The World According to Angie

Building my Photography Studio

I have the best husband in the world.

Our 30-year old ranch-style home has an extra room at the back of the house. Tucked away at the end of the hallway that leads back to the bedrooms, this room is a bit of an oddity. It's bigger than our master bedroom - a whopping 18' x 14' in size - but has its own private entrance through the garage. It has a closet, technically qualifying it as an extra bedroom, but it's on the small side.

I guess the builder might have intended it as a mother-in-law suite. The original owner had it set up as a game room where he played pool and poker with his TI engineer buddies. Us? Well, we've used it as everything from a guest room to an office to extra storage.

But not any longer. And this is where the "best husband in the world" thing comes in.

We're remodeling the room and turning it into my photography studio.

Yes, that sound you heard was me, screaming and doing the Meposian Dance of Joy.

I've designed the room as a multi-function space. By mounting countertop along the walls at a desk-level height, we'll both be able to use it as an office. Jim's workspace, along the far wall, will be covered by the photography backdrops when they're in use. No need to worry about co-mingled clutter ... just slide the backdrop across and voila! Instantly presentable studio.

Speaking of backdrops, my dad is designing a 3-rod system that will allow me to keep black and white drapes up all the time, and swap out the third as I need to. He's coming up for the long weekend to work with us and knock out the remodel, which includes lighting installation, electrical changes, carpentry work, and more.

But Jim and I had homework to do before Dad arrived: we needed to get the flooring knocked out. I'm proud to say we're done, and it looks great.

This is the "before" shot. We painted the walls about two years ago, and I like the golden color. (Plus, Jim was really reluctant to repaint.) Though black or grey walls are best for a photography studio, the worst that will happen is I'll get a nice golden glow on my photos - which is cool - and if I don't want it, I can do a white balance correction. Easy.

Carpet came up. I would be thrilled to get rid of all the carpet throughout the entire house (I've got huge allergies to dust) but I'll start with this room.

Jack-Jack had to inspect. This is the small closet in the room. I plan to leave the doors off, put a piece of countertop in there, and use it as a print station.

We decided vinyl floor tiles were the right solution for the studio. All the benefits of a solid flooring plus when you drop things (like, say, expensive camera lenses) they tend to bounce rather than break.

This is a commercial-grade tile from Armstrong. I love the pattern - it looks like stained & polished slate or concrete with all those colors and textures - it makes me happy.

And we finished last night. No grout, no sealant, no waxing. Just adhere and use a tile roller to make sure they're good and stuck.

One floor down ... the rest of the studio to go! Updates will come throughout the weekend. I can't wait to share my finished photography studio (and our shared office space) with you!

2010's Monday in Photos + Words

I'm making progress, slowly but surely, in pulling together the photos + words I collected last year into a cohesive album. Here's how Monday came together:

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is an excellent exercise to undertake ten days before beginning my 2011 round of "Week in the Life" documentation. I've found I'm taking note of those photos that are most meaningful to me, and those that I didn't capture, but wish I had. I've also discovered while I'm good about taking pictures for a week, my weakness lies in the documentation of words.

I'm going to work on that this year ... I've got some ideas.
 

Thank God you're here, 2011!

Happy New Year! I can't begin tell you how glad relieved stinkin' thrilled I am to say goodbye to 2010. It's been a rough one for a whole host of reasons I won't detail here on my blog.

In fact, my blog is a good indicator - when I stop blogging, there's big, bad stuff going on that I can't talk about. So when you look at my blog posts and see I made one on January 12, 2010 and the next one came in September ... well, that says a lot about what kind of year it was.

But that's all behind us now, right? Because we've turned both the proverbial and literal page as the calendar flips over to 2011. And I know in my heart of hearts that this year is going to be an awesome one.

No matter how tempted I am to say, "Because it darn sure can't get much worse than last year," I'm not gonna do it... because I know that's just tempting fate. God has a sense of humor, and he won't give you more than you can handle, but don't pray for patience because he will test yours. I know, 'cause I've seen him do it.

I know 2011 is going to be a better year than 2010 because I've learned so much from the year that's past.

I've learned...

• God is in absolute control of my life. My stress level will be much, much easier to handle if I recognize those things I can affect (like how well I treat my husband) and just give up the illusion I control other things (like, whether I'm going to lose my job). God's driving that particular bus ... Ultimately, it's the Serenity prayer, right? God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.
   
