I only have two outtakes from Saturday’s shoot, but they are pretty good ones.
This first one is deceptive – I actually know what was going on here; I was getting pissed that my Speedlite was overheating so early in the shoot and was intermittently not working. So I was staring at it trying to determine if it was going to work at all, dammit – and that’s when this shot went off (and yes, the Speedlite worked for this one). Why it looks like I am so happy as to have gone brain-dead is beyond me (unless it captured my moment of joy at seeing the flash start working again).All I do know is that I look like I just got goosed, or spotted the world’s most amazing firework display:
Somewhere during all my photo editing, I decided to deal with the white balance problem by using a high key filter on these shots. Yes it makes me look monochromatic, but at least I’m not yellow anymore.
My next one was taken when I was trying to blow a lock of hair out of my face. I thought this would look cute on camera. It’s not cute, exactly, but it is, well, something:
I honestly can’t decide if that is the best or the worst photo I’ve ever taken. Part of me wants to make it my new profile picture on Facebook, and part of me wants to burn it.
Those are the only two amusing outtakes I have, but I will add this one, which is from the other set of photos I shot Saturday. I used this amazing new dress I got from ModCloth (one of my favorite stores) that just felt like it needed to be danced in, and one of my custom gray wigs from Amore. I took these shots not by dancing, as I have learned that such shots only come out looking good when one is an actual dancer (with a normal, non-dancing person, dancing shots come out looking like grand mal seizures). I took them instead by looking up photos of real dancers on Google images and trying my best to imitate those shots. I pretty much failed, but I did get some interesting pics out of it.
These are the only two of this set I’ve processed so far (and yeah, I added a texture to the background of the first once, couldn’t help myself):
No dancers were harmed during the shooting of these photos. Trust me.
I think next I’ll post Part 2 of my headband wig review, plus I have two new headband wigs I photographed Sunday that I need to type up reviews for. So much hair, so little time!
Got another three-day weekend, so I felt free to spend the day taking photos. I got my supposedly wrinkle-free backdrop in, and it’s not too bad. Out of the bag and hung on the wall there are definitely wrinkles, but they don’t show up all that much in the shots. And I went with a smaller size this time – 10 x 12 instead of 10 x 20, so it was not quite as big a hassle to hang up.
Look ma, no wrinkles
Working with a solid white background is weird for me, though. You would think white balance would be easy that way, but I find it’s not. Or maybe it was all the hot pink that caused the white balance to go awry – not sure. But much like my last shoot I came out a different tone in every pic. Perhaps that’s because I set the balance on my camera to fluorescent when lately I’ve been using the auto setting – not sure why I did that, I just get bored with setting it one way and switch it over to the other on occasion.
Skintone #1
I also set my Speedlite a little too low for the jumping shots, so I’m having to brighten them up when editing, which is a bit of a pain. And again, this solid white background is messing with me, making me feel uncertain about how best to process the shots. So every one comes out looking different. Which isn’t bad, but I do like some level of consistency in a shoot.
Yes, I actually do wear every single item of clothing in this ensemble out of the house (except the wig, which looks delightedly Whoo-villian here). Just not all at once.
The wig was $8.99 at Sam’s Beauty, and that’s about all it’s worth. Great for photos, but this wig doesn’t have a part, it actually has a SEAM running up the side of it instead, so yeah. Not realistic in the least. Too bad because the colors are fab. But I could never wear short blonde wigs anyway for real – my hair is too dark and always ends up sticking out or showing through somewhere.
The fuzzy sweater I got last week on my Galleria trip with my friend – I ended up ordering a second one in blue that I should get in soon (it’s baby blue, which is my favorite color, and will match my blue Uggs perfectly. Yes I really did just say that). I may not have ever mentioned my love of fuzzy fabrics here before, but anything with interesting texture floats my boat. And not just for pictures. I’ve already worn this sweater once to work, and it was a big hit. Everyone wanted to touch it. My love of Uggs shall go undiscussed, because I know how loathed they are by most sane people. But I am not ashamed of my love for them, nor for how many pair I own (six, currently, but who’s counting).
Nice shot of the wig-seam part here. And this is definitely Skintone #2, with a touch of gray.
