My GPS Camera Phone

Somehow, this week started off as crazy cat lady week, but I assure you that this will be the only one for the rest of this week.

If you don’t remember her, this is my cat Nessa (Slayer of Dogs). The name is short for Vanessa, the name she had when I rescued her long ago. Supposedly her name was Hester at one point, because a co-worker saw her and said she was a foster home for her once. Yeah, whatever, I’m not calling my cat Hester. She answers to Nessa, but also Nessie, princess, kitty, hey you, doyouwantsometreats, annoying pest and many others.

But never Hester.

It’s been awhile since my last stop at the Paynes Prairie overlook, so I made the trip out there last week during a particularly overcast day. The floodplain is just about dried up and most of the vines and grasses are beginning to wither away. There’s some late-blooming things, but most everything is about ready to succumb to the pending winter freeze.

This particular shot was taken with the Nokia 5310. A quick trip through Photoshop made this image pop more than the original, due to the poor quality of the 5310. Desaturation, curves and a gradient map later, and we’re in business.

Though the palm tree was alive, the vines that had climbed all the way to the top had since died back, waiting for next spring’s rain to repeat their ascension. And they will be back, without a doubt.

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Here’s Amy the cat, making it known to the feral population in my neighborhood that she owns me. I pet her, she meowed and then sat down just like that. Aww, how cute.

Tune in next week (tomorrow) for Sepia Week! Seven days of sepia tone photos, all using the built-in sepia filter. Then after that maybe Negative Week, which will be incredibly cool and weird at the same time.

What a day. I took this picture on my way out the door, but forgot to post it! Better late than never. I’m surprised Dan didn’t prod me for a post. Speaking of Dan, congratulate him on his Photoshop victory where he made John Chow look like Britney Spears. Sheer brilliance.

Alongside the pinecone ginger are some elephant ears that come up every spring and bloom in the late summer. If it’s a mild winter, they hang around, but one good freeze and they’re history.

They seem to be doing much better this year than last, probably due to the heavy rains we had last month. Hopefully, the rains will return. But then again, that just means I have to mow the lawn more.

Ever get stuck in a rut, taking photos of the same old stuff? I feel that way now, so I’ve been trying to think differently about photo subjects.

Right before I walked in the door to work this morning, it hit me to do a self-portrait. However, I didn’t want it to look plain with a cluttered background. Taking a cue from Chica, I held the camera at waist-level and shot upwards. Without even looking at it, I saved the image and walked into the building.

It turned out much better than I expected. The cloudless sky definitely makes this photo, in my opinion. I’m going to be doing more of this in the future, for sure. Maybe a self-portrait week? We’ll see.