discovery

Pandora Radio is cool. It's even better than however great you think it is, I promise. Thanks Jamie for clueing me in.

live on, oh milk eternal

My most recent half-gallon of milk is blessed with longevity. The sell-by date is March 27, but I'm still drinking it. Every day I sniff it and wonder, will this be the day the milk dies? But no, to my extreme delight, it's still good!

It's the small things in life...

parental advisory

parental advisory
Originally uploaded by emster214

This definitely cracked me up and made my day. I think it's my favorite shot from the wedding this past weekend.

I guess if you're gonna have a tattoo, you might as well get a unique one.

baby steps

Well I'm back after a long weekend in Charlotte, NC, for the Southern Short Course. My feelings are mixed. I am inspired and I am depressed. I saw so many phenomenal images and met so many accomplished photographers... it was kinda like a hot poker being stuck up my butt. "Get off your ass Emily and do something!" On the other hand, I am daunted by the knowledge that I have so far to go. And I'm 25. I always thought I'd be well into my perfect job and perfect life right now but I still feel caught in transition. I'm standing at the subway station of life watching the cars whiz by and I know I want to be on one but I can't seem to get off the platform. It's not bad, on the platform, but I can't wait there forever.

texture

I've been experimenting with texture lately. I think it's important to keep up with the trends happening in wedding/portrait photography, and I'd definitely say texture (among other things) is now trendy. Some of it I like, some of it I don't. I think it fails when it becomes gratuitous - not contributing to the photo's value, but instead becoming a distraction. I guess I'm opposed to texture for the sake of texture. There are, however, some photographers that use it successfully and artfully. Jesh de Rox comes to mind. There's hardly an image this guy doesn't texture the heck out of. And he's made it his signature style. I guess maybe I'm still finding my "style." Right now that seems to be borrowing everyone else's techniques and ideas. So with that said, I'd love some feedback on the texture issue. Is it actually enhancing the image?

ACU makes news...

Texas University Giving Freshmen iPhones and iPod Touches

Unbelievable. Apparently, now ACUers can worship God and Steve Jobs. And what more could an incoming freshman want? Ha ha...

For those of you out of the loop, I attended Abilene Christian University, a fairly small school in west Texas that is now giving away an iPhone to every incoming freshman. While I'm sure this is built into tuition cost, I kinda think it's cool. I know the idea isn't new (Duke's been doing this with iPods) but the product is. And I think there are more educational applications with the iPhone than with an iPod. Although, I imagine there will be more distractions as well. Can you imagine everyone with an iPhone at chapel? Utter disarray.

Anyway, props to ACU for implementing what I think could be a really neat idea. I just hope they realize all the implications for the campus.

Hmmm... wonder if I can get one retroactively?

I'll have to pray about it.

bowling league, here I come

Over the weekend I BOWLED A 132!!!!! Holy cow! Maybe breaking my wrist actually made my bowling skills improve. Maybe it's sorta like Peter Parker getting bit by a spider and becoming Spiderman. Who knows, I could be the next __________ (insert name of famous bowler here... I don't know any)

Hmm... another thought... maybe all of my Wii bowling is paying off.

P.S. For you anonymous readers (if I have any), I'm very well aware that a 132 is not exactly phenomenal in the whole scheme of things. It is, however, pretty darn good for me. If you've ever bowled with me before, you know what I'm talking about.

P.P.S. For inquiring minds, NO there were no bumpers.

an observation

Tonight I realized I am getting old.

I consciously planned my grocery store trip around watching Jeopardy.

2008 Books I've Read

So, inspired by my fellow blogger/friend John, I've decided to keep a list in 2008 of all the books I read. AND include a rating of each book on a scale of 1 to 10, just to clue you in on what I thought about it. I'll be updating this regularly. (John, I'm totally pirating your idea. Hope you don't mind.)

