photography
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Sunrise, Sunset
Wow, I didn’t realize it has been quite so long since my last post. We have been in the new house for almost a month and so far so good! We are just waiting on the new sofa to come and then I have to persuade Matt to buy a dining room table. My craft desk is on the way and then I can start working on that room (which I’m really excited about)!
Yesterday Matt was sitting on the screen porch and I was inside on the sofa. I hear him tap on the window and motion for me to come out. I figured Julio was doing something cute. I wasn’t prepared for what I saw. The sky was filled with blues, pinks, and purples. It was AMAZING! I knew if the back yard was that pretty, the front would be even more amazing, and I was right!
I grabbed my camera and we both ran upstairs to the Ensuite. The windows are almost even with the roof so we opened the windows and I sat on the window sill and took some pics. The sky was just beautiful.
It’s not just sunsets that are amazing at the new house either. Sunrise has been pretty good since the time change (when I’m actually up to see the sunrise). I took these pics the other morning as I was leaving the house. Needless to say, I think I’m going to like it here!
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Snow and more snow!
In the past 2 weeks we’ve had like 3-4 days of snow!?!? This is absolutely crazy for NC. Normally we’ll get a day of snow here or there but these past few weeks it’s been a lot! Don’t get me wrong, I love a good snow day but this is starting to get ridiculous. The city basically shuts down because we aren’t equipped to deal with snow. Not to mention people already drive like idiots so adding snow is a disaster!
As promised I did go out and take some pics today. They were predicting 8+ inches for the Triangle last night and it seems most of Raleigh got more than we got at the new house. Booo! The townhouse probably got around 5″ while we only got 2″ at the new house. The official total at the airport was 5″. Anyway, here are some pics of the new hood. I didn’t venture very far since the roads were pretty slushy.
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Meet baby G!
It’s been about a month since my cousin K had her baby. Baby G was born on Father’s Day. Mom went to stay with K and her husband for about a week right after G was born. I decided to go see G while mom was there. I figured I could give her and K a break, and possibly a nap, while I was there. G was only 3 days old when I went to visit and he was adorable. It actually worked out well because I had a dentist appointment that had been scheduled for a while so I went to that and then headed to Greensboro for the day.
I got there in time to pack everyone in the car so we could take G to his first doctor’s appointment. He did wonderful, of course! We grabbed some lunch and Starbucks on our way home. When we got back G nursed for a little while and once he was good and sleepy we put him in his bouncy chair so I could take some pics. I set up in the foyer and snapped away. I had hoped to get some naked baby pics but he was being so good we left him how he was.
So yeah, it’s been like a month and in true slacker fashion, I just NOW edited his pics. They actually turned out better than I had hoped. In all fairness, my personal laptop is such a huge PITA that I HATE doing anything on it. Had I been able to edit them on my work laptop they would have been done 3 weeks ago. Anyway, it’s a pain and I hate using my laptop so it takes forever when I need to do stuff like this. One day maybe I’ll convince Matt to either let me start using his Mac or I’ll just buy a small, cheap laptop that I can use for editing only. We’ll see I guess.
Here are a few of my faves. I’ve been trying to upload them to my photography website all morning but keep running into time out issues. I’ll post the link but currently there are only a few pics up.
http://www.kellysuzannephotography.com/?gallery=gavin
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Super Moon
A couple of months ago there was a Harvest Moon. I actually missed but not before I tried to take pics of it. It had happened the night before. Anyway, before I realized this I decided to try to take some pics of it. I put my camera on the tripod and went out on the deck. I got everything set up and then starting playing around with manual mode. Since I really had no idea what I was doing, I decided to google it. I found the settings I needed but it still wasn’t working. I ended up calling my dad at 11:30 to get a quick crash course on shutter speed. Turns out I hadn’t gone up far enough on the dial to get where I needed to be. So yes, I’m admitting I’ve just now figured out manual mode. Mostly because I didn’t understand the shutter speed settings on my camera. Whomp whomp.
After a few tries I actually got a few pics of the moon, not the Harvest Moon, but the moon. It was a step in the right direction because something about this task made manual mode finally click for me.
Fast forward to Saturday night. It was the first of 3 Super Moons this summer. As Matt and I left dinner, I noticed how big the moon looked. Dad had texted me to see if I was going to take some pics but I wasn’t sure I’d be able to see it from the house. Once we got home, I looked out and saw I had a pretty good view of the moon. I grabbed my camera and tripod and headed outside. I got everything set up and started taking pics. Much to my surprise, they looked pretty good on the screen.