Next up I will share a few outtakes from this shoot. I came across two that were too good to ignore. One of them even ended up moving out of the ‘outtakes’ category and into the share-able one, because it’s such a good unintentional goofy-face. More later!
I ended up with a full day Sunday to take photos, so I went all out with the drag makeup, which took an hour to apply (here’s a link to the tutorial I attempted to copy; obviously I failed at replicating her look but it at least got me somewhere interesting).
Using the softbox for this shot; lots of light on the face and sharp shadows. Also, I wore some different foundation for this shoot, and the results were a little splotchy, IMHO. I can tell on the neck more than anywhere.
I’ve ordered a new backdrop but didn’t have it in time for this session, so I was using the same brown background I’ve used for over a month. Quite honestly, I’m completely bored with it, so I wanted to be able to at least change its color while processing – something that isn’t as easy to do as you might think. The mottled background means it blends too easily with my skin and other clothing tones, so I knew I’d need to wear something that would completely contrast with it or editing would get too messy. I also needed to cover as much of my skin as possible to avoid it blending into the background, too (I wasn’t able to change the background color of the photo above, by the way – too much of my skin matching up with the backdrop).
No softbox here, using a Speedlite mounted on the camera and bounced off the ceiling. Much softer light, but more shadows. I aimed a ring light at my face to help eliminate some of the peskier shadows this lighting tends to create.
I decided on a costume gown I got for 75% off at the grocery store right after Halloween – it isn’t exactly season-appropriate, but it was a good contrast for my backdrop, and it was surprisingly appealing when moving to boot. An interesting ombre effect on the skirt and sleeves, and an awesome overlong bell-shape to the sleeve all created interesting images when flinging the cloth around. I was very pleased with both the color and movement of this thing when I saw the photos (you can tell I was able to change the backdrop color on these easier, too):
By the way, I never use a softbox on full-length shots. Only portraits. Just the Speedlite camera-mounted and bounced off the ceiling, and two umbrella lights at 45-degree angles to the subject.
Not happy with that one foot, but whatever.
As you can tell in the shots above, I got bored with the short red wig (since it doesn’t incorporate any movement into the shot), so I switched to one called “Cool Kitten” from Gothic Lolita Wigs (it’s now discontinued). As a kitty wig, this thing sucked; the little cat ears were just some wig hair wound around two little styrofoam triangles, and didn’t stay put at all. But when thinking about what hair to wear with the dress I remembered this wig, and thought it might work to use the styrofoam ears as a base for some flowers and give the whole outfit something a little more Renaissance-faire and less Gothic-bride. Worked out great.
My skin tone is really all over the place in these photos.
I also played around with my two Speedlites a bit to create some cool shadows. White balance on these shots was a bitch though, and I came out a little green, so I just decided to go with it and added a vintage filter to exaggerate the effect. Not as pleased with these as the others, but it’s something different.
It’s not easy being…well, you know.
And of course, there was jumping:
I may have oversharpened this one.
In looking over all these photos, I fear they may have suffered from the I-must-edit-every-shot-I-like-now syndrome that takes me over at times. I edited pics from 4 PM to midnight, and at some point in all that work I got sloppy, as I always do. When will I ever learn? Oh well. There are loads more from this shoot I can process more slowly and meticulously throughout the week.
I decided to go clothes shopping Saturday morning, something I don’t do nearly as much as I used to. Unfortunately it was one of those times when I didn’t feel like trying much of anything on and wasn’t thrilled by much of anything I saw. Ah well. It’s not like I needed anything, anyway.
What I did get are more iPhone Christmas photos! So I’ll share those and call it a day.
The scene from the Saks Fifth Avenue escalator Three geese a-baggage-claiming? Thank you, Tiffany’s, for this awesome window display. Editing note: the curtains behind the wreath, as well as the metal windowpanes, were actually gold, but I edited them to make the shot look cooler in tone and more winter-y. I’ll show you the original below so you can see the difference.
You’re welcome. Probably the most photographed tree in the city Have I ever mentioned that sky blue and red is my favorite color combination? Because it is. This way out. Oops. Santa’s village, located just north of Nordstrom.
