rad radko’s

Many years ago, my husband and I started a tradition at the small company we own. We give the employees (and ourselves!) a Christopher Radko ornament for Christmas. We all have a nice collection of them now and I decided to take photos of some of them today and do a post for the You Capture blog meme. The theme this week was “Holiday Decor”.  I used my little Canon G9, hand-held with no flash, and then filtered the images with Topaz Labs Adjust and Totally Rad Dirty Pictures, two plug-ins for Photoshop. It was a lot of fun just “playing” with these photos, especially since so much of my photography is for Getty and iStock, who have pretty strict criteria for what you can upload. Happy holidays everyone, hope you had a fun, peace filled weekend!

teaser tuesday

Teaser Tuesday asks you to : Grab your current read, Open to a random page, Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page.

Outside, surrounding the plane, was the sense of weather growing vindictive-an accumulating energy with its own agenda. The weather didn’t care that they had connections to make, medication that needed to be taken, appointments that would be missed, vacations that were ruined before they’d even begun. In a Perfect World by Laura Kasischke

Sometimes when I board a plane, I look around and wonder if the people I see are the last people I’ll ever see? Or if we’ll go through an unwanted and frightening adventure together like the passengers of the “Miracle on the Hudson” flight. It’s like I’m seeing the characters from a book or a movie and I especially wonder about those sitting near me, what the couple in front of me are whispering about, or why the young father across from me is traveling alone with his baby son, is he divorced or widowed or flying home to his wife after visiting his parents? I watch the cabin crew go about their jobs, some smiling and talkative, while others looked bored and annoyed as they repeat their instructions and answer the same questions over and over again. In some ways flying is isolating, taking us away from the noise and hustle of the world below us. But it also forces an intimacy on us that we have little time for in our normal daily lives, which aside from the fear of crashing part, ain’t all bad!

PhotoHunt Saturday: undesirable

This is a swine flu concept I did for iStockphoto. My husband and I haven’t gotten the vaccine because we’re pretty sure we had the bug in May during the first big wave of the pandemic. It was a nasty one that took me weeks of steam showers, hot tea, and plenty of rest to totally shake!

See more PhotoHunt Saturday pics here!

wordless wednesday

These are a couple of new Christmas photos I did for iStock and Getty. Still doing some after Thanksgiving chores while I start  my holiday shopping. We already have baby Brooklyn’s gifts, it was so much fun to shop for a little one again and we can’t wait to celebrate her 1st Christmas!

See other Wordless Wednesday participants here.

chi charmer

Still recovering from a busy week and hosting the Thanksgiving feast. My sister and her family stayed with us this week and brought their chihuahua Lola all the way from Carlsbad, California. It was great to see everyone and fun to have a dog in the house again. One afternoon while everyone was out and I was home doggie sitting, I decided to see if Lola would model for me. I took my time coaxing her into the spare bedroom I use as a studio. I let her sniff the room thoroughly, showed her my camera and fired off several shots so she could hear the sounds and see the flash, and then I held her on my lap for a few minutes before putting her on the white table top. It took a couple of minutes of petting and talking to her before she sat down, relaxed, and began striking a pose!

No one appreciates the very special genius of your conversation as the dog does. ~Christopher Morley