Capirani Photography

Summer is almost over and for this Midwest gal, I couldn't be happier.  Don't get me wrong, I've always preferred the warmer months over the cold winters.  This year has made me look forward to seeing snow in ways I haven't wanted to in the past.  Thankfully the past week has been really nice and I've finally gotten to enjoy some time outside in the mornings.

My late summer hours have been filled with creativity with my photography and using my photo editing programs to create some very interesting, and I think very pretty graphic designs.  I've removed the connection from my regular blogs to the photography blog also so that it will be standing on its own in a more professional manner.  To see my photography blog click here click here. I've really had a lot of fun creating my first portfolio of photographs and graphics.  Tomorrow I will be starting on the more difficult task of looking for the markets and making contact with them to try to sell my work.  

My Squidoo lenses have been neglected for awhile but I've been busily updating those this past week as well.  I have to admit that several of them, if not all, need some work.

The county fair is coming up in a few days and I've been offered a ride and someone to push me in my wheelchair on Labor Day.  The problem is, the people are total strangers to me and that bothers me.  Of course they are from my area and could very easily end up being new friends.  It's just that I am a little bit frightened by the thought.  However, if the weather is not suitable, meaning it's raining or it's way too hot for me to be outside, I won't be going anyway.  Also, I really hate bothering people with helping me.  Of course it's my fault as I requested help on a local area Facebook page and if I didn't want help, I should not have asked for help in the first place, right?  Another problem with the whole thing is that I was trying to put aside a little money for the fair and a couple other festivals that are also coming up soon but computer problems got in the way of that and all my extra money went to fixing the computer.  The computer has to be a priority for me if I am to use it to try to improve my life in any way.

Now I'm not sure 100% that I will even make any sales of my art, but I am going to put my best effort into it.  Ever since I was in junior high and high school I have wanted to be a writer/photographer but even though I was published in my local newspaper right after graduating high school, I never really followed through with writing or photography other than as a hobby once I got married and had children.  Now is the time for me to try.  If I don't try, I would have regrets and beat myself up for not trying.  But in no way do I expect to get rich overnight and I have to start slowly enough that I can manage my earnings to balance within the limits of what I can earn legally with my other benefits.  I don't want to get into a political topic here, but when people like me end up stuck in the system for our income and medical benefits, the government makes it very difficult to break free of that or do a whole lot to improve our situation.  There are certain financial areas where earnings conflict with benefits and you end up having to make a hard choice whether to trust the earnings to continue at the same level and give up the benefits or give up the earnings and stick to the guaranteed benefits.  It would not be so difficult a choice if the income limits were higher before they started to reduce the benefits.  It basically keeps us locked into our situations whether we want to be or not.  So any attempts I make to become professional at my writing and photography/graphics will be a risk.  But either way, my computer is a necessary tool for me to take that risk.  When it comes down to whether I have money to go to the fair or festivals or have money to fix my computer, the computer has to come first.

Other events coming up that I am really interested in attending are the local Hot Air Affair which is a hot air balloon festival that our area used to hold every year until for whatever reasons they stopped doing it.  This year it's back and I really want to go.  Years ago I took some really nice photos at previous festivals and really want that opportunity again.  The other event is not until October so I may still be able to save some money for that, however in September I also have another computer expense that has to be dealt with.  Sometimes it feels like the problems are never ending and the solutions are so far out of sight that I don't have a hope of finding them.  The October festival is our local Apple Festival and there will be some wonderful photographic opportunities for me there if I get to go.  I did decide that these generous people who have chosen to take me to the fair will be offered outdoor style portraits taken by me in return for their generosity.  Studio photography is not my style and I don't really do a lot of taking pictures of people except family.  But the right situations can make for some really nice outdoor portraits.  Who knows?  Maybe that will also be a future part of my career as a professional photographer.

Drought, Heat Wave, Vacation, Drought

This spring and summer so far have been extremely out of the normal for the area.  First, spring arrived much earlier than it normally does, by a whole month.  Then it left briefly and came back giving us very nice mild temperatures and lots of nice sunshine.  But very little rain.  Granted I did not miss the storms, but this spring for the first time in more years than I can count, I had flower gardening plans.  My daughter and grandson helped me out by helping to plant and water a LOT of perennial seeds of all kinds of flowers.  I was really looking forward to having them to take photos of after they bloomed.  But even watering them didn't help.  Without rain only a few of them have survived and they are so far behind in growth that if they manage to bloom, let alone survive, it will be a miracle.  We planted so many beautiful flowers and so many colors to attract all kinds of butterflies and hummingbirds and none of them grew at all.  I was so disappointed!  I was so excited to think that so many beautiful butterflies would come to the flowers and I could get photos of them.  The bird feeder is the only thing still out there attracting any nature at all and it seems like even most of the birds except the usual sparrows, robins, and mourning doves have disappeared.

In addition to the drought, summer hit us with a vengeance.  The heat has been almost unbearable with 90's and 100's in F degrees for much of the summer.  It's cooled down a bit now but still no rain.  During the heat wave we got a massive wind storm I had never heard of or seen in my lifetime before.  It's called a derecho and is a straight-line wind storm with a bow-echo effect shape that is connected to certain thunderstorms.  It devastated much of the US from Chicago to Washington D.C. with wind damage and total losses of electrical power along it's path.  You can read more about the storm here and here.