I waited till I got to work this morning before I looked at the rest of the pics. There were a few that sucked, but overall the majority were pretty good (and they turned out!). You can’t really get the full effect of how big it was because I didn’t have a good backdrop for comparison. I mean the neighbors roof wouldn’t really add much, right? But the big win here is that I FINALLY took a pic of the moon! 🙂 And I know how to do it again!
Super Moon! 
Super Moon! 
“Harvest Moon” As you can see, my moon pics drastically improved from my non-harvest Harvest Moon pics. (The one above is really the best one I got.) Plus, by the time I figured out what I was really doing, the clouds were starting to roll in. Regardless, I’m really impressed with my latest try!
~k
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Fourth of July Weekend
Due to a competition at work, I ended up with July 3rd off as well as the 4th. Matt and I both decided to also take Monday off so we could have a long weekend at the beach. As the week started, a tropical storm formed off the coast. By Wednesday it was headed for the beach but looked like it should pass by late Thursday and be out of our way for the weekend.
Thursday morning we woke up to discover the storm was ahead of schedule and it looked like we would probably end up driving through it. Ooops. We got the car packed and the kiddos in and we headed out. We hit one really rough patch of rain about an hour outside of Raleigh but it was over about as quickly as it started. By the time we got to Wilmington though, Hurricane Arthur was getting closer. We drove into the rain and a tornado warning. Thankfully the rain wasn’t too awful and we never saw the tornado. We arrived at Matt’s parent’s house around 2:30ish and sat back and watched the storm. And by watch the storm, I mean we watched the rain. It wasn’t until about 6:00pm that the winds really picked up but at this point, we were only getting the backside of Arthur. Seeing as we had driven through a hurricane to get there, I was determined to go and check out the beach. About 7:30 the winds had died down enough for us to head out. I was pretty disappointed at how calm the sea was. I mean it was rough, but not what I expected it to look like right after a hurricane.
Friday was just gross hot. Matt and his dad played golf while his mom and I went to the pool. We only stayed about 2 hours before it was just too hot to stay out anymore. Saturday and Sunday were both amazing, low 80’s and partly cloudy. Matt and I lounged on the beach most of the afternoon both days. I didn’t get quite as much sun as I had hoped for. I was a little overzealous with the SPF 30. 😉 I do at least have a bit more color though.
I managed to remember my camera this trip so I have quite a few pics to share. The first few are driving into the storm and after the storm.
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Flowers! I have flowers!
A few months ago I came across a bag of Gladiolus bulbs at Costco. When I lived in Austin, I used to always buy Gladiolus from the grocery store. The H.E.B would always have bundles for around $10.00. It was a great way to keep fresh flowers in my apartment, so when I saw them at Costco I couldn’t resist myself.
When the weather warmed up I planted about 15 under our deck and a few more on the side of the house. Well the ones under the deck, which receive almost full sun, have done GREAT! For the past week, I’ve been waiting for them to start blooming in full force. As of yesterday they were getting there.
I can’t decide if I’m going to resist the urge to cut them and bring them inside or leave them outside. Part of me thinks it’s a waste to leave them outside since they are on the back of the house under the deck. No one (ie me) will ever see them. But there is the other part that feels they should get to grow outside. Who knows what I’ll do. Probably cut them! 😉
I also have a Gerber Daisy that is taking off. Mom gave it to me last year and I keep it in a pot on sidewalk. It gets full sun most of the day and in the past few weeks it has really started to grow. I told Matt I had a blooms on the Gerber Daisy, to which he responded “the weed looking thing”. HAHA! Yes the “weed looking thing”! I know I’ve said this a few times but I am super proud (and slightly impressed) with my gardening skills. Mostly I’m just happy I can plant things and for the most part they live.
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Snow day part deux (365 challenge)
Work has been crazy busy the last week or so and I haven’t had a chance to write about the snowstorm that hit Raleigh last week. Predictions were 4-8″ and I would say we definitely got 4″ plus a little more.
The snow was due to start around lunch on Wed so Matt decided to ride in to work with me and work from the Hunt Library on campus. It is about 2 blocks from my office and he hadn’t been there yet. A little before noon he walked back to my office and waited for me to get out of a meeting. I didn’t really take the snow seriously and about 12:15 he texted me and told me we had to leave that the snow had started. At this point my meeting was running long anyway so I grabbed my things and left.
