Day 130 Self Portraits and Neck Issues

So, would your feelings be hurt if you approached the "marital bed" with your new attire and your dh looked at you in horror?

Everyone should have some self-portraits now and then, don't you think?
Actually, I just got some snorkeling gear and wanted to see what it felt like before my trip to Mexico in a few weeks! It's not that easy taking a photo of yourself in the mirror, with a snorkel mask on, and having to manually focus!
Also as part of my preparation for this trip, I desperately felt that I needed to modify my ND Pale, or die in the first 10 minutes in the sun in Mexico. I've never in my life gone "tanning."

But I have ISSUES with this! See all these warnings??? I tell you, there's absolutely no item, not one caution, about necks. Nada about the necks.
I never gave necks, specifically MY neck, a moment's thought, until the evil Nora Ephron came out with the "I feel bad about my neck" book. And then I noticed that on this side of 50, apparently we women can have neck issues. Wrinkles and things. Well. . . . after awhile I decided that there might be bigger issues in life, and this got demoted to "get a life!" on my worry list.

Until tanning. WHY didn't anyone warn me that you could get stripes on your neck if you have. . . . ummmmm. . . . folds (I guess) on your neck???? Someone could have said, "Psstttt, watch out for horizontal stripes." But NOOOOOOOO. . . . LET me find out for myself!

After a couple of weeks of tanning, I looked in the mirror, and noticed. . . stripes! Blatant, high contrast, how-do-you-photoshop-THAT-out-in-real-life stripes. Luckily, since I would need to leave the house in the morning, and didn't want people squinting oddly at my neck, I had a bottle of self-tanning stuff that my daughter left at home, and used this to dab on the fat old stripes with some cotton balls.

So, take this as ANOTHER public service announcement from me, dear friends!

Day 129 Reflections

Just a variety of photos today. This one is of "zebra stripes" in water drops on the stems of scilla. ("Hi. My name is Angela. I'm addicted to my macro lens.")

This is two sweet girls checking out their shoes with their sundresses. Note the ND pale.


This beautiful woman is the mother of the groom. I really liked this photo because of the reflection in her sunglasses of three little girls, long-time friends, who have grown up just way too fast. One of them is the bride-to-be; one is my lovely Dianna.

Thank you for all your kind words on my photos over the last several days. . . and for indulging my sense of humor! I just want you to know too that our credit card arrived in the mail today! (Hopefully, Denise will get hers soon too!) Thank God my husband discovered the snafu before I happened to find Denise's card in his wallet!!!!!!

Day 128 POTD

Isn't this a cute cupcake holder? I want to get one. . .


I know this photo is almost identical to yesterday's, but I don't get many chances to get photos of my kids, so want to work with this one today. The first is SOOC.

This second is with the person on the left cropped out, the brown thing by the right of the chair cropped out, Lady Ren's gentle color boost. I tried to crop out the strand of hair across my daughter's face, but for me, it was hopeless, so I left it alone.


Now, several of you wanted to know about the plate of food Dianna is holding. This was at an outdoor wedding shower, and as near as I can tell, these were large dill pickle halves, rolled up in slices of turkey or ham, and a layer of cream cheese. It sounds totally bizarre, but was extremely good! And looks formidable!

And, I just want all of you to know about another thing to add to your Worry Lists (in case you're lacking in items!) Yesterday, my dh called me at work and asked if I knew a Denise W. . .

"No, why?"
"Because I have her credit card in my wallet."
"Do you have yours?"
"Umm, . . .no."

I checked on-line, and after the wedding shower, my dh and I went out to eat with my daughter (guess we were still hungry after the pickles!) at a Thai restaurant. We paid with a credit card, and apparently, they switched out card with someone else's, and gave "Denise" ours, and us, hers. He called the restaurant, and Denise had already brought his back in.

My husband mailed Denise's card to the restaurant (it's 70 miles away from us) . . . along with $10 to cover the cost of the charge he made at another store WITHOUT REALIZING he had someone else's card! (So forget that thing about comparing signatures; Denise, Doug, . . . doesn't matter. And apparently,not even the gender!) Supposedly, the restaurant is mailing ours back to us.

The moral of the story is, check your credit card when you get it back at a restaurant. It might be Denise's, and not yours!

Day 127: Dianna

It's amazing what you DON'T see till someone else points it out! Here's the 4th version, with the log, and horns, AND trees cropped out! Thank you all for this collaborative effort!




(Note: I just added this top one, with the side trees cloned out, as suggested by lcp (leah?))


Which photo do you like better of my darling daughter? The larger one, or the cropped in one. If the larger one, would you clone out the chair in the bottom left? Any other suggestions (for either this photo, or future similiar compositions.) Thanks for looking.

Day 126: Lady Bug

I happened to look down in my yard and spot this little lady bug. So this was a quick shot, handheld, with my macro lens. The first is SOOC.

This second is with Jess' Iced Action Color Me Happy.

And this third is with selective coloring.



TFL!

Day 125 Scilla and Macro Lens

I am so enjoying my Nikon 105 2.0 micro (in Nikon-speak) lens! Today, after a good 45 minutes of Pilates, I headed to my yard, and laid on my stomach to take these photos. (the Pilates was necessary so I wouldn't get "stuck" on the ground again like last time!) Last time, the scilla were not in bloom; now they are and Pat was so right! These are prolific little critters and I may have to reduce the population this year to keep them from taking over! But in the meantime, they're the only thing blooming around here right now! I cropped the 3rd one in because I'm so amused by reflections in drops of water!

Day 124: Museum of Art

A few more photos from the Native American Art exhibit at the Museum of Art at UND.

These headdresses are made with lots of porcupine quills and eagle feathers, and beadwork.


This is another alabaster carving.

Day 123 Water. . . . Closet?

So here I am, taking pictures of myself in a bathroom at the Museum of Art at UND. Is there no end to my narcism?
This is probably the coolest bathroom in town.

This is the "structure" through which my husband and I took photos of ourselves. We were looking through that little window above "salvation" and out the other side of the "building".

Day 122 of POTD: We're Watching You!

Just thought I'd have my husband take a picture of me, and me of my dearly beloved (my husband!)


These are two more photos from the little Museum of Art on the UND campus. No water for this week's theme. . . but we're watching all of YOU play in the water!

To answer a question from Becky, these photos were shot through the window of a piece of art at the Museum. I'll post the whole "structure" later today.

Day 121: Eagle (eye)

My husband and I took a little trip to the local Museum of Art on the University of North Dakota campus. This is a Native American carving in alabaster.


My husband really liked that people commented yesterday on what a good "eye" he has for photography!