After uploading the shots from Saturday’s session, I noticed a few of them looked a little blah. So even though it was way past my bedtime, I pulled them into Pixlr and gave them a go. I’ll share the originals here again even though they are already loaded into the previous post, so you can see what I did.
I may have overdone this first one, but on its own I found it lacking. It had that feeling of OK fine, but why am I looking at this? that I sometimes get when there isn’t enough visual punch to the photo. Original first:
Can you tell, by the way, that I was lying down?
There was a lot of empty space in the first pic, and I feel this makes better use of it. The texture also contributes to the feeling of movement, which is what I liked about the photo originally but wanted to enhance.
The second original:
Same comments as the first Pixlr edit, really. Better use of empty space and enhanced movement.
All in all, it’s funny how rushed and one-off this shoot was but how many shots I really liked from it. As Beth pointed out the other day, photography is therapy for me. I hadn’t consciously thought of it as such until she mentioned it, but it is lovely to have an activity that I know can brighten my mood when I get into a funk – and that it can be as simple as throwing on a wig and flinging it about for the camera. I will always prefer the photo sessions where I get to construct the elaborate makeup and costumery I love, but in a pinch, all I need is a wig and a camera. So this is not only photo therapy for me, it’s wig therapy! I don’t know why, but putting on that fake hair makes me feel transformed, and synthetic wigs, at least, move better in photos than real hair does – it’s plastic, after all, and it maintains its shape and style so well.
Since many of the shots from this quick set were rather plain, I ended up spending several hours Sunday pulling more of them into Pixlr and really messing around with them. The ones I worked with that day were all wearing a different wig, so I’ll share those in tomorrow’s post.
Just a few more from Sunday’s shoot that I’ve had time to process. As I mentioned earlier, I forgot to alter my lighting setup when I switched from portraits to full-length shots, so these suffered a little from that error. They weren’t nearly as crisp as I like them to be, and the light was blown out a little – so I used Pixlr to disguise these flaws a bit. Plus, I’m getting bored of the beige backdrop now – it wasn’t nearly as easy to transform into another color as I thought it would be, and was next to impossible to do in these full-length shots (you need a lot of contrast between the subject and the background – which is why people use greenscreens so often – and that mottled beige background did NOT contrast with what I was wearing at all) so without some Pixlr-ing they weren’t all that exciting to me. At first I wasn’t excited by them even after giving them the Pixlr treatment, but they’re starting to grow on me.
Can anyone spot the kitten in this photo? I purposely left him in the shot.
I always try to go easy with the Pixlr effects, because it’s a very popular free program and I don’t want my shots to scream that I used it. I don’t know why this matters to me; I guess I just want the edits to blend well into the shot and not have any one particular filter or effect stand out to people.
Clearly though, I like the scratchy textures Pixlr offers.
Love the movement of the skirt in this one.
I used some interesting overlays here – one was a space filter, and fire was another. I kept them subtle so you wouldn’t be able to recognize what they are; I think the end result looks rather ghostly.
I thought I’d show the evolution one of my photos from Sunday’s shoot went through, because I personally found the process interesting. This photo didn’t end up at all where I thought it would, but I do like the results.
When choosing which shots to process, I decided to play around with this one in spite of its flaws, because I found the pose and facial expression to be compelling (if it’s not snobby to say something like that about myself; I don’t consider me “me” when editing my shots anyway, I’m just the subject of them).
I wasn’t sure I’d be able to do anything with this because of the makeup problem here – it was not applied THAT badly, but at this point in the shoot it had gotten a bit smudged, and that combined with the lighting I was using accentuated it. In this shot, I wasn’t using the softbox I normally use for portraits, because I’d already taken it off the flash and wasn’t interested in putting it back on (this was taken right at the end of the shoot). Without the softbox, I get a much softer light on the face, which is a prettier effect for portraits, but it creates its own problems – especially on a middle-aged face. For example, when looking in the mirror I do not see dark circles or major wrinkles under my eyes, but with the external flash attached to my camera and bounced off the ceiling, they are definitely accentuated (the bounced flash also creates a lot of shadows on the face, which on one hand adds a lot of interest, but can also highlight wrinkles and flaws, unless you’re a spring chicken, which I am not). So, when I choose to use the bounced flash, I almost always end up needing to use Photoshop to get rid of things it accentuates that are not appealing. This is why I normally choose to go with the softbox, as it hits my face with a lot of light, which erases lines and shadows, but it’s filtered enough that I don’t get that awful “hey I used a flash in this shot” light blowout that occurs with an in-camera flash.
