Throwback: My Cat Friend

Back in May, our neighbors got a cat for their family. I'm pretty sure they didn't intend for it to be an indoor cat, because since then I've not only seen it in our backyard, but I've seen it in various other places; their front yard, the front yard in the house across from us, down the street by the library, in the neighbor's backyard, and under cars. 

One day, I was outside taking pictures of our backyard when this little cutie just walked up and sat in my lap. It did what Morris always does, and it was head-butting my hands for pets and attention. After that, it'd wander off and play with the bugs in the grass, then come back for some more attention, and so forth. Since then, I've affectionately come to know this feline as "My Cat Friend." This really isn't surprising at all, because I name just about everything. From a stranger's shetland pony to James's car to stuffed animals we buy for Morris. I really do mean I name everything. 

These pictures were taken during the setting described above, and let me tell you. This little ball of fur was hard to get a crisp picture of. Playful is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to describing My Cat Friend. Not only was it getting dark, so my shutter speed was slow to let in more light, but this little thing was darting everywhere. It didn't sit still for more than two seconds between climbing up trees, tackling bugs in the grass, and jumping over things. 

I did manage to get a few shots, though, and I'm hoping to get more one day before we move. 

Throwback: Hiking in the Snow

Welcome to the first throwback post of (what I hope to be) many!

I started the long task of going through old photos that I had taken earlier in the year, before I had started this blog. To give you an idea of why this is a long task, there are some 2,000+ photos in my iPhoto library. Obviously, I need to sort through them, delete some, edit some, etc. There are A LOT, though.

I started sifting with the intent of deleting most of them, but then I realized that most of them existed before this had started and most (if not all) of our family and friends hadn't seen these, and might want to see some. They're all pictures of our life, what it looks like where we live, and things that we've done. Being so far away, no one really gets to experience any of this. Other than through photos, of course. Both of us hate that people who are so important to us can't be involved, and since this is what we can give to let everyone experience with us, I really wanted to not only start this blog and start documenting our lives, but start doing "throwback" posts. So, start expecting more of these kinds of post as I continue the process of going through all of these old photos. Fair warning, a lot of them are of Morris and when I first got our camera, so beware of lower quality cat pictures. 

This set of photos was taken on one of our hikes in late March. Yes, March! We still had snow on the ground, and a lot of it. As you can imagine, though, cabin fever comes quickly once you're forced to spend ALL of your time indoors because it's 10 degrees out and snowing all the time. By then, it's warmed up enough to venture outside and not worry about frostbite or freezing as soon as you walk out the door. Even though there was some snow, still, we wanted to hike, so we did. And, obviously, we had some fun while doing so. Some snowman fun. So, it goes to show you, that snow isn't all that bad. 

Actually, along this trail, it was quite beautiful. Before we had gotten there, the snow was barely touched since most people were still hiding indoors. There were some footprints, but it was still very soft looking and very, very pretty. Some leaves had started growing back, so there were spurts of color here and there and it just complimented the pure white of the snow so well. 

Believe it or not, too, this was the first snowman we had built together while up here. James built it while I just took the pictures, actually, but neither of us had build one in the two years we've been up here together. Granted, James was deployed during our first winter as a married couple, but we hadn't made one during the winter he was here, until this hike. 

Neither of us are really looking forward to the colder weather (minus the leaving of the bugs, of course) , but little activities like this do make it more bearable. Perhaps, too, I'll actually join in on the snowman building and get my hands wet with snow. Until then, though, enjoy this throwback post and the others that are to follow!

Freelensing

Recently, I've been hearing a lot about "freelensing" and was inspired to try after Jessica from Five Sixteen Photography had started playing around with the technique. "Freelensing" is when the lens is NOT firmly mounted to the body. That's right, the lens is detached from the camera. But, focus remains because you hold the lens very close to the camera. It's tricky and it definitely takes a lot of practice to get this technique down. It does require you to know your camera and know how to shoot manually, especially because your camera won't be able to tell you a correct exposure and auto focus is gone. 

Once you get the hang of it, though, you get some AWESOME effects and there are some serious benefits to this style of shooting. You can get some really heavy and gorgeous bokeh going on, a tilt shift effect, and you can manipulate one shot so many different ways. 

I had so much fun trying out this method and I definitely plan on working on this technique more. Right  now, I only have standard lenses that don't have a great aperture range. This allows me to get a lot more blur in photos and really fine tune in on focal points, both of which are things that I'm dying to get in my next lens. Until then, I'll have more than a fair share of fun making due with this. As much as the idea scares me, I can't wait to try this technique out with portraits and people. 

For the most part, all these pictures are from our backyard or from a cemetery that's just up the hill from our house. Amazing how many different pictures I can get of just a few things, right? 

Bench DIY

Some time ago, James and I came across these rusted ends of a bench that had been abandoned. They reminded James of home since he had once had a bench similar to them, so he decided to adopt it as a project and turn it into a real, functioning bench again rather than let them sit there and continue to rust. Because we just simply haven't had the time, the rejuvenation of said bench had been put off until today. James took some leave this week just to have time off and relax a little after being bounced around from treatment, to treatment, to treatment, to work, and to appointments. Can you honestly blame him for wanting to just take a break for a little after all of that?

Anyway, in our boredom and search for something to do, today seemed like the perfect opportunity to jump on this project. We hopped in the car, drove to Lowe's to pick up new, unrusty hardware, and some wood. Unfortunately, they didn't have everything that was needed. We have about half the hardware and have to go back for the wood, and eventually for some paint and stain. However, James did get started anyway by removing all the old bolts, nuts, and washers, and put the new ones we do have on. He's also being kind enough to let me in on the project and pick out what colors to paint and/or stain the bench and wood slats, which I'm totally stoked about. It's worth noting that this is probably the only time we're actually excited about doing group work.  

I was skeptical about this all at first, but after being included in the design portion and seeing how easy this will actually be, I'm excited to see how our bench turns out. And, the cool part about this is that we're going to have a totally custom bench for not a lot of coin. Brownie points to the husband.