• I'm married to one of the most amazing men on this planet. Yes, he's imperfect ... but with every one of those imperfections, he's perfectly matched for me. I can't imagine any other man would have stood by my side through everything that happened this year. We've weathered one hell of a storm, and come out the other side. I count every day I get with my Jim as the greatest blessing, and he makes me want to be a better woman, a better person, a better wife, a better partner.
   
• I've got an exceptionally cool stepdaughter. I'm fortunate I was able to forge a relationship with Veronica in her late childhood or 'tween stage, before the teenage thing happened. Because now that she's there, I can see it would have been much, much more challenging. But with the foundation we build when she was 11 and 12, now that she's 14 (choke!) it's evolved into a pretty cool relationship. I've learned that I need to devote one-on-one time to V, separate from her dad, so she can talk to me about girl stuff. Because she does. It's not only cool to be another adult she trusts with the important stuff, it's a big responsibility.
   
• I need to make time for family. Not the ones I live with day-to-day, although that's important, and Jim and I plan to re-institute date-nights on a monthly basis this year ... I'm talking about my mom & dad, and my brother and sister-in-law and their beautiful daughters. I do a good job of staying in touch by phone, but this year, I need to see them in person more often. Mom & Dad are about 5 hours away by car, and Jim & Heather are about 8 hours away, so it's not like I absolutely have to climb on a plane to see them. This year, I need to make the time to be there in person for my family.
   
• It's time to see a neurologist. Actually, it's long past time. I've been allowing Internal Medicine docs to treat my migraines for over 20 years, and the best we've been able to do is "mostly" control them. So in early December, I finally saw a neurologist, and he put the pieces together - not only for my migraines, but also for my fibromyalgia - and we begin treatment on January 4th. I haven't talked much about my fibro, but it's time to share a little ... and that's something I'll be doing here on my blog as the treatment begins. If I don't take care of my fixing what's wrong with my body, I won't be able to do anything else well. ANYTHING.
   
• Finally ... I live with a lot of stress. Much of it comes from my job - the nature of the beast - and the rest of it is just my personality. I take stress on myself, and when stress doesn't exist, I will manufacture it. Yeah, I know, that's sick ... and silly ... but it is what it is. Part of the self-awareness I've gained in my 30's is an understanding (and acceptance) of not just who I am, but how I work. Anyway ... I absolutely must take specific steps to burn off my stress each and every day, or it will eat me alive. I've learned there are two things that work for me - exercise and creativity. So, I have to move my body and my brain in ways that feel like play.

I'm not doing resolutions this year.

Resolutions get broken, and then you feel like a failure. Instead, I've got lessons I learned in 2010, and I'm simply going to apply what I learned in 2011 to make it a better year.

I am, however, participating in a project I've done for several years running: Ali Edwards' One Little Word. It involves choosing a word to be your guide, your focus, for the coming year. In 2008, I used balance. In 2009, I used invest. In 2010, I used health (which sort of backfired on me).

This year, Ali has developed a 12-month class she's offering through Big Picture Classes called, of course, One Little Word. I've signed up to take the class, and I'm ridiculously excited about the structure, about the ideas, about the inspiration she's providing to keep us focused on our chosen word throughout the year.

For 2011, my word is listen.

I'll blog all about it in another post.

To borrow a phrase from Audrey Reed (who is taking the One Little Word class with me!) I am so stinkin' excited to see 2010 in the rearview mirror. I resolve to listen more in 2011, to take the lessons I learned in 2010 and as the bumps and bruises and scrapes begin to heal, to apply what I learned to make this new year a thing of beauty.

Welcome, 2011!

Two Days of Disney (in photos)

Last Thursday, Jim and Veronica and I hopped on a plane and headed to Orlando. Due to the overwhelming generosity of my aunt and uncle, we spent two days playing at Disney World. With family living in Florida throughout my childhood, I've been to the park any number of times over the years ... but what they say is really true: it's more fun with a kid you love.

 

Veronica's mom is a big Snow White fan, and V said she wanted to try and get a photo for her. It became our mission to find Snow White, and we finally lucked out on Saturday at Epcot - in their World Showcase, in Germany.

I had never been to Disney World when the weather was anything other than hot and muggy. Friday was a little weird, with temps in the 50's and 60's. We were especially thankful for our sweatshirts and jeans. Saturday was beautiful ... sunny and 70.

 

We took this goofy self-portrait at Hollywood Studios after the Muppet 4-D attraction (which we all loved). 

But the highlight of the morning - if not the entire trip - had to be the Aerosmith Rock'n Roller Coaster. Awwwwww, yeah!

