Old smell, new smell

When you start using senses you’ve neglected, your reward is to see the world with completely fresh eyes. – Barbara Sher

Just me, back again at a random time.  My camera assignment this past week was to capture "smell" in my photos.  I would think since smell is all around us, that should be an easy task.  Well...it turns out that it wasn't so easy for me.  I guess I've taken my sense of smell for granted!

I wonder if smell is just more of a personal thing?  Say I'm in a crowd at the fair and I take a picture of the cotton candy booth and show it to you.  Would you first think of the smell of the cotton candy or the color or the taste you remember?  What about if I shared a picture of rain, would you think of the smell in the air or the appearance of the wet rain drops?   What if I took a picture of old carpet and you've never experienced the removal of it, would you think of the smell or the appearance of it first?

Oh well, here's what I've come up with this week.  I'm assuming that if you've had prior experience with removal and replacement of carpeting you'd relate these pictures to smell in a way...

Thanks for stopping by - enjoy your moments of fresh air!  Next "sense" to capture in photos...touch.

Several tenants later...time for this
yucky carpet to go!

Carpet not only holds dirt, it holds years
and years of smells.

Ewe...more than one layer to capture
the smell...

Oh my, no wonder the room smelled!

There are really pretty floors underneath. 

The cold air return harbored some
dust catching odors too!

Ah...new carpet, nice enough to lay on!

Worth the effort, worth the fresh
smell!

Five senses - A new journey in learning photography - On Smell

Observe, record, tabulate, communicate.  Use your five senses…Learn to see, learn to hear, learn to feel, learn to smell, and know that by practice alone you can become expert. – William Osler

Yesterday marked my 300th blog post.  I started out with great discipline, waking up every morning with a burning desire to blog about something random and to discover how my camera worked.  My dog Copper and I set out on an adventure that eventually wore out my little camera.  Tons of horrible pictures and a few I still enjoy looking back at.  We were on a roll.

Then life threw a curve ball or two and I had a hard time finding time and topics to blog about.  It was no longer the stage that I love...the process of learning how to do something.  That's exactly when I should try to look at differently.  I'm not an expert yet, so that means there's more to learn, I just need to change it up a bit.

I have a different camera now.  It is a Canon Rebel XSi.  It remains a bit intimidating.  Unfortunately, I still use it too often as a point and click camera.  Geez...my cellphone does that!  I've got to figure out how to use it as intended.  I've read the book, but that still doesn't tell me how to change up my approach to learning it.  Since I'm a little strapped for cash, a paid lesson isn't my next step.  Enter in a google search.

I found a cool website with free lessons. That'll be my next step for learning.  Are you up for watching this discovery unfold?  Thanks for stopping by to support me on this next phase in learning.  

Lesson 1 - Find a topic you enjoy photographing.  Hmmm...how about the quote above as a starting point? Yep, that'll work, I'll use it for a theme to learn more about my camera.

Capturing all of my five senses on film.  Can my pictures communicate the five senses??

Smell...are you ready Copper?  Of course, his little nose is always ready!

Steely eyed looks

If you can't take a steely-eyed look at what you're good at -- and what you're not good at -- then you're in for trouble before you begin. - Nancy Koehn Harvard Bus Schl Professor

I often wonder how many times in life does a person really take a look at who they are, what they are doing, what they wish they were doing and dream it was different?  Maybe it is our nature to long for change no matter how happy we really are?  Maybe we always want it to be just a bit better?  We wouldn't continue growing if we didn't, right?

What do you do to take a "steely-eyed" look at what you're good at?  Do you just know you're talented and you're doing exactly the right thing at the right time in life?

What if you realize you're not there yet, what do you do?  Do you step back, look at the situation differently?  Do you throw your hat into a different position, send off a resume and remind yourself you're never really stuck anywhere?  Do you say, "Nah...this isn't for me and move on?"  Or...do you fight just a little harder and change your approach and see the possibilities?  Do you sit back and let things unravel and wait patiently, because you do think with time it'll get better?

Having gone through many changes in the last few years, I've taken many hard looks at myself.  My favorite moments of discovery come when I grab the camera and take random pictures.  I can see things differently because I'm not stuck with my one view.

I love visual things, so I'm always on the look out to see something differently.  As I've said from the get-go, I'm an amateur at photography.   That means I'm taking a "steely-eyed" look at myself every time I take a round of pictures.  I love the fact the camera takes what I'm looking at with my eyes and shows me there is a different perspective.  What I saw is often times much different than what the camera caught digitally.

There are days I'm in trouble before I begin, maybe because I had no goal or I was simply not focusing due to too many distractions.  Sometimes I hit the mark.  I, more times than not, have to remind myself, it's all about being willing to just take a risk and get busy discovering new things.

Thanks for stopping by - enjoy your steely-eyed moments of discovery!

Turn flash off before taking a picture through
the window!

Birds of a feather,
flock together.

A single, focused moment.

Sometimes the view to
new opportunities is blocked.

Look up from the bottom

Keep trying....there's more than one view

Flip-off someone if you feel like it (don't let them
see you though...you don't want to be too mean)

Take a steely eyed look

Reflect....(watch out for
photo bombs!)

Just don't lay around too long...you might
just get lazy!

Toads

Sweet are the uses of adversity which, like the toad, ugly and venomous, wears yet a precious jewel in his head; and this our life, exempt from public haunt, finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks, sermons in stones, and good in everything. – William Shakespeare

Confession, my motive here was to find a quote about toads.  The quote above is as close as I could get.  I guess that's okay as I do have a mission to learn something new each day!  I wonder what William Shakespeare meant by "wears yet a precious jewel in his head"?

I don't know about you, but toads aren't incredibly precious looking.  They are more on the "ugly" side if you ask me.  After researching a bit, it turns out that it's all about a mythical stone/gem (i.e., precious) produced by a toad that is an antidote to poison.  Hmmm...

Back on track...I've been curious as to what the stuff I found on our front door step is.  Thus the search for a quote about toads.  Are these the precious jewels left behind by toads?  I don't know, that's my best guess. So what's the good in sharing this random sampling?

Let's summarize, I'm sure that the ugly little toad, or toads, ate plenty of bugs that haunt us in the yard.  They used their tongues to catch them and then left behind some treasures as stones so I could find something incredibly useless to blog about today!

See...something good in everything!  Happy Sunday - thanks for stopping by!  Enjoy finding something random to think about!  I think I'll find a broom and a dustpan and remove these little treasures!

Adversity...finding a little corner on a door step
to leave these treasures when there is a whole yard!

Ewe....this can't be from one toad?

If this were an antidote, I don't think
I'd try it....how about you?

A pepper mission

When you discover your mission, you will feel its demand.  It will fill you with enthusiasm and a burning desire to get to work on it. – W Clement Stone

With a quote like that, one might think that I'm going to discuss how I've finally discovered my mission in life, and that I know exactly what it is I'm to do at this moment in time?   Nope...not yet.  I have discovered that I'm curious why our cat has taken on the mission to steal our peppers.  She definitely has made it her burning desire (aka hot pepper) and mission to carry them off the counter to play with.  There's no stopping her when she has it in her mouth.  She is so focused.  It's like there's no one else in the room.  So much for an addition to our dining experience.  We have resigned ourselves to them simply being toys for our cat to occupy her time with.

My next mission will be to discover why the one pepper that she has chosen as her favorite, never ripened like the other three?  Over the week long playtime, she has carried off all four of them and batted them around, but three changed colors and her favorite one remains green.  Why is that?  I'm not sure that this is a common enough situation to research on Google or not?

Ah, the simple life of a cat!  Thanks for stopping by, enjoy the moments in life when you're able to focus on your mission!

The quiet approach...taking a little sip of water first.

Ah....a careful choosing of the green one.

Oops, it dropped...or maybe it was hot tasting?

Mission forward, now to get off the counter.

Watch out for the dishes (oh my...why is it
that I took pictures with a messy counter anyhow?)

Rounding the corner.

Look at that FOCUS!

Back tracking...

Nope, this is the way to go (I wonder if she was
drooling??)

Ready, set, launch!  Mission accomplished!

Don't stop changing

What if you could pick one day of your life, and everything would stop changing, every day would be similar and comparable to that one day, you’d always have the same people with you?  If you could do that, would you do it?  Would you pick that day and make that choice?  - C JoyBell C

What is it about people who frequently say, "I wish things would stop changing."?  Wonder what they would say if they had the choice to keep things just as they are at this moment in time.  Would they really make that choice?  I can think of some pretty amazing days in my life where I might have felt that way.  Like that special moment sitting on a beach, feeling incredibly relaxed, no worries, no stress, just calm appreciation for the moment.  I'm so much nicer when I'm enjoying life.  Who wouldn't in a dreamy scene like that right?

Well...how do we know if it is really so nice if we don't have anything else to compare it to?  If everyday was perfect, with the same people, in the same place, would it be interesting or challenging enough for you? Would you really enjoy it as much as you think?  Would you wish things would stop changing?

Now think for a moment about one of the worst days you've had.  What were you doing?  Who were you with?  What if you were stuck in that moment and nothing would ever change?  Would you make that choice to accept it and stay in that horrible moment?  Or would you fight with everything you had to change it?  If you think about it, did you like who you were during that moment?  How you were behaving?  Would you want to be that way forever?  I know I'm definitely not as nice as I would like to be in those moments.

How many times do we settle and just take the bad days as something out of our control?  Sure things happen that mess up schedules, or routines, or our health.  There's something common in all of it though.

We are the common denominator in our good days and our bad days.  We are the ones who can make things change or accept that things change.   It is our choice!  Think about how exciting life really can be because of change.  No matter how hard or wonderful some moments of change can be, change is what makes life worth living and enjoying.

Thanks for stopping by!  Enjoy the moments of change in your life - here's a few that I've enjoyed over the past few weeks...

Anticipation

Changing colors and persistence

Hummingbirds, rain and double rainbows

Break through moments

A little help from family and friends

Cool colors

Warm colors

Success and growth

Beautiful moments

Patience and forgiveness

Sunsets...and peace!

An adventure from the routine

A man practices the art of adventure when he breaks the chain of routine and renews his life through reading new books, traveling to new places, making new friends, taking up new hobbies and adopting new viewpoints. – Wilfred Peterson

Well, well, well, finally another moment in time where a random thought strikes.  To be really frank, I've had tons of random thoughts in the past weeks, but they were so random, it seemed like too much work to write about them.

A little over a week ago, our family entered a new phase in life.  For my husband and me, the empty nest phase, for our youngest a phase of adventure in a big city.

Sending your youngest child off to college is a whirlwind.  It is another adventure together, worth remembering and living through.  So many roller coaster emotions!  The prep work beforehand, the patience needed while watching her pack and not being able to really help.  The hugs and tears of the meltdowns and wondering will the packing ever really get done.  The packing and repacking of the car when she remembers one more thing!  A less than restful night of "sleep" before you hit the road.

Then the long trip there, with the quiet and somber thoughts of are we doing the right thing, this is so far away.  The excitement and anticipation when we arrived there and the rush of unloading all the items that did get packed.  The reality setting in when seeing her new room, meeting her roommates, seeing what the noise level and hustle/bustle of a big city is really like.  It was hard not to be excited for her despite those tiny little tugs at your heart as you begin to miss her and the routine you had in life up to this point.

There's always that last moment, where you have to say "goodbye" and let her go off on this new adventure alone, without you.  Seeing her walk away into the big crowd of people.  Oh, man, that's a big deal!  There is a reason the school placed a small box of Kleenex in the gift bag for the parents.

Tears continue with the moment you arrive home.  Her car is there, but she's not.  Then you walk into her room where the whirlwind started and find a carefully placed note reminding you "I'm somewhere else for a just a little while".  I couldn't hold them back anymore, I had to finally let the tears from all the emotions flow.
But then...I realized (a day later), that I was just being selfish.  The break in my routine from 18 years of her being there is going to be tough, but I can grow out of this just as much as she can.  

Reminding myself, it is easier nowadays with technology.  I can see instantaneously what she is up to.  She keeps us posted by sending text messages and photos of her life and happenings.  We get to live the adventure with her.  The ease of this new routine officially hit us when we shared our first Skype call with her.  It had only been 4 days and she had discovered new things, started reading new books, meeting new people and growing up even more!  Ah...another proud parent moment!   Yep, we're gonna make it through this new phase!

Thanks for stopping by!  Enjoy the moments where you discover a break in routine is just what you need!

Oh boy...I wasn't sure she'd really
get it all packed!  

Full and ready to go!

See mom!  I could do it!

Happy to be in the loft!

New friends, new adventures - love the smiles!

One more group hug before we
say "goodbye for a little while"

Yep - we love you too!
Sniffle... guess I still need a few Kleenexes?
Time for a Skype call!!