43.The Shack - 6.5/10

42.In Her Shoes - 8/10

41.Love the One You're With - Emily Giffin 8.5/10

40.Nineteen Minutes - Jodi Picoult 9/10

39.Election - Tom Perrotta 8.5/10

38.Through Painted Deserts - Donald Miller 7.5/10

37.Captain Alatriste - Arturo Perez-Riverte 7/10

36.The Great Gatsby - F. Scott Fitzgerald 9/10

35.The Green Mile - Stephen King 8.5/10

34.False Impression - Jeffrey Archer 7/10

33.Empire Falls - Richard Russo 8/10

32.The Last Lecture - Randy Pausch 9/10

31.The Prophet - Kahlil Gibran 8/10

30.The God of Small Things - Arundhati Roy 9/10

29.Little Children - Tom Perrotta 8/10

28. A Prayer for Owen Meany - John Irving 10/10

27. Dry Ice - Stephen White 7/10

26. The Know-It-All - A.J. Jacobs 8.5/10

25. Good Poems - edited by Garrison Keillor 9.5/10

24. Skinny Legs and All - Tom Robbins 6/10

23. The Appeal - John Grisham 7/10

22. Sideways - Rex Pickett 4/10

21. Blue Like Jazz - Donald Miller 9/10

20. The Abstinence Teacher - Tom Perrotta 8/10

19. The Twits - Roald Dahl 10/10

18. The Nasty Bits - Anthony Bourdain 7/10

17. Cherry - Mary Karr 8/10

16. On the Road - Jack Kerouac 7/10

15. Love in the Time of Cholera - Gabriel García Márquez 9/10

14. Gilead - Marilynne Robinson 8.5/10

13. Possible Side Effects - Augusten Burroughs 7.5/10

12. The Liar's Club - Mary Karr 9/10

11. A Thousand Splendid Suns - Khaled Hosseini 8/10

10. Coal Run - Tawni O'Dell 6/10

9. Must Love Dogs - Claire Cook 8/10

8. Water for Elephants - Sara Gruen 8/10

7. For Men Only - Shaunti and Jeff Feldhahn 9/10

6. Back Roads - Tawni O'Dell 6.5/10

5. For Women Only - Shaunti Feldhahn 9/10

4. Into the Wild - Jon Krakauer 8.5/10

3. The Tender Bar - J.R. Moehringer 9.5/10

2. Tara Road - Maeve Binchy 7/10

1. Crossing California - Adam Langer 8/10

Texas sunrise

Texas sunrise
Originally uploaded by emster214

Student of Clouds
by Billy Collins

The emotion is to be found in the clouds,
not in the green solids of the sloping hills
or even in the gray signatures of rivers,
according to Constable, who was a student of clouds
and filled shelves of sketchbooks with their motion,
their lofty gesturing and sudden implication of weather.

Outdoors, he must have looked up thousands of times,
his pencil trying to keep pace with their high voyaging
and the silent commotion of their eddying and flow.
Clouds would move beyond the outlines he would draw
as they moved within themselves, tumbling into their centers
and swirling off at the burning edges in vapors
to dissipate into the universal blue of the sky.

In photographs we can stop all this movement now
long enough to tag them with their Latin names.
Cirrus, nimbus, stratocumulus-
dizzying, romantic, authoritarian-
they bear their titles over te schoolhouses below
where their shapes and meaning are memorized.

High on the soft blue canvases of Constable
they are stuck in pigment, but his clouds appear
to be moving still in the wind of his brush,
inching out of England and the nineteenth century
and sailing over these meadows where I am walking,
bareheaded beneath this cupola of motion,
my thoughts arranged like paint on a high blue ceiling.

looking up

looking up
Originally uploaded by emster214

Well, I think fall has finally arrived. I've been enjoying the unseasonably warm weather, but with our rain showers today came a cold front. Winter here we come... ugh. It's been one of those days where I feel like I won't be warm again until next May.

Day 29

Day 29
Originally uploaded by emster214

Someone asked me this evening what day I was on, and I was thinking it was like day 27 or something. I just now realized that I only have ONE DAY LEFT of my 30 day photo project. Wow, it all went by so quickly.

Day 28

Day 28
Originally uploaded by emster214

As I near the end of my photo project, I feel like I am getting more and more desperate for new and original ideas. I know that photographing matchsticks is probably one of the least original things I could do, but I tried...

Day 27

Day 27
Originally uploaded by emster214

I ate at Cracker Barrel tonight, which was nice for something different. (I don't go there too terribly often.) But they have these addicting little games on the tables you can play with while you wait. I finally solved this one... after about 15 tries.... yikes...

I'm almost a bit sad to say my photo project is nearing an end. I have three days left in my designated thirty, and I must say, I've been quite impressed with the response. I went from having about zero people reading my blog on a regular basis to having close to four. Maybe. That's a generous estimate. :-) It's got me thinking about other possible photo projects I can undertake for next month. Maybe.

Any ideas??

Day 26

Day 26
Originally uploaded by emster214

A wedding on a Monday? Sounds crazy, but that's what it was. The couple wanted to get married in a pretty cool playhouse place, but the only day it was closed was Monday. So Monday it became...

The ceremony was a little different, but I liked it. They had two different poetry readings, and a great soloist who sang from up on the balcony of the playhouse. Cool stuff.

Day 25

Day 25
Originally uploaded by emster214

Can anyone tell me if these are alpacas or llamas? I've googled it, but so far the only real differences I've read between the two are height and ear shape. (And the texture of their fiber, but that was hard to tell because they looked pretty well shaved to me.) But based solely on ear shape and stature , maybe the little guy on the right is an alpaca and the other two llamas??

For some reason when I look at this photo, I think of the three wise men...

he would be the dork that sits up front on the school bus
Originally uploaded by emster214

This over-achiever was hamming it up for the camera. Which (I'm not gonna lie) I loved, because I think I got another image for my farmyard/barnyard noses calendar. Those of you who know me know that I talk about making a noses calendar with all of the animal noses I've shot over the past few years. (I think I'm up to about 6 different animals now.) So nobody go stealing my idea cuz it WILL happen one of these days!!

Anyway, the shy guy behind him cracks me up, because it kinda seems like he wants to get in on the fun too, but he's too scared.

Day 24

Day 24
Originally uploaded by emster214

I went to the Andre Viette Daylilly and Wine Festival in Fishersville, VA, today. There were absolutely gorgeous gardens and flowers, not to mention a TON of arts and crafts and wine vendors. It was way fun, but a difficult place for pictures just because I didn't spend a whole lot of time near the flowers, AND it was quite bright and sunny most of the time. (I grabbed this shot in the shade.)

Day 23

Day 23
Originally uploaded by emster214

A get-together at my cousins' house yielded this image... a tiki torch candle thingy at night...

It has become more of a habit for me to carry around my camera everywhere I go. As I evaluate myself as the project nears an end, I think I've actually sort-of accomplished a few of the goals I set out to accomplish. Cool stuff.

Day 22

Day 22
Originally uploaded by emster214

I went over to my friends' (Sara and Nathan) house this evening, and they were kind enough to let me take a few pics of their son London as he was getting his bath. I'm loving the hair-do in this shot, and the classic London expression. Bathtubs are a great place to do portraits because of the wonderful white walls everywhere. I have to confess, this is my first ever naked-child-in-the-tub photograph.

Day 21

Day 21
Originally uploaded by emster214

Just driving around, looking for my photo as usual, and I happened upon this. The perfect fence for photographing at night with my lensbaby.

What I find amazing about this photo is that I didn't saturate it at all. I swear. Not a bit. The only photoshop tweaking I did was to adjust the levels and add a slight vignette.

A brief mid-project evaluation: Not to brag, but I am very pleased with my performance so far. I have only skipped ONE day so far, and I feel much closer to accomplishing my goals. I can't say I've shot anything extraordinary from this project, but I can say that I've shot some great things I would never have found otherwise. Bringing my camera everywhere with me is (slowly) becoming more of a habit. I feel (strangely) more self-satisfied when I am shooting things on a regular basis. And I certainly feel more accountable to this project due to my (very few) blog readers. If I take a crappy photo, I am ashamed to post it, and continually search for something to impress. I guess popular opinion is a good incentive for me after all. :-)