By the time we got out the door the snow was already starting to stick to the ground. We hopped in the car and headed home. We got to Western Blvd and sat through the light a few times before I encouraged Matt to hop the curb and go a different way. Traffic was already starting to suck and the snow was sticking more and more. Within 15 mins or so of the start the roads were covered. We finally got off campus only to get stuck about 8 miles from the house. A drive that normally takes me about 5 minutes took us almost 45! Not to mention I was starving at this point. We finally got past all traffic but the roads were getting worse. About an hour and a half after we left the office, we finally got home. We only had one instance of sliding, like really sliding while trying to stop.
The snow continued into the night before turning to sleet and freezing rain and by the time we went to bed we had about 4″ of snow with ice piling on top. Clearly we worked from home on Thursday and Friday. I even managed to go sledding Thursday afternoon. Matt was a snow humbug and wouldn’t sled but he did take a few videos of me sledding. 🙂 It was fun!
By Saturday the roads were back to normal and I made Matt get me out of the house. At this point I am DONE praying for snow! 😉 I’ve gotten my “several inches” and I am ready for spring.
Now for the photo overload! Enjoy!
Happy Thursday!
~k
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Snow Day – 365 Challenge Week 5
I’m totally cheating and using some of the snow pics from last week for my challenge. 🙂
Last week the news started calling for snow on Tuesday and into Wednesday morning. I got to work and waited for the flurries to start. By 4:00 pm there was still no snow in the Triangle. I waited another half hour and decided to head home anyway. Matt and I laid on the couch around 5 and I told him it would be snowing when we woke up. Sure enough around 6 it was snowing. It snowed for most of the night however when we woke up on Wednesday we only managed to get about 1.5 inches. Since there was snow on the ground, there was no way I was going in to work. I emailed my manager to let him know I’d be working from home. I threw on some clothes and headed outside to take a few pics before the snow was ruined!
Matt is a snow fuddy duddy and wouldn’t go out and play with me but around 10:30 he decided to de-snow my car and clear off the driveway with his new snow shovel! Hehe. I bought him a snow shovel for Christmas. 🙂 Anyway, I decided to go out and help him but boy was it cold. At this point it was only in the teens out. I helped clear off some of my car and then took a few more pics. It was a gorgeous day but it was so cold out. I finally headed back inside to do more work and to warm up.
Thursday I went back to work, though I went in a little late since the roads were still a little icy. Even this weekend we still had some snow in our yard. It didn’t really all melt till the rain started last night. And while I do love me some snow, it was very very cold. I’m glad the temps rose some over the weekend.
~k
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365 Challenge – Week 4
I know I’m a few days late but I haven’t had a chance to edit at work. 😉 Here are my pics from last week. I’m currently working from home today since it’s a SNOW DAY but I’ll blog about that tomorrow! (and include some pics!)
Random view of the sidewalk in front of the office. 
I love this tree. It is down the street from my office. One day last week when school was cancelled I stopped on my way to work to snap a quick pic. 
The Hunt Library on campus. 
The lake down the street from the office. 
My little yard frog. He’s seen better days for sure. We had a light dusting of snow. 
A random left on the sidewalk. 
A guy Matt knows said this cute little guy was scaring his kids and he was going to have to get rid of it. I told Matt to tell him we’d take it. Now I just need an Auburn one. -
365 Challenge
What is a 365 Challenge you ask? Well it’s when you commit to doing a certain thing everyday for a year. In my case it’s a photography challenge. The goal is to help me get better with my camera and take better pics. Now, with that said, I’m only 13 days into my challenge and I haven’t quite taken a pic a day. Guys, let me tell you, this is hard! So instead of giving up on the idea I’ve decided to stick with it in a less rigid fashion. I WILL take 365 pictures this year but some days I make take 2 and a skip a few days of actual photography. I feel like this will still help me accomplish my goal without completely burning me out.
Part of the problem too, is my lack of confidence in stopping the car to take a pic. I am much more confident to do this when I have someone with me, but being on my own tends to be quite difficult. Not to make excuses, but as a child I was pretty shy and still am to a point. It takes me a little while in new situations to warm up. Stopping to take a pic definitely puts me outside my comfort zone. Hopefully this challenge will also help with this as well.
I’m going to try and do these posts on Mondays starting today.
New Year’s Eve at the stroke of midnight. 
This is from my lightbox and probably my least favorite pic of the bunch. 
The Raleigh Acorn. This is our NYE “ball.” It was in the park across from my tattoo artist. 
My tattoo boutique. 
I liked all 3 of these and I couldn’t decide. 
A little memento from this football season and my pic for the 6th. 
Some glittery sticks beside the fireplace. 
Some wires in the parking garage at work. 
The holly bush beside our house. 
The tree in our yard. 
We had a beautiful sunset yesterday.