A few days after the derecho, my daughter, grandson, and I left for our vacation.  This was my second vacation ever in my life.  Unfortunately with the heat wave, and some unplanned on storm damage at the location, we all had our plans changed a bit.  For my daughter it just meant no hiking the trails as they were all closed due to wind damage and they had not had time to open them.  For me it just meant that I stayed in the cottage almost the entire time because unless I went out in the mornings, the rest of the day was too darn hot for me to handle.  So for me, there were very few photo opportunities apart from right at the cottage itself.  Also because we requested the cottage with the least amount of stairs, we got one with no view of the lake at all so it was pretty boring for everyone.  My daughter invited a couple friends to join us since the cottage sleeps 6.  They all went out swimming most of the time, either in the lake or in one of the pools at the lodge.

After a very hot drive back home from vacation, the heat wave finally surrendered to much more normal temperatures in the 80's, but still no rain.  We have a slight chance of thunderstorms this weekend, but as the weatherman says, along with the thunderstorms is a big chance of high winds since we are live in this environment we are stuck in.  I don't think anyone is ready for anymore wind right now.  

What I want to know is what happened to all the nice summer rain showers we used to get all the time?  We didn't get nearly as many thunderstorms as we get now and we got regular nice soaking rains, some overnight and some that lasted all day long.  I remember how as kids we used to go outside on hot days and play in the rain and the puddles since it wasn't storming.  Now it's like every time we get a weather report of any rain it is in a severe thunderstorm and we wait to find out if we have to head to the basement once again.

I am ready to move.  Any ideas where I can go to escape this???

August Rush, The Movie

Not that I think anyone reads my blogs regularly, if at all, but maybe, somewhere out there is one person who totally gets it when I say that the movie August Rush says things that come from my heart that I could never put into words.  And with that, for this post, nothing more is necessary.

It's All In The Music

Sometimes mere words just can't speak what I want to say.  This is one of those times.  So hopefully the music will tell the story today.

Roses and Bird Feeders

Today is Mother's Day, or it was still an hour ago.  I got a beautiful surprise yesterday from the neighbors across the street from me.  They are a cute 80-ish year old couple, the wife of which was my roommate when I was in rehab after my second knee replacement surgery.  Yesterday the husband of said couple knocked on my door for the first time since I got home from that surgery and in his hands he had a bouquet of freshly cut long stem pink roses.  They are gorgeous!  It's been years since anyone gave me a bouquet of roses and never have I had any fresh cut from someone's yard.  The funny thing about it was that I was occupied when he knocked on the door and by the time I got there, he was about to leave.  He didn't have the roses in his hand immediately.  He said "Oh, just a minute," and he went into the apartment next to mine.  I could hear him talking to the lady there.  She's probably in her 80's as well.  What I heard was, "I'm going to have to be an Indian-giver..." and then he was back with the roses for me.  Her family was visiting her at the time so I let it pass.  I guess he thought if I wasn't home he would just give them to her instead, but when he saw I was home, went and retrieved them for me.    It made me laugh, smile, and wonder at the same time...did he have more and split the bouquet so she could have some too?  I hope so.  I'd hate to be the one who got roses and had them taken away in the same instant.

My daughter and grandson got me a bird feeder for my yard.  Since they got me my dog I have been outside a lot more and they helped me plant a lot of flower seeds this spring.  I thought a bird feeder or two (or three?) would be a nice touch.  I mean if I can't get out to see nature for my photography, let me bring nature to my own yard.  So they got me my first ever bird feeder.  I figured they would get me one since they asked me what I wanted.  But I didn't figure it would be such a nice one!  I don't have a shepherd's hook yet to hang it on so for now it hangs in the cluster of small maple trees in my back yard.  Eventually I may move it, or I may just try to get at least one more to put in the front flower garden so the neighbor (yes the one who had the roses taken away) can see and enjoy the birds too.  I told her about all the flowers that we planted in the flower beds and she seemed pretty happy about that.  The flower beds have been needing attention for the past couple of years.  I can't do much about it and neither can she.  Maybe at least the places the new flowers will be growing will help it looks better.  My mom loved feeding and watching birds in the years after she retired and she got me interested in it too.  Hopefully this summer I will have some photos of both the flowers we planted and the new birds attracted to the yard.

Living Life

I just wanted to check in since it's been awhile since I've been here.  Mostly I've been busy with my continued "work" with the online support group I belong to Scams of the Heart and starting a couple new blogs here and lenses at Squidoo.  I've also just finished reading the Hunger Games trilogy and loved it!  I won't attempt to see the movie until when and if they complete movies for all three books.  My daughter and grandson spent yesterday afternoon, after a nice lunch at one of my favorite local restaurants, planting flower seeds for perennials around the flower beds and big yard here where I live.  I live in a big old house that was turned into a tri-plex and this is the first chance I have had to really enjoy being outside since I moved here 3 1/2 years ago so I can't wait until the flowers grow and start blooming.  Once they do, you can surely expect some new photos in my photography blog here.  Overall I am looking forward to getting out more this spring and summer.  My newest blog may be one that I keep updated much more often than the rest for awhile.  It is about my weight loss goal for this year. I really think that blogging about my goals will help keep them fresh on my mind and help me reach them as well as make them fun.  

So there you have it.  If you don't find me updating one spot as often as you would like, check out the others because you will most likely find me there.

Irish Recipes For St. Patrick's Day

Recently I created a new Squidoo lens as a "quest" project to earn extra points on Squidoo.  The quest was to make a lens about some type of Irish recipe for St. Patrick's Day.  Instead of just one recipe, I made my lens about a variety of Irish recipes and cooking ideas.  Also included are several Irish blessings, videos, and more.  This lens was one of the more fun ones I have created.  You can see it if you click here. I hope you enjoy it and also find something good to cook for St. Patrick's Day.