Only the Beginning

Flora of the Setting Sun, originally uploaded by Design.Her.

Here it is, the final photo of June! Daniel, Kris, and I went through the entire month of June and took a photo for each day. It may not seem like much, but there were some days when I didn't want to lug my camera around, or just ended up shooting with the camera on my phone. That's the reason why there were gaps in the photos that I've posted. Some of them were really last minute, but I'm proud of us no matter what!

Here's to one month of photos down, and looking forward to July and staying on course for another month of photos. Baby steps toward the 365!  Below is a mosaic of all of my photos for the month. 

The Final Days

A Star Among the Rest, originally uploaded by Design.Her.

One of the last photos for the month long photo-a-day project. The subject this time was the umbrella plant in my house that sits just beneath a skylight. The natural light really compliments the shine of the leaves and reminded me of a star burst or fireworks.

As pleased as I am with myself for making it through a month and sticking to the goal of one photo a day, there has been something nagging at my patience that came to pass a few days ago. As some that live here in New Mexico may have heard, and participated in; there was a photography contest organized by the state's tourism department, and the grand prize was a very attractive sum of ten thousand dollars. That sounds good to just about everybody, and particularly good to a recent collage graduate with bills piled to the sky.

Having gotten excited at the prospect of winning that much money for one photo, I gathered all of my photos from trips around the state and narrowed the pool down to the five best. I logged onto the website, made myself a profile, and continued to load the limit of five photographs. The next step led me to a page with the dreaded loading bar which read "please wait while we process your photos." So I waited. And waited... and waited........

Once I had waited for a few hours, I sent an email to the support center of the competition asking if it was normal to have such a long wait time. After letting my computer stay on this page for DAYS I closed the tab and waiting for an email.  I got a response email from the competition, two days after the deadline! In it, they told me that they were sorry for the inconvenience and that my photos were not submitted.

I'm still pretty sore about the whole thing. I mean, I'm no Ansel Adams, but I would have liked to at least have a chance at winning the grand prize.  So my only recourse is to just keep shooting, and hope that another opportunity pops up to get some exposure.  Let's hope!

Emerald Eyes

Emerald Eyes, originally uploaded by Design.Her.

You dont know what she means you see
Shes a heart that beats close to me
And gettin back to the way I feel
Her honest word is my only real thing
When she comes to me then I feel fine
And Im not afraid but so gratified
Emerald eyes is a mystery
Shes a heart that beats close to me

Find, emerald eyes in the night
Gleamin shiny and bright
As if covered with silver
Shes still a mystery to me
The way she sails away slow
Makes your day to day life easy

Emerald eyes is a mystery
Shes my place of serenity
And gettin back to the way I feel
Her honest word is my only real thing
Only an honest word, maybe a sky report
Could be a weather bird it was so close to me
Emerald eyes is a mystery
Starin through to the heart of me

Photo number 27 for June photo-a-day. This isn't my favorite self portrait, but I'm trying to change things up a bit.  With the number of selfies that I've taken over the last month, I have been giving some serious thought to doing the 365 project. Knowing myself a little too well, that probably won't happen. However, I have thought about continuing into July for July photo-a-day. Little steps will count toward the big leap!

Texture

Texture, originally uploaded by Design.Her.

June photo-a-day continues with photo number twenty three. There is a bowl of these jute balls and other exotic things on an end table in my house. I have no idea where we have collected these things over the years, but they are pretty neat [and the cat thinks so too]. Today I thought it might be a cool idea to study the texture of the things in our bowl of texture.

I took shots of the little coconut looking thing that's on the bottom left of the photo, but they didn't turn out so well. Not enough light, and the strobe doesn't work when I do reverse macro photos, so I did a macro of the jute ball.

Some other shots from this week were taken at Kelly's for Tuesday wine night with Tara, and another celebrating the Summer Solstice.  Hooray for light filled summer days!  Seven more days of June left; I see the light at the end of the tunnel!

Willowing

Willowing, originally uploaded by Design.Her.

Photo number twenty for the June photo-a-day project. These sprigs were part of the beautiful bouquet that Mike gave me for my birthday. I really love these.

Some great news from the past few days. I ordered a new hard drive for my computer, so I can finally have enough room for all of my architecture stuff, music, and photos; and I got Lightroom 3! [Thanks Mike ^_^] My poor little laptop was on the verge of having no more storage space. I've had that happen before, and I will not let it happen again. It sucks!

So here's to photographs, hard drives, and new software!

Joyeux Anniversaire

Joyeux Anniversaire, originally uploaded by Design.Her.

Today is the welcome to another year on this Earth; here comes twenty three! My mom, my sister, and I went to the bosque to take some photos today, birthday balloons in tow. They were remarkably patient with me as we stumbled and walked precariously through the fallen leaves and roughage. We all took some pretty close calls when a seemingly steady surface turned out to be a sinkhole of leaves. They were good sports, and I cannot thank them enough for being such amazing helpers.

Maggie - "How does the photo look Miranda?"

Miranda - "....you look.... cool."

Oh, teenagers.

Not only was today my birthday, but also the anniversary of getting my camera one year ago. The last year of photo taking has been such a great adventure. I have learned so very much and developed a love for photography. I hope my camera and I have many more years of photos.

Farewell to Twenty Two, originally uploaded by Design.Her.

This was taken yesterday to celebrate the last day of being twenty two. 

Just Peachy

Just Peachy, originally uploaded by Design.Her.

Photo number 14 for the June photo-a-day project. It almost got down to the wire last night when I woke up from an exceptionally long "nap" to realize that I had only three hours to take a photo. Scrambling to find anything at all to shoot, I saw one last peach left in the fruit bowl in the kitchen. Procrastination is proving to haunt me even after the pressures of school have passed.

::sigh::

That is, the pressures of undergraduate at least...

Reflections of an Artist

Reflections of an Artist, originally uploaded by Design.Her.

Eight more days until my 23rd birthday and I have a few things to celebrate today.

1. My first attempt and success at a self portrait

2. Less than 100 degree weather

*and*

3. Lightroom 3 was released today!

However, the third comes at a price. The version of Lightroom 3 beta I have been using is going to expire at the end of the month which means I'm going to have to fork over more money to Adobe. It'll be worth it though, I love that program!

This is also my 8th photo in the June photo-a-day project.  I know, I know, I still have 22 more days left, but it's progress nonetheless.  Off to shoot some more!  

Summer Satisfaction

Summer Satisfaction, originally uploaded by Design.Her.

The past few days we have experienced record breaking temperatures in the city and there are very few options for cooling down. With the mercury hitting 100 degrees and above, I would love to live in a swimming pool. Although I don't have complete access to any large pools of water [this is a desert after all], There are some other ways to cool down.

Walking a couple of blocks to Gecko's to enjoy a couple of cape cods and tasty tapas was a welcomed chill out from the hot day. This photo was part of the June photo-a-day project, but doesn't it just look so good? Mmmm... may just have to go grab another.

All is Rosy

Buzz Buzz, originally uploaded by Design.Her.

Today is the start of June, and the first day of picture-a-day for a month. It's like testing the water for the 365 project, because I know I'm not ready for that yet. The last time that I tried to do one photo everyday for a month, I stopped about halfway through. Let's hope that this ends on a better note [and the entire way through].

This morning I just went out to the garden and took some photos of the blooming roses. Lucky for me I also caught some bees taking pollen baths. Unlucky for me, I'm terrified of bees...

Fingers crossed for the next 29 days!