Karen's Photo Journal

Goodbye old blog, hello new!

In my excitement to start using my new blog, I forgot to post the information, here, on my old one.  

For the last year or so, I have posted my art, thoughts, music tastes and so much more here.  You have served me well old friend.

Please visit my new web site and blog here:  www.karenard.com

Let me know what you think of the new design. On the blog you can vote for your favorite photo by clicking on the I love it button under your favorite shot! I will leave this blog up for awhile so people can still visit but I will not be posting to this blog any longer... goodbye old friend.

Changes are on the way...

I have some awesome things happening here in the next day or two. Hee hee hee. I am so excited!  My main web site may be down for a smidge but please make sure you check back if you get an error message. I can't say more then that. You'll have to check back in a few days.  ;-)

I'll leave you with an image I took in a cemetery in New Orleans.

iPhone pics: Hollywood

The Firefighter and I went out last night; a rear treat. We took the Metro into Hollywood, ate at some hole in the wall pizza place, took some photos in the Lucky Strike photo booth and saw a play at the Pantages. I squinted my eyes, left reality for a few hours and pretended I was in New York! I had no intensions of taking photos, but, since I can't control myself the iPhone camera came out for a few snap shots. I added some 'noise' to duplicate my favorite old school film grain.

 

My fav of the night...

iPhone Pics

Any camera you have on you is the right camera. I take photos everyday. I can't help myself.  And often, the closest one to me is the one in my iPhone. I am so loving the imagery I get with that little two megapixel (I haven't up-graded), non focusable box.  Just point and shoot.  And although I have learned a few tricks and found some really cool apps, it is as basic as just pushing the button.  

Recently I submitted a few of my favorite iPhone pics to a contest. I follow an amazing editorial photograper Chase Jarvis who was having a little giveaway. He did up-grade his iPhone and he decided to give away his old one. The rules were simple: send in some of your iPhone pics and his favorite will win. I had planned to give the phone to my son had I won, but alas, no...  

I am excited, however, that he picked one of my photos (out of 3,500!) to make his top 100 honorable mentions. When another artist you respect notices your work, it's a big deal! Here is the image he liked:

This is also one of my favs.  Here are a few more iPhone pics that I love...

I often post iPhone photos on my twitter account. Follow me there if you'd like to see them.

Mother Remembered

I didn't really smell the coffee first thing in the morning.  My mom loved to sleep in.  So much so that she had black out curtains and those eye-cover-thingys.  But once she woke up, the Mr. Coffee coffee pot started brewing the most delicious smelling java.  Ten cups of rich, black liquid that would be sipped on all day.  It didn't matter if it was four in the afternoon and the coffee had been sitting there all day.  That's what microwaves were for.  We didn't waste in our house (a trait I inherited - much to the chagrin of my husband and kids.  I call it reuse, reduce, recycle).  I guess that was in part because of her own childhood.  My grandparents fled the Nazis and lived through the depression in their new country, while raising two little girls on, well, not much.

On hot summer days the morning brew would be poured over ice, then milk and sugar were added for the best ice coffee ever created.  It was a special treat to be handed my own iced cup to sip on.  Drinking it made me feel so grown up, made me feel so close to my mom...

I am now my mom's age when she handed that cup of joe to her little girl.  I don't drink coffee.  I never acquired the taste for it.  But I love all things coffee flavored, especially Haagen Dazs coffee ice cream!  And I love something even closer to that summer treat my mom handed me oh-so long ago. I'm hooked on those Starbuck coffee flavored Frappuccinos.  The ones in the bottle, not the blended store ones.  The ones that taste like coffee poured over ice... with milk and sugar added.  Those ones.

Happy Mother's Day.

 

Happy Earth Day

Day's like this make me happy.  Knowing that people are focusing on the environment around them and trying to make a difference.... even for one day... is a fabulous thing!

And remember that recycling is the easiest way to help our planet.  

By recycling 1 plastic bottle not only saves anywhere from 100 to 1000 years in the landfill but also saves the environment from the emissions in producing new bottles as well as the oil used to produce that bottle.

For every 1 ton of plastic that is recycled we save the equivalent of 2 people’s energy use for 1 year, the amount of water used by 1 person in 2 month’s time and almost 2000 pounds of oil.

Family Hike

Last Saturday... Sunday???... a couple of days ago my fam took a mini hike through Thousand Oaks.  We heard there was a new dear family here and we were hoping to catch a glimpse but only saw a cute, hungry looking coyote, poor thing.  (I hope he doesn't find the dear!)  Anyway here are a couple snap shots:

Mr. Wyle E.

The munchkins...

Photo of the day

Personal Work

I'm going out of town for a few days on a job so have a great weekend as I leave you with a few personal photos.  

Morning Fog

My eyes usually feel foggy when I stumble outside every morning to feed my dogs.  After rubbing on them a bit (my eyes, not the dogs) I realized it was a foggy morning and that (so far) I still don't need glasses. It was Mother Nature, not me that cast a gloomy glow around my neighborhood. Creative things can happen very early...

Have a great weekend!