EngelFish.Net

For a while there I was a fan of *crossover* country music, and Mary Chapin Carpenter was one of my favorites. A standard on my iPod rotation had the line, “sometimes you’re the windshield, sometimes you’re the bug.” Yesterday, I was the bug. I was fasting, which is normal for my Mondays, but it didn’t go well. I spent most of the day obsessing over food, which is unusual for me. By the time Samara and I were both home, I was tired, cranky, and had no energy. My “meh” attitude didn’t help perk her up either (she’d had a good, but long day herself), and contributed to a “quiet time please” mood in the house. I finished adding a couple of new treads to the staircase to Mom’s apartment, with only two minor power-tool related injuries, but it took everything I had to do so. Afterward, I was too worn out to enjoy even doggie-play-time.

I realized that the fast was not improving the quality of my day, so I bagged it and ate. That was a good decision. What I ended up eating was not. I am following the Dukan Diet, and I’m down twenty pounds so far. Similar to Atkins, it focuses on lean protein and considers carbs to be off limits. In addition to foods that were Dukan-friendly, I also ate two slices of thin crust pizza, an apple granola bar, and an entire box of sugar-free/fat-free pudding. With a belly full of food, and now feeling both sluggish *and* guilty, I opted to go to bed early.

Those decisions were both bad for my diet. I could beat myself up over the slip, or I can roll with it. I’m choosing the latter. I know that I’ll get more accomplished, and make more progress toward my goals, by remaining positive and focusing on what I can do right now. Worrying about the past just isn’t worth it. Going to sleep on a carb-filled tummy has an upside… I’m plenty peppy today! I have a three mile run, a yoga class, and a massage scheduled today, so I can put that pep to good use.

As Winston Churchill said, “Attitude is a little thing that makes a big difference.” Yesterday I was the bug, but today I am the windshield.

Like many skills, having a “creative eye” for photography requires practice. There are many different ways to stretch your brain and sharpen your skills, and one of my favorites is to very consciously and very deliberately look around you and see things. Notice the shadow from your glass of ice tea, how the light comes through the trees in your back yard, the graininess of the bench outside your office, or the composition of people sitting in the room around you. I have a reminder programmed into my phone to randomly prompt me to take an interesting picture of something in the next two minutes. The combination of a very short deadline and a random environment can make for some interesting photos. This was today’s. It is a section of board on the enclosure for a garbage dumpster behind a grocery store I pass on my way to work. I only had two minutes, so I pulled over and started looking. Have you ever tried something like this? What do you do to develop your “eye”?

While we are getting away for the weekend to Charleston, I thought I’d post this picture of Belle.  She’s growing daily, which is a good thing.  She is not, however, catching on to the concept of outside = bathroom.  I’ve heard Taryn use more profanity in the past few days, normally brought on by stepping onto a cold wet spot on the floor.  Not pretty.

The trip to Charleston was Tommy & Kendall’s idea, but it comes with 100% support of Taryn.  I know we’ll have a good time, but being the curmudgeon I am I can only think of how much work I have to do.  I’m sure it’ll all be fine once we arrive…. but still.  ~grumble grumble~  But at least I get to do the driving there and back.  That’ll be loads of fun… for me… not for Taryn. ~grin~

I guess the biggest news since my last post is that we have a new puppy.  Our friends, Jen & Baron, rescued her from their next-door neighbors and gave her to us.  She was named Willa Mae, but we’re working on coming up with a less grandma-y name, with the front runners being Cara, Lily, and Tessie.  We’ll let you know what the final vote is.  She’s only a few weeks old, but she’s already bigger than Alex & Xavier were at the same age (appx 7 weeks), so she might end up being a big girl, although she looks like a black lab and I wouldn’t have expected it.  Her favorite pastimes, in addition to long walks on the beach and candle-light dinners, are chewing on anything she can fit in her mouth (noses and earlobes included) and sleeping.

Now for an update on my renewed running and fitness program.  It’s been over 10 days since I’ve done a damn thing, which isn’t good.  I did, however, get up and walk for 78 minutes this morning.  It felt good, and it was sorta nice to watch the world wake up.  I haven’t had that experience since running with Kim down on Hillsborough Street back when I was training for the NYC Marathon.  I’ll be keeping this up, if only for that great start to the day.

Photography-wise, things are slow.  I’m in the midst of prepping invoices, trying to design an album, returning calls for pro-bono projects, and putting together a shoot for the RSG Summer Project.  I did have one really interesting photo adventure this week though.  Saturday evening, just after walking in the door from a full day at the pool with Jen & Baron & Taryn, I got a call.  There was a wedding that night at the Duke Gardens (a 30-40 minute drive away), and they didn’t have a photographer.  The DJ was a friend of mine, and through Tommy, asked me to come shoot it.  I said I would, and asked what time it started.  He replied, “Right now”.  I told him it would be at least 45 minutes before I could be there and he told me they would wait for me.  Talk about pressure!  Skip to the end of the evening, and it was a beautiful wedding with a wonderful bride and groom.  Everyone had a great time, and I got some terrific pictures for them to remember it all by.  I was really glad I did it, and I was happy that I got the call at the last minute too.  I didn’t have to spend the weeks, days, and hours leading up to the event worrying and building anticipation.  I just showed up, shot, and had a great time!  If only all jobs could be this fun.

Tonight was an exceptionally relaxing evening.  After connecting with Taryn at Helios after work, we came home and spent the evening out in the backyard.  We setup the lights so we could find our drinks & chips after dark, the fans to keep the mossies away, and the chair & couch cushions to keep our butts from getting sore.  Taryn relaxed on the patio-sofa and listened to a Grisham novel, while I worked on a consulting project (gotta love wireless internet and a good laptop) and chatted on Meebo.com (using the Meebone application) with Jen & Baron, and Andy.  Eventually it was too cool for T, so we called it a night.  I’m looking forward to sleeping like a baby and getting an early start on the day tomorrow, beginning with a 3 mile run at dawn.

IMAGE: I recently joined the ASMP (American Society of Media Photographers) and participated in a small “challenge” the local chapter ran.  The theme was “yellow” and this was my entry.  Due to unforseen circumstances, I only had 3 hours to develop & execute this image.  All things considered, I’m not displeased with the outcome.  I was definately impressed by the others’ entries though.  Those folks got some skeelz’.