hi there, it's been awhile

here are my boys, now 5 years and 14 months old:

and i'm still stalking pretty flowers:

these three pictures were taken with my phone. i do still take pictures with my "real" cameras, but find i have less and less time to upload them. the phone camera is just so easy, and i always have it with me.

i'm going to ride a segway for the first time on sunday. i hope i don't crash! wheeeee!

my two little guys at christmastime

afternoon commute

afternoon commute, a photo by stupid blue on Flickr.

afternoon commute

finn at seven months

or, looking a little happier ...

my boys

i took this picture of erik and finn last night when the sun was setting and the light was beautifully soft. it's my favorite of the two of them together so far ... but i don't have very many because erik really hates to have his picture taken, how sad for his photographer mom!

death of the point and shoot camera

i read an article awhile back about how the digital point and shoot camera will likely fade into extinction over the next several years due to the increasing abundance and quality of mobile phone cameras. i kind of scoffed at that thinking sure, the quality of the photos you get from these phone cameras is getting better, but it's still a long way from being as good as that from my little canon SD790. fast forward about 6 months plus one child, and I find that i'm carrying my camera less and less and taking photos with my phone more and more. i guess with two children now i have enough to remember/carry that the extra item, even though it's so small it fits in my pocket, is nearly always overlooked. in addition to that, i have a few apps for my phone camera that instantly create some really cool effects and can be uploaded directly to facebook or flickr or sent in an email. since i am also rarely on my computer in the evening or on weekends anymore, this has become my primary tool for photo-sharing. so it seems the author of that article was correct: convenience triumphs over quality. plus it would take a good bit of photoshopping to accomplish what my retrocam app does with the push of one button.

my how finn's grown

maybe one day i'll have time to blog again!

welcome baby finn

Baby Dots Birth Announcement

Personalized cards for babies, Valentines, Easter and Mother's Day.

View the entire collection of cards.

pummelvision

from the fine folks at pummelvision, my flickr life flashed before your very eyes:



pretty cool, no?

this year's carving

i decided to carve the traditional jack-o-lantern this year. i wasn't feeling particularly inspired, but i awoke saturday morning with visions of round, slanty eyes and a dramatic overbite with large fangs in mind, so that's what i went with. it was a great weekend all around, trick-or-treating with erik times two, lots of lab work also. life is busy! and little zanzi has been super active, keeping me company all the while.

18w4d - introducing zanzibar buck buck mcfate!

last day of summer flowers

the calendar says that it's fall, but it's almost 90F out there. what gives? bring on the 70F days and evenings in the 50s! i took some photos the other day, something i hadn't done in awhile. here are some cornflowers from my neighbor's yard and little yellow snap dragons from my own.











it was interesting to watch the bees push themselves into the "mouth" of the dragon, do their little bee-siness, and move along.

thinking about halloween already!

one of my favorite holidays. maybe my very favorite!

exciting times

i don't know if anyone reads this blog ... mostly because i never write anything in it anymore! well, i'm not really announcing this to the "general public" yet, but i'm excited and have to tell someone, so i am telling my blog. and if anyone should happen to read this, i guess that's okay too! :)

9w3d:

way behind

hmmm

seems to me i haven't blogged in awhile. and i started the year off so strong! maybe i'll catch up again one of these days. i've been taking TONS of photographs and have been enjoying playing with them in photoshop and i just adore the topaz adjust plugin! i have lots and lots of new flowers popping up in my yard. i don't remember having so many in years past, but maybe it's just that i wasn't really looking. these just came up this week:



they are called star-of-bethlehem. and i am captivated by these bluebells:



thanks to the kind folks on flickr for helping me to identify all of my beautiful blossoms! perhaps i'll dedicate my next post to logging and identifying all of the flowers that i have in my own tiny little yard in pittsburgh, pa!

experimentation

something new to play around with!

ooh

i like the way this one turned out!

topaz adjust

does some pretty cool things! still trying to decide if it's worth my $50 though. here's an example of some photos edited with the plug-in:

some stuff

this:



and then this: