The Healing Properties of BLT

Over the last year my health issues have been getting the best of me

UNTIL ….

I found the sweet healing properties of this ...

That's right, I owe my sudden recovery to this delicious Bacon, Lettuce and tomato sandwich.  It is not just any BLT but a bacon, lettuce, tomato, avocado and turkey sandwich from this fun dinner in downtown Sioux Falls, SD.

Although I suspect my recovery has more to do with my dining companion than with the actual sandwich.

After nearly a year of letting my physical limitations get the better of me, this wonderful woman and my dear friend suggested we go out for a brainstorming lunch. As a fellow writer and a single mother of two boys, one of whom has major health issues, she completely understands how dealing with the stressors of everyday life and health issues can throw off ones creative processes.

During our brainstorming lunch I voiced my frustration over having let my health limit my creativity to the point that for months I did not take even one photo and worse yet it had been four months since I posted to my blog. I told her, I really wanted to get back to blogging but I didn't feel right about just jumping back in with my usual type of posts without somehow acknowledging my long absence. She smiled and pointed at my sandwich and said "how about, I've been battling some health issues, but this sandwich cured me." 

That dear readers is how I was cured by a BLT!

Embracing Social Media

I am not one to jump off a bridge just because my friends do. However, after seeing so many talking about and joining sites like pinterest and stumbledupon I decided to give them a try. After all, I did eventually join Facebook and although I don't play the games I have found it a great way to interact with my friends and my local community.

At first setting up the Pinterest boards was a bit frustrating as it kept giving me errors. But after I did finally get some boards set up and took a bit of time to explore some of my fellow bloggers' boards I decided it might just be worth all the work. I can definitely see the appeal and the potential, however I can also see how one could spend virtually hours just browsing.

Finding or maybe I should say making the time to just browse the net is going to be the challenging part for me. I have to admit though that after just a few minutes on stumbledupon I did find a number of very inspiring sites. I watched this awesome video of a spray paint artist creating a fantastic space painting. I think I could watch it over and over it is so amazing.

I also came across a great blog post on Marc and Angel Hack Life about 75 reminders for tough times that inspired me to create this new motivational art print using one of my recent abstract photographs.

I did find some neat stuff on the Pinterest boards although I have to admit it was not as easy as stumbledupon. Who knows though once I explore it more and get the hang of it maybe it will be just as fun. All in all, I do think I will enjoy both sites as long as I don't get lost in them.

Are you a member of either site, if so what do you think of them? What social media sites do you enjoy?

Everyday Moments

Our lives are made up of a few major events which generally we preserve through photography. Such as birthdays, graduations and weddings. No one would ever consider not photographing such special occasions. Even in economically tough times such occasions are photographed if not professionally then by a friend or family member. Now I am not saying that these events are not photo worthy. On the contrary I believe it is very important to preserve these joyous occasions with photographs.

Yet it is the everyday moments that keep us going and bring us lasting joy. Those special moments when we wish we could stop time. Those moments when we feel so grateful to be alive sharing our life with those we love. It is these everyday moments that often get left out of our photographic history. The very moments that define who we are and what we love most in life. Such as the moment this couple appears to be experiencing. I doubt they will have a photograph of this beautiful moment. I was lucky to snap this of them while I was taking a nature hike. Had I not been on the other side of the river I would have gotten there address so I could mail them a print.

All to often these important moments get suppressed when times are rough, for there is no visual reminder to snap them back into our memories when we need them most. Yet when we take photos in places that hold special meaning for us even if we don't take a photo of the special moment, that photo can act as the catalyst our minds need to pull that memory back to the present. This photo of my brother and his boys is just such a photo for me. This was taken during one of our many trips to Dark Canyon near Idylwilde, CA. For my husband and I Dark Canyon holds some very magical times. We were just starting our own family and we had many heart to heart talks as we enjoyed the beauty of this special spot.

Back then we took fewer pictures as it could get expensive developing film.  Today it is easier than ever to record such special every day moments. There are digital camera's, cell phones with camera's and even some DS systems have camera's. With so many ways to capture photographs don't let the special every day moments slip away. Sure all the photos may not be the best of quality, but they are probably better quality than those old 110 camera's.