 

It's an indoor coaster in the dark, mostly, with some neon signs and blacklight effects. The music, of course, is terrific. The theme for the ride is that you're running late for the Aerosmith concert, and they're going to drive you through crazy freeway traffic to get you there in time. They shoot you off super-fast (like, zero to sixty in 2 seconds!) and then it's twisty, turny, with corkscrews and ... well, it just ROCKS.

And I am SO PROUD of Veronica for being brave enough to give it a try. She was screaming as much as me, but it sounded more like exhilaration as opposed to terror. When we got off the ride, I asked her how she was doing. Her response: "Other than my heart pounding and being all shaky ... GREAT!  That was AWESOME!"

 

I'm glad I brought my Nikon with me to the park. It was a little annoying, having to carry it around, but I had it in my sling bag with just two lenses - telephoto and wide angle - and there's just SO MUCH to shoot there at the park. I would have been disappointed if I'd left it at home.

Because I couldn't have gotten shots like this:

 

 

  

  

  

The parade really was beautiful.

We spent all day Saturday at Epcot. That is, by far, my favorite park. Call me a geek, I guess, but I dig the educational stuff.

It's also nice to "eat your way around the world" in their World Showcase. I had a snack in Germany (a true Bavarian pretzel, yum!) dinner in the UK (fish & chips, baby!), a warm drink in France (mmm, cappucinno...) and dessert near Morocco (funnel cake).

I believe in the magic of Disney ... where all food consumed in the parks are calorie-free.

Our little family had such a good time, just hangin' and laughing and playing. The fireworks show at Epcot was the perfect way to end our mini-vacation.

 

I'm so grateful I had a chance to share the weekend with Jim and V before I began my nearly non-stop travel for work. And I'm doubly grateful to my aunt and uncle for making it possible!

The Claw decides who will stay and who will go...

 

So, the lighting sucked out loud, and this is nothing more than a snapshot, but I find it freakin' hilarious. Look where Jim's head is in relation to the claw.  Ha!

(Shot at Disney Hollywood Studios this past weekend at the "photo op" spot right across from the Toy Story ride that we didn't ride because of the 70+ minute wait.)

Our Christmas Card Photo Shoot

This weekend was busy-busy-busy with lots of photo shoots ... I did one on Saturday for friends from our church HomeTeam, one on Sunday for Audrey & Chris, and another Sunday afternoon for my friend Kristin.  But in the midst of all that, I managed to squeeze in a shoot for our family with Audrey behind the lens.  (Thanks, girl!)

 

I had this vision of a photo where we had our arms around each other, making a circle of family.  Cheesy, I'm sure, but I kind of like the way the photo turned out.

  

Jim likes this one ... it's his choice for our Christmas card this year.

  

I, however, really like this shot.  We'll see...

  

An updated shot of the two of us.  The light in Audrey's upstairs children's retreat was absolutely delicious on Sunday afternoon.  We played with using additional lighting, and finally decided to just "go natural".

 

And I shot this portrait of Veronica.  At 12 years old, she doesn't look like a little girl any more - this is definitely a young lady.

I returned the favor and took photos of Audrey, Chris, and little Logan ... and I'll post some of those here later.  Logan made one adorable little Santa-Baby! 

As Jim says, "a good-good"

As my Jim says, this weekend has been a "good-good" so far.  Last night's Date Night at church was an utter blast, the photo shoot went so much better than I had anticipated, and today I got to spend a number of hours playing in my studio with Audrey while Jim hung out with Logan.

I'll try to actually do some real-live blogging tomorrow, but for now, I wanted to point out that I've added quite a few images to my photo blog (www.pointandpray.com).  You'll find some of the portraits I took at Date Night (posted with permission of the subjects):

The Cochrans
The Dorseys
The Blicks

And a portrait of my husband I'm especially pleased with.  So much so that I'll post it here, too:

He is SUCH a good-looking man ... both inside and out.  And I am blessed beyond measure that he chose me.

I also managed to snag a couple shots of Logan while he was here today (duh, of course!) and the best one is posted here:

Eyes of a Child

Such a cooperative little photo subject... and I'll leave you with another image I call "Pensive Logan".  I'm almost afraid to ask what he's thinking ... after all, he is his father's son.  (Love ya, Chris!)

After dinner with Mike and Anita and Grace and Veronica and Jay and Michael (and Jim and Eddie) I'm zonked.  Heading to bed ... another full day tomorrow, but while Jim and Michael tune in for the Cowboys' game, I'm planning on hiding out here in my studio for some solid writing time.  Until then, friends!

Jim started it ...

