I use on a regular basis. Both are cameras I have commandeered from Poor Kyle. (Poor Kyle, indeed. All that he has is basically mine now, and nothing I have appeals to him in the slightest. I think he got a bum deal.)

For everyday point-and-shoot pictures, I use this:

Image from here.

There it is in the mirror, being clutched by my rather fearsome-looking left hand [curse this rheumatoid arthritis].

It's a Konica Minolta DiMage Z3, and it's not made anymore. Which is just as well, because probably none of you have heard of this brand anyway. Which is why they went out of business, I suppose.

"Dear our customers..." Such a thoughtful way to end an era. Page from here.

Nevertheless, it's a fantastic machine, and is 100% user-friendly. I use it for quick photos that I need right away. I'm sure I'm not utilising even a tenth of what it can do, but I'm not too savvy when it comes to apertures and f-stops. For me, and for most pictures, it works like a charm.

It took this photo...

...and this photo.

Uploading my snapshots to iPhoto takes seconds--not minutes--and I'm very pleased with every aspect of it, save perhaps its bulkiness. When I take pictures with the Konica Minolta, I do not edit the shots in Photoshop. I usually only use iPhoto's limited editing options, because that's all I really need for my instant-gratification snapshots. [Fact: I actually only use the "enhance" feature. I kind of don't know how to do anything else.]


Poor Kyle let me take this camera to Europe with me last year [he wanted to marry me], and it has been my nearly-constant companion ever since...

...Which seems fine by him, since he upgraded to this:


The Canon EOS Digital How Long Can They Make This Name SLR:

An SLR is a digital camera that is better than other digital cameras, as far as I can tell. It does better things--though I'm not sure what, exactly. It might have something to do with pixels. Or all the lenses available for purchase. Image from here.

And I'll tell you the honest truth: I know nothing about photography. Sometimes I steal the SLR to make myself feel fancy, but I never change the settings from "automatic," and I only know that I like one lens: the 50mm f1.8. I don't know what it means, but it makes the backgrounds of photos all blurry, which is a style I like:

I used the fancier camera for this photo of my inquisitive nephew...

And for this image of my favourite new bedding.

And for these images of my backyard [those were happier days when the grass was green].

{It kind of bothers Poor Kyle when I sneak away with his camera. First I thought it was because it costs more than my life. Then I thought it was because he thinks I take ugly photographs. Finally I learned he just likes being the one who knows how to take pictures. I was stealing his thunder. So someday I'll just buy my own--perhaps for my next birthday--and that will be the end of it. He doesn't have to look at my artwork if he doesn't want to.}

For the photos that I do attempt with the SLR, I do use Photoshop for some minor touchups--again, I am far from well-versed in the program; I simply follow Ree Drummond's easy tutorials, and I can usually come up with something that looks nice enough.

And that, my friend, is everything I know. I bet you were hoping for a bit more wisdom, huh? Sorry. I can't be acting all wise, or people might start expecting more out of me.

I Turned 22 and all I Got Was Adult Acne.

On the inside of my right nostril, over the course of one night, I have contracted either a pimple or a bug bite.

I don't know which is worse.

On one hand, I might have a pimple inside my nose.

On the other hand, I may have inhaled a bug in the middle of the night; a bug which then proceeded to bite my nose.

So really, is there any way this is going to be a good day?

In case your Tuesday is looking anything like mine, I'm posting some pictures of my birthday flowers. It might just cheer you up.

Poor Kyle brought them to me in a brown paper bag from the flower place, and I was so excited to be able to arrange them myself. If anybody's gonna get me flowers, getting them so I can arrange them myself is much better than buying them already fancied up. Not that I'm any Eddie Ross or Jami Parker Pitts, but I still like to try.

I got that white pitcher from Goodwill for $1.99 and like it more than most people I know. [Not you people, though. Different people.]

Here's the arrangement from a step back...

And from one more step back. This is for anyone who's been bugging me to show pictures of my house. Happy Tuesday. And normally, those black candlesticks aren't there--they belong on a lower surface, but I recently had a little terror at my house, and he was obsessed with destroying anything at his eye level. I still haven't quite recovered.

{He sure is a cute little tyrant, though.}

{Oh yeah. And don't mind that crazy person in the mirror. She may or may not have just barely gotten out of bed. She hasn't showered in a while. She has nothing to do with the person who runs Archives of Our Lives. Nothing at all.}

And now for a few steps closer...close-ups of flowers make me smile.

Pretty...

...pretty...

...and pretty.

Mums are quickly becoming my favourite flower (second only to snapdragons). Especially these fall-coloured ones. Poor Kyle said he got these ones because I had them in my bouquet at our wedding almost a year ago.

Svelte, PK. Very svelte.

How To Be Self-Taught at Anything.

Thank you, everyone, for all the birthday wishes. Nothing like a birthday to make me feel like everybody loves me. On a birthday, I have no enemies. On a birthday, I'm everyone's favourite person. Updates of the day will be coming next week.

But until then, I'm trying to learn the ever-so-complicated art of Photoshop CS3. [What? They have a CS4 now? Shoot.] It's not an easy task. Poor Kyle taught me what a layer was and how to use one, and Ree Drummond taught me everything else.

I don't want to take any classes or any true tutorials, because I would very much like to go around smugly telling people that "I am a self-taught Photoshop extraordinaire." There's something about being self-taught [at anything!] that makes me feel really vain.

So far so good. I know I like how this one turned out. What a cute little tongue my nephew has. All the better to exploit him with--that's what I say.

But when it came to this photo, I couldn't decide if I liked Option #1 or Option #2 better...

On the one hand, in the above photo (Option #1), Inquisitive Baby's eyes are bright and crisp, and his face looks soft and fluffy.

But on the other hand, in Option #2, my Inquisitive Baby's background is dark, and there's just enough contrast to provide visual stimulation.

Visual stimulation? I don't even know what an aperture is--how can I possibly talk about visual stimulation and get away with it?

So it's up to you, e-friends. Should I like #1 or #2 better? The differences are subtle, but I feel like I should have an opinion either way. And you are going to form that opinion for me [please, that is]! You can vote in the poll to the right, or comment on this post if you'd like to expound your reasoning. Also, if there are any amazing photography sites that make your world go round, please let me know of them.

I'm in the market for some inspiration.

It's my party and I'll--oh, forget it.

It's my birthday.

And on this, the 25th of September, I would like to declare that I'm tired of keeping it real.

What I want, for just one day, is a whole lot of fake.

In other words, instead of my [self-made] birthday cake looking like this:



I want it to look like this:

Image from here.

Yeah. Uh...not so much. My birthday cake's crack is showing.

[At least the cake stand is adorable.]

...And instead of my war-zone post-birthday cake kitchen looking like this:


I want it to look more like this:

Image from here.

Instead of my gallbladder looking like this:

Utterly revolting image from here.

I want it to look like this:

Sunshine and daisies. Photo by Jim-AR.

It's my birthday, and I'd like some fake, of the Martha Stewart persuasion.

Please and thank you.