The ease with which we can preserve our memories has increased astronomically but as with most modern day inventions this does not come without it's own set of complications. If you have already embraced the digital photography age I am sure you have already discovered its' main complication. Too many photos!  So many in fact that the special photos get lost in a sea of photographs on your computer. It saddens me to say that I have actually been told this problem is the main reason for a person not using their digital camera except for Big Events. So I thought today I would share how I manage to preserve everyday moments without getting overwhelmed by too many photographs.

These are the steps I use with my personal photographs. The steps for my general photography and professional are very similar to these.

1. When uploading photos set the upload to create a new folder using the date for the folder name. If the photos are all of a particular event, such as hiking in palisades, I will put the location after the date in the folder name.
2. Go through the uploaded photographs and delete those that are too blurry, too dark, too light or oops shots of my pant leg. Yes I do get these types of shots, especially when playing with the settings on my new camera. Move general photography photographs to the general photography folder.
3. While going through the photos I will change the file name on any photographs I know I am going to want to print or use in a memory photo. The new file name always includes the number of the month and year followed by the subject name, if there is more than one of the same subject the name is followed by 1, 2, ect.. These photos are then moved or copied to my "To Be Printed" folder.
4. At the end of each year I create a year folder to put all different monthly folders into.
5. Every month I go through one of the folders that is at least six months old to see if any of the photos jog a special memory and if they do I will rename that image file and move it to the To Be Printed folder. I do this because sometimes it is the least expected photograph that jogs your memory of a special everyday moment. 

Please don't forget to back up your digital image files on a regular basis. My previous post Preserving Digital Photo Files has a great deal of information to help you safeguard your precious memories.

So go out, embrace the moment and for goodness sakes as my four year old grandson would say PICTURE IT!

Bonds of Friendship

This time of year tends to evoke a lot of very fond memories for me. Growing up in Southern California there was always somewhere fun to go. However, looking back I really don't think it was so much about where we went as who I was with.

This photo includes four of my six closest friends through my teen years. It really didn't matter where we went when I was with these girls life was filled with excitement.

Three of the four in this photo are sisters and two of them worked nights helping their father clean the drive-in theater. I have many fond memories of going to help clean the drive-in. You wouldn't think picking up trash and cleaning bathrooms could be so much fun but it was with these girls. The bonds with these girls have been lifelong bonds.


Having this group of friends taught me the importance of friendship. It also taught me the importance  of parents encouraging their children to make friends and to allow them to have their friend over often.

While my kids were growing up my husband use to complain that our home was grand central station. It was a very busy place with our four kids and one or two of their friends over at the same time, sometimes even more. At times there were up to seven extra kids at our home.

It may sound crazy but aside from the fun memories that were created and the reassurance of knowing where our kids were and who they were with there is another benefit I never thought of. The bonds that were made with some of our children's friends have remained over the years even though they are all grown now with families of their own. A few of them like this beautiful young woman still call us mom and dad and now even have their children call us grandma and grandpa.



So to all you parents out there of pre-teens and teens I highly recommend an relatively open door policy for your children's friends, while it may make life a bit noisy and hectic at times it is well worth the benefits.

Photographing Friendships

Friendships are a very important part of life. Yet often we are so focused on taking photos to capture our children as they grow and mature we forget to take photos of them with their friends until they are in their late teens when they are more likely to suggest such a photo. Take a few photographs and capture their early friendships, you can then add these to your child's scrapbook or even to the family genealogy album. Don't forget to jot down the friends name and any special information such as how they met or special names they had for each other. When your child is older they will treasure these memento's of the friends that have touched their lives. 

  

So whether you plan a friendship photography shoot like the one shown here or just take a few photos of the kids playing I am sure you will find plenty of opportunities to capture this very important aspect of your child's life. If you do decide to do a planned photo shoot you are in for a lot of fun. If the children are under five and you plan on doing posed shots and candid ones I suggest doing the posed ones first and maybe even having some "reward" on hand to encourage them to sit still for a moment or two while you line up your shot.  While some of these photo's have a posed look, the only one that was actually posed is the second shot, the rest are candid shots. I have to say this was both the most tiring and the most fun photo shoot I have done in ages. Here are four more of my favorites from the photo shoot.