Bit of a digression here, but this example to compare the two. This first one is using the softbox on my external flash (I shared this shot yesterday as well):
The softbox allows me to aim the flash right at my face – great for eliminating those dark eye circles and other wrinkles, but it’s definitely a “look.” I consider it a high-fashion look, but that’s just my little name for it. While the softbox won’t create too many shadows on the face, it does create a lot of background shadows that are very sharp and dramatic, which can work well, but it isn’t always what I want.
Now here’s another shot from the same shoot, taken without a softbox and with the external flash bounced off the ceiling:
TOTALLY different look. The overall effect is softer and more dimensional, I think, than the one using the softbox – but I did have to do more editing to my face to get rid of the dark circles that magically appear when using this lighting.
Anyway, back to the original shot. The bounced flash created a bit of a mess around my eyes, so I managed to use PS to edit most of that out. The end result was this:
I also got rid of the freckles on my arms, I don’t care one whit about them in real life, but in photos I find them distracting.
Much better, but still a bit of a problem. I pulled the shot over into Snapseed and gave it a go; I was pretty sure I’d need to go black and white with it, since all that color around the eyes and the smudged makeup on the nose was going to be bitch to even out without it looking weird, but on its own the B&W wasn’t appealing to me – it still needed more oomph to work. So I ended up using a red B&W filter on it, which gave it a crazy glow, then added a “Grunge” filter with texture to give it an antique-y feel, and well, here’s the end result.
Now I really love it. I don’t think I’ve ever used a red B&W filter before as it makes everything overly bright and glowy, and I’ve never known what to do with that. But it worked here to eliminate the problems of the shot as well as contribute to the tense mood I felt the expression created. It looks nothing like the original, but it fixes the flaws of that one while really ‘coming into its own,’ so to speak.
I don’t think I’ll ever get bored with editing photos and playing around with filters. It’s the same freedom and magic to me that coloring held when I was a kid. Now if only I didn’t get so absorbed in it that the kitchen stays dirty for hours and I get to bed way too late. But one thing at a time, I reckon.
Got up about 7 AM Sunday morning, enjoyed a leisurely cup of tea, then got to work on taking photos with the pink Target wig my friend Chadwick sent me from Chicago. Setting up the studio took about 30 minutes, including breaking down the office and converting it into a studio space, then setting up the camera and lighting, then it took an hour so to apply the makeup. All in all, I was ready to shoot by 9:30 and completely done by 11:00 AM, which may be a new record for me. I’m sure the extra hour from ending daylight savings time helped (and am I the only one who does not get up in arms over the whole daylight savings thing? To me, it indicates the start of a new season, so I enjoy it both coming and going), plus I’m not including the reassembly of the office into all of this. I didn’t clean up until late afternoon as I immediately got absorbed in editing the shots, as I always do.
Overall I am pleased with this set. I really went on a marathon today trying to process as many shots as possible, but as usual I couldn’t get them all done. The portrait shots came out better than the jumping and movement ones, because I forgot to change the lighting setup when I switched from close-ups to full-body shots, and as a result the lighting is off on those (too bright and the focus isn’t very crisp). But when I spend as much time on the makeup as I did with this set, and the portraits don’t come out nicely, that’s a real pisser – so I’m happy enough to have gotten some great shots that accentuate the work I put into my face.
I’m going to share with you a little secret about posing for portraits that I picked up from an online member of a wig message board awhile back: before taking close-up shots with bright lighting like this, I shave my face. I do this because I have a lot of peach fuzz (getting more as I get older, too – thanks nature) and with the amount of bright light that I aim at my face, it all shows in close-ups. It’s always bugged me and I’ve done my best to edit it out, but when she mentioned the face-shaving thing I decided to try it, and I love the results. The woman who shared that she did this lives in Japan, where apparently this is a common practice for all women – peach fuzz apparently is a much bigger deal there than it is here, and is considered very unappealing. I got online and read up on the subject, and it turns out you can go to an aesthetician and pay a hundred bucks or more for a service called dermaplaning, which isn’t much more than a straight-edge razor shave. I use what’s called an eyebrow razor and my husband’s shaving cream, and do it myself (this actually is also great for shaping eyebrows, which is how it’s marketed). It makes the face smoother and the makeup blend and stay put – it looks so much better in photos and is actually the secret of many a supermodel. I don’t believe for a second that it makes the facial hair grow back any darker or more coarse, so no worries about it on my end (I’ve been shaving my little lady-mustache for years anyway; creams burn my skin and to go for waxing constantly is too much maintenance. Never had a problem with it). If you ever want to try it, don’t be afraid of those old wives’ tales about facial growing back darker if you shave it off. It’s baloney. And a good face shave is better than a scratchy old exfoliant anyway – that’s why men always look so fresh-faced after shaving. .
But enough about my face shaving:
Not totally pleased with this shot, but I edited it anyway because you can really see the eye makeup. My eyebrows have gotten sparse over the years, but they are still dark, so I actually used a long-wearing Lime Crime coral red lipstick called Suedeberry on them, then blended the pink eyeshadow into that. I got those false lashes on sale after Halloween at the grocery store, and as you can see they didn’t stay put too well. One of them is popping off there, but hopefully it’s not too noticeable. I can also see on my chin where either my skin was dry or my face powder wasn’t blended very well – that’s how harsh the lights I use can be. Makeup really does need to be flawless, because every little error will show. Not that anyone else would notice when looking at the photo. But I do.
A bit of a weird shot, but I couldn’t resist that shadow on my face that frames one eye. You can also see that I played with layers in this set – all of the shots were taken in front of my beige backdrop, but I changed the color of it to work better with the bright colors of the subject. Also, I got those paper butterflies at Party City over the summer, and finally found a use for them. Unfortunately the butterfly at the very top fell out at some point during the shoot, and I didn’t realize it until I caught it in Simon’s mouth after shooting was done. So I have loads of pics with one less butterfly (More about Simon later – this was his first time experiencing photo day and he was quite interested in what was going on).
Now this shot makes me happy. At some point I applied a bit of talcum powder on my face because it kept appearing shiny and I wanted my skin to look a bit lighter. I think that worked well here, and this is one of the shots I did not end up editing much, as tempted as I was to jack with it like I do most of my shots. I thought it worked as is, and just made a few adjustments. Oh and the butterfly isn’t actually balancing on my nose – kinda gross, but the butterflies were stuck to very thin, long pieces of wire that I was able to stick into the wig to get them to stay – here, well, I have the wire shoved up my nose. Just keeping it classy, people!
I admit to having run out of good ideas for portrait poses at this point, so I often end up reverting to some old standby stances and faces to get some variety. This is a goofy, half-surprised look I seem to enjoy making (probably in life as much as in photos). Sometimes I move the camera around to shoot my face from different angles, but from the sides in this wig you could see too much of the wig cap and my natural hair. These wigs are cool as hell, but not exactly easy to wear. In fact, most of the problems I had with this shoot were due to that wig – once I managed to get it on my head properly, I could not in any way shape or form put my glasses back on, so I had to focus the camera without seeing what I was doing at all, which is less than ideal. It also kept banging into doorways and lighting umbrellas and was just generally a nuisance for self-portraits. But it looks great. It had also, after about two minutes of wearing it, worn off all the makeup on my forehead.
Simon, however, had no such issues.
Speaking of Simon, as I mentioned earlier he was fairly curious about what was going on during this shoot. His main fascination was with my little remote, since I toss that to the ground after pressing the button for each shot. To him, that was a clear indication the item was there for his enjoyment, and he kept grabbing it in his little mouth and scampering away with it. He also got into swiping and biting at my skirt a bit, but not nearly as much as he got into pouncing on the remote.
Although clearly he got into pouncing on the skirt a bit too – as evidenced in this next gem, which was not intentional on my part in any way, shape, or form; in fact, I had no idea what Simon was up to until I saw the shot. I’m sure I felt him landing on my skirt and starting a little kitty-war with it, but at the time I had no idea I’d managed to capture his little ambush on camera:
Eyes on the prize, Simon!
My makeup also didn’t translate well to the full-body shots and I should have slapped on some lipstick for them. So overall, not too pleased with the full-length photos in this set, but that one was too good to pass up. Also, in this shot my right arm actually was in the photo originally, but the angle the camera caught it at was just plain weird, my elbow looked huge and distorted, and overall I found that arm to be a huge distraction. So I just edited it on out of there and figured I’d pretend my arm was behind my back or something. Much better this way.
As I’ve mentioned in several previous posts, I went to the Wings Over Houston air show with my father last Saturday. I’d never been before, but my Dad is crazy about airplanes – particularly the B29 bombers his father worked on during WWII. The last B29 still flying, Fifi, was there, along with many other antique planes, but due to the sequester there were no military aircraft this year. This meant attendance was low, but that was fine by me as crowds aren’t my favorite thing in the world. I’m more a fan of the modern, high-speed, showy planes, though, so not getting to see any of that stuff was a bit of a bummer. Still, we had a good time, and of course I took photos. Once again I decided to just take my iPhone and make do, although there were loads of nice cameras around. This was just two days after Ramone disappeared, though, and I was still feeling very sad about that, and I just wasn’t in the mood to lug my big camera around to take pics.
I actually drove out to my parents’ house Friday night and spent the night with them, since my father likes to get to the airshow right when the gates open. He also likes to park his car at a shuttle pick-up and ride the bus over, which means getting to the shuttle station at 7:30 AM (my father is perpetually early; it is not a habit I picked up from him). I figured his idea was better than driving through all the traffic, and since the air show is nowhere near my house but is fairly close to my parents, I stayed Friday night with them and got up early Saturday to head out with Dad.
First ones inside. Yep.
Dad wanted to get there at 8 AM so we’d have enough time (two whole hours) to check out the planes. This sounded excessive to me, but it turns out he was right – in fact, we didn’t even get to Fifi in time to go inside or even get close to it, because at about 9:30 they had her blocked off and ready to taxi over to the runways. I got some video of her later though:
Love the sound of those engines.
Some the planes made you pay before you could go inside them; others offered up their interior for free. I believe this was taken in one of the free ones – no idea who they are, but I’m sure that guy with the iPad knows:
No air show photo-post would be complete without a little airplane art:
I did plenty of color shots too:
A propeller aimed at the moon.
I probably should be able to tell you what plane this is.
But I can’t.
For a little vanity, here’s two shots of me in propeller reflections:
I should have tried jumping.
My legs aren’t really that short.
Time for a video break: Apparently the show performs some sort of re-enactment every year. This year it was Pearl Harbor. While watching it, my first thought was I bet they do the same plane choreography every year and just give it a different name. Kind of like this re-enactment:
OK, so theirs was a little bit better:
Interesting side note about this battle: Right at the end of it (it went on for quite awhile, because my dad and I went to get lemonade and came back, and it was still going on) they set off about eight of those explosions at once, and it scared the crap out of everyone (as you can see, by the way, we were in the front row of the gated seats. My dad buys up two boxes every year then gives the tickets to friends and co-workers). Right after this, the entire field filled up with smoke, and the faint wind blew it all right over the spectators – then stayed there. For about 20 minutes we all felt as if we were being barbecued. People’s eyes were watering, and everyone was shielding their faces and starting straight down – it was a quite a miserable sight. My next thought was that I would have lasted about fifteen seconds at Pearl Harbor, or anywhere one bomb detonated, much less many bombs – because I was completely incapable of functioning due to the smoke alone. Throw shrapnel, enemy fire, and airplane strikes into the midst and clearly I’m a goner.
Believe it or not, my father actually DID sustain an injury during this battle. At some point during this 20-minute smokeout, a cinder flew into his eye. He did not figure this out until much later in the day, when he eventually ended up at a clinic getting it checked out. But for the rest of the time we were at the show his eye was watering and he was in a fair amount of pain. Being my dad, he tried valiantly to enjoy the show in spite of it, but we ended up leaving about an hour early because he couldn’t stand it anymore. That’s a big deal for him, as he’s been going to this air show every year for at least 20 years and I doubt he’s ever left one second early. Anyway, you’ll be glad to know he is fine now, and was actually feeling much better by the next day. But he was hurting pretty badly that afternoon.