I will take responsibility for my part in this particular caper, but I have to place blame - er, give credit - where it's due.  Jim started it.

A few weeks ago, as the weather began making like it might be autumn here in Dallas, Jim said something that shocked me: "I want to get a raincoat for Eddie."

A raincoat?  For our Yorkshire Terrier?  Is this the same man who used to say, when he'd see dogs wearing clothing, that this was why they bite people?

Yeah, he was serious.  Jim pointed to last winter, when he'd take Eddie for his daily walks in the freezing rain.  Our poor boy - with his thin coat of Yorkie hair, not thick big-dog fur - would get soaked to the bone in minutes, and was utterly miserable.  By the time they got home, Eddie was freezing cold, a drowned rat with uncontrollable shivers.

Of course, Jim still snickers when he recalls the day Eddie decided to shake off the water in his hair when he was standing on a patch of ice.  He begins to shake, and - whoomp! - his little legs go out from under him.  So don't go "awwwww..." and get all gooey, thinking that he's all super-sweet and empathetic just because he wants to buy the dog a raincoat.

Today, after work, we took Eddie with us for an outing to PetCo ... where we found a waterproof yellow rainslicker.  The small was too short for his body, and the medium is just a wee bit too big, but it'll do the job of keeping him dry.

Is that not the most ridiculous thing you have ever seen?  We should have bought this a couple weeks ago, and he could have been the Gorton's Fisherman for Halloween.

With the hood up, he can only see straight out the front.  Poor guy was walking sideways.  Mean ol' Jim was laughing so hard he almost fell out of his chair.  <sniff-sniff>

Well, if we're going to get him a raincoat, why not get him something to keep him warm on chilly-but-dry days as well?  So when I found this, we added it to our basket:

No fuzzy-frou-frou sweaters for our dog ... oh, no - he gets the uber-manly Jeep brand quilted all-terrain vest.  This thing is super-thick and will keep him really warm.

Yeah, he was glaring at me when I took this photo.  Can you blame him?   Here I'm wrestling him in and out of clothing and Jim is laughing at him.  I'd be glaring at me, too.  Good thing Eddie loves me anyway.  Because as I type this, he's curled up at my feet, sleeping on his blanket here in my studio.  All is well with the world...

...and if cooler weather ever actually does make it to Dallas, we've got him covered.  Literally.

Vacation Recap: Natural Bridge Caverns & Park

I've been meaning to blog about the second half of our vacation in San Antonio for almost two weeks now ... and I'm going to grab a few quiet minutes over lunch or it'll never happen.

After our day at Sea World, we opted for a slightly more educational activity on Friday: morning at the Natural Bridge Caverns.  Veronica had never been inside a cave before, and I just thought that was wrong.  So we were gonna fix it.  Mom & Dad even joined us for our little adventure.

Natural Bridge Caverns is about a half hour drive north of my folks' house in San Antonio.  They boast the largest cavern in Texas, and at 180 feet below the surface, it makes for one heckuva walk.

The cavern was humid and sticky, and the floor was treacherously slippery in spots, but it made for a fun outing.  I'm spoiled, and I know it; when we were stationed in El Paso, we were close enough to Carlsbad Caverns to make a day trip of it several times, and when you've explored one of the biggest and best caves in North America, anything else seems small by comparison.  It lacked the grandeur of Carlsbad's Big Room or Hall of the White Giant, but it was still a fun way to spend the morning.

With these suckers hanging overhead, you couldn't help but be just a little bit nervous ...

Mom was in an extremely playful mood (as you can tell).  They had a water feature outside, and of course she stopped to play.

Then, we all piled into the car and headed down the road to the Natural Bridge Wildlife Ranch.  Say what you want about the over-commercialization of these kinds of places, but we had a great time!  You pay admission, buy these bags of food, and drive through the park ... and the animals walk right up to the car to be fed.  The best part for me was getting to take nearly 500 photographs - including these:

As a budding photographer, I cannot begin to describe how excited I was riding through that park.  I will probably never again have the opportunity to get that close to that many free-ranging exotic animals to take these kinds of photographs.  All I can say is ... wow.

Of course, the biggest compliment anyone can give me is to ask for my work, and when we got home, Mom asked me to print several of these as 8x10's to add to the guest room decorating project.  It's sort of like the grown-up equivalent of having your homework hanging on the fridge... but I dig it.

Anyway, that's pretty much the recap of our vacation.  We spent Saturday being bums around the house - recovering from our two days of adventure - and on Sunday, we attended church with my parents, had brunch at Marie Callenders, took long naps, and then headed back to Dallas.

Not too shabby for an end-of-summer get-away!

Vacation Recap: Sea World

On Thursday, I earned my good stepmother wings: I suffered through a sweltering summer day at a theme park.

When we planned our summertime visit to San Antonio, Veronica specifically asked for a day at Sea World.  She'd never been there before, and my father could hook us up with discounted tickets courtesy of his military discount.  (Thank you, Daddy!)  We figured Thursday was our best bet to avoid the worst of the crowds, as well as to maximize our time with my parents when my father wasn't going to be at work.

So off we went that morning, dressed in bathing suits under light-weight clothes.  It was an uneventful trip to the park, and I was quite pleasantly surprised to find the crowds stayed fairly thin until late in the day.

Veronica was "in charge" of our agenda for the day, so we let her read the park schedule and lead us from one area to another.

The dolphins were a big hit.  Oma Karen slipped Veronica a ten on the way out the door and told her to feed the dolphins for her ... so V and Jim made with the fish while I worked the camera.

Regardless of how many times I get to see these beauties up close - I did a stint at Splash University with Mom one spring in Hawaii - I am always awed by their joyous personalities.  You simply can't be sad when you're around a dolphin!

We saw the Shamu show (you can't go to Sea World and not see Shamu!) and at Veronica's insistence, we sat in the splash zone.  Sigh.  That meant I was doing a constant dance of trying to protect my camera from the water, and when the whales came over to do their major splash sequence, I got SOAKED.  (Thank God my camera bag is at least partially water resistant, and that I was smart enough to put my hat on top of the bag for another layer of protection.  My camera survived.)  Hey, did you know their tank is kept at a brisk 50 degrees?  Yeah, I wound up with a face full - mouth and eyes - of salty, cold water.  Blech!

Of course, that was at least a welcome break from the horrific heat.  San Antonio in the summertime ... there's an old joke about how the devil came to Texas in the summer but decided it was too hot for him - so he went back to Hell.  That's just about right.  I did well with staying sunblocked and wearing my goofy big-brim straw hat - so, no sunburn, yea! - but it was still HOT.

The end of the day was spent in the waterpark portion of Sea World.  Have I ever mentioned how much I hate waterparks?  With a serious, unrelenting passion.  So this is where I seriously earned that title of "Good Stepmother".  I trudged along after the father-daughter pair, who were picking and poking at each other relentlessly.  I climbed umpteen steps to the top of the waterslide with a knee that's still healing from the ripped bursae sac from four weeks ago (long story) to wait in the heat for a half hour for a twenty-second ride to the bottom.  I learned a really important lesson, though: even when Jim and V say they don't care which slide we ride down, still make one of them choose which one to go down.  I was in front, so I shrugged and went down the one on the right - which turned out to be the enclosed tube ... a ride totally in the dark.  I thought it was pretty neat, like a roller coaster in the dark.  Veronica HATED it, couldn't say enough about how AWFUL it was, and Jim banged his head on the side of the tube around one of the turns (ouch, baby!) ... so needless to say, they were very unhappy campers, and I wasn't the most popular person.

Can't win for losing, right?

We made a loop in the 'lazy river' - which was jam-packed and had absolutely no tubes available for floating on ... imagine how much fun that was - and took one look at the wall-to-wall people in the wave pool and decided that it wasn't even worth the effort.

So we dressed and hit a shop so V could get a stuffed Shamu on our way out of the park.

I think there's rides at Sea World - at least, I've heard tell of the legend of the rides - but we didn't ride any of them.  Veronica talks a big game, and I got all kinds of psyched when she said she "loves roller coasters!" but one look at each of the rides and she said, "Oh, I can't ride that."  "Oh, I won't like that one."  "Ohhhhhhh, I don't think so."

I'd sigh, and bite back the sarcastic comment at the tip of my tongue just dying to burst forth - "Oh, you LOVE roller coasters, huh?" - and tried to remember what it was like to be eleven years old.  In fact, I should humble myself with the admission that I didn't ride a roller coaster until I was nineteen and my ex-husband embarrassed me into it when we went to Six Flags with a group of friends.  I should have patience with my young stepdaughter... if she doesn't want to ride the rides, I should be understanding.

Even if part of me wants to remind her we spent how much money and drove how far to come to Sea World...

Oh, dear God - I sound like my father.

Which, I suppose, means I am earning my wings as a stepmother.  I survived a vacation day doing something I didn't enjoy - but she very much did - and along the way, I'm beginning to sound like my parents.  I'm certain they're laughing their butts off.