Fresh when it gets here from
Julie Barrett
Monday, April 30, 2007
I love taking pictures (you'd never have guessed) but I hate having my picture taken. I always get all self-conscious and squirmy and hate the results. So when a convention asked for a picture, I put it off - as usual - until the last minute. Well, to be fair, the cold-from-you-know-where intervened.
Yesterday I decided it was do or die time, so I grabbed Chris and we trudged out to the woods nearby. It was warm and muggy and there were bugs everywhere. I had a spot in mind but couldn't find it. The trail winds in and out of the woods and there are multiple entrances from the park. For such a small space it's easy to get lost. The trees are so thick that once you get just a little ways off of the road all of the sounds from the outside world go away - even the rumble of trucks on the street. It's very nice.
We settled on a spot and I told Chris to be sure to find an angle so it didn't look as though a tree was growing out of my head. We got home - and there were trees growing out of my head. In the pictures. ;-)
To top it off, my computer started freezing as I tried to look through the pictures. Finally, it wouldn't start at all. I left a memory check running and we took off for another set of pictures. This time I found the proper entrance to the trails and we found the spot I wanted: a bend in the creek with two very old, twisted trees. Of course, the light wasn't right for shooting in front of the best tree. Oh, we tried, but I was looking directly into the sun and it just didn't work. The crow's feet are bad enough, and worse when I squint! We settled on using the other tree as a backdrop and Chris got to work shooting.
He got some good pictures, considering the subject matter. I think that kid may be a photographer yet.
I spent another hour getting my computer running and clearing some old entries from the registry that seemed to be the cause of the trouble. (When I uninstall a driver, I expect it to be gone.) I finally found a picture I could live with and then spent some time tweaking it.
So, how'd it come out? Move your beverages away from the keyboard, make sure you haven't eaten recently, and then click here.
You WERE warned. You can tell by the pained look on my face how much I hate posing for pictures.
More later. The A/C tech is here to do the spring maintenance.
Tags: Life