Smoke ring from one of the explosions.
Honestly the re-enactment didn’t excite me all that much, but the acrobatics sure did. I tried to take some video, but as you can see, I got disoriented and started filming all sideways. I guess that’s a fair indication of how ineffective I’d be as a stunt-plane pilot.
You can hear my dad and I freaking out at the end, LOL.
I was pretty pleased with the iPhone’s performance once again; I managed to get some nice arty shots of the stunt flyers with it:
Pretty clear for a phone camera!
Backing up a little here – the entire show kicked off the way any good air show should: with skydivers plummeting down to earth attached to huge American flags while the Star Spangled Banner played.
OK, so you can’t see the flag in this shot, but AMERICA YAY!
And a few more arty shots to wrap things up:
Reflecting on the air show. Get it? You’re welcome.
This is an old airplane of some sort. It’s airplane #5. That’s all I’ve got, sorry.
I realize this whole thing might appear to be the antithesis of the way I’d prefer to spend a Saturday – but the truth is, I had a ball. For next year, I think I will take my real camera, and will definitely be there bright and early with Dad at 8 AM, front row. You bet.
Follow the signs – you really don’t want to get lost out here
I didn’t even edit all the shots from this final house. I’ve been processing shots since Sunday afternoon, and photos of houses and whatnot aren’t my usual fare – so by the time I got around to this house I pretty much quit caring. Sorry.
4447 Rusk house (and Doug)
It’s rather fitting that it happened with this house, and perhaps the house itself is part of the reason why I lost interest. My husband commented after walking through it that the owners must have some pull in the neighborhood to have even been included, because it didn’t have any particularly significant improvements or details, and it wasn’t very impressive. The living room, den, and kitchen were nice enough, and the front porch and gardens were pretty, but nothing about it was memorable. Except that the owners were incredibly friendly, they were baking cookies, and they clearly owned a home that was geared towards community involvement and making connections with others.
Free library in the yard – take a book, leave a book
Aside from the “little library” in their front yard, where neighbors can leave books or pick one up, they also had numerous books about the area displayed inside the house for people to peruse, and a coffee display table that clearly represented their political affiliations – you can barely see it in this shot, but it was chock full of Democratic bumper stickers, buttons, adverts, and other paraphernalia from as far back as LBJ (I took a close up picture of the table, but I am writing this post from work and it’s on my computer at home):
Den with original fireplace and shelving
Here’s another shot of the den. Again, it was nice enough, but not nearly as refined as the other houses on the tour.
The Rusk house was small, but very homey. Lovely den
I did love the formal living room – those lace curtains reminded me of my great-grandmother’s house.
Living area at 4447 Rusk
The kitchen did boast original cabinets, with their glass faces:
Original glass-faced cabinets
Kitchen – this house had a lot of the original cabinetry still intact
And the front porch, as with all the other homes, was lovely:
The porch at 4447 Rusk
“If you have a garden and a library then you have all you need”
Annnnnd that’s IT for my Nostalgic Neighborhood Home Tour. In other news, those of you who follow me on Flickr or Facebook probably already know that our old cat Ramone is missing. I’m being a bit premature, because it hasn’t even been 24 hours, but he’s 14 years old and has been losing weight for some time (we’ve had him tested but they couldn’t find anything except his age to be causing it). I hope if he’s gone, he went peacefully, and that he’s not suffering wherever he is. But I’m distracted today thinking about him, so this post might not be up to my usual. And please don’t tell me I need to keep my cats inside. Number one, that’s not helpful to me right now, and number two, I already know that’s best. But Ramone was Doug’s cat before he was mine, he was already accustomed to going outside on the regular when I moved in, and anyone who’s had a cat knows once they are used to going outside, you can’t stop them. He hasn’t wandered any farther than the backyard in years, so that’s why my concern level is high. Keep him in your thoughts as I’m worried about him today! I’ll keep you all posted.
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