Sharing the camera

We've been sharing the camera, my husband and I. And as he gets more comfortable with it, I'm still liking that he's found something that makes him happy. You see, there was a time when he would barely touch this camera unless it was to turn it on and take a quick picture or two. He never changed settings and he never in a million years (or so I thought) would change a lens.

But now that he seems to be becoming a little more adept with photography in general, he's actually changing lenses. And as much as we'd both love to get a new Nikon zoom lens, we have to wait and put up with the Quantaray, which we're lucky to have, don't get me wrong. With the economy the way it is and only one of us working, it makes zero sense to spend money we don't have just because we want something that's better.

My husband took the first photo here. It was taken in the front yard early Monday morning before I was awake. It was snowing lightly and very foggy and cold. The tops of the trees in the distance are iced over.

He also took this photo, without a macro lens, using the close-up setting on the auto dial.

I went out later on in the day. It was still snowing lightly but a little more bright. I didn't know at the time that he had taken other photos and looking at them later, was surprised that we took some of the very same things. I took this with the macro lens.

Then I took this one. Now before you get too overworked with the sheer excitement going on here, I'll explain something to you. I think we're very similar in the things that we like to photograph. And I think my favorite so far here was the one with the yellow berries on the bare branch that my husband took with the kit lens that came with the camera.

But then I saw this picture he had taken.

The SOOC (straight out of camera) wasn't that exciting. But so many of mine aren't either. I just liked the composition, and the red of the barn. So I ran a couple of Photoshop actions on it, cropped it some and decided to post it here.

ORIGINAL PHOTO FIXED PHOTO

Here's what the original photo looked like. Very gray and faded. I ran Pioneer Woman's Soft & Faded action on it and then her Boost action, lowering the opacity on each of them. Her actions are free and they work with Photoshop. To clarify for those who aren't sure what an 'action' is, it's basically a series of things you would do to a photo all rolled up into one simple push of a button.

To get a little bit bigger of a picture on actions, check out this post written by PW last year. She calls it One Barn, Ten Ways. I mean, if you're into it.

And on that note, I bid you farewell on this historic day in the history of our nation.

Until tomorrow, my friends . . .

The best laid plans . . .

Oh, I had so many plans for today. There was cleaning, and scrubbing. (I do enjoy a bit of that from time to time, you know).

There was the making of my signature dessert, my apple pumpkin pie (which I plan on posting later on).

There was a visit back to my new favorite wine store. And well, I did get that one accomplished. (Priorities, you know).

But this morning, while having a cup of cappuccino out on my front porch with my husband, I walked down the steps and TRIPPED off the very last step where it meets the earth. And I fell down. And I actually cried because my ankle hurt so badly. Cried!

I hate crying. Usually. But this hurt so badly that I simply had to cry.

My husband rushed to help me. My dog sniffed me and declared me AliVe. And right before I fell, I had taken this little video of George. He'd been fetching and catching his toy in the air and I thought it would be fun to show off his abilities on my blog.

But I erased it accidentally. (Because I am an idiot).

Have you noticed my extreme use of the parentheses in this post?

So now, I'm having a glass of wine and nursing my ankle. I may still make the pie later on.

Riddle me this: What do you do when a beloved co-worker changes in an instant and hardly talks to you anymore? What do you do when you know it's nothing you've done? What do you do when you absolutely miss the jocularity, the camaraderie, and the downright exhuberance of said co-worker? And I am not putting the links in for him anymore. I am just not.

It's just so . . .

disheartening.

Don't mind me. I'm just pissy because of my clumsiness.

And two posts in one day. Wow! I haven't done this in, well, since I began blogging! And the picture? Well, it's actually a watercolor I was playing around with in Photoshop while I've been sitting here nursing my ankle. It's just a simple pic of a tree that wasn't really any good. I'd taken it through one of the windows that had a screen in it, and I'm posting the original on my other blog tomorrow. I just liked how the watercolor looked.