Capturing the Light

It is still about the light. My eye catches something that looks interesting to me, and it usually is about shapes created with light and shadow. I want to catch that with my camera. If I look there are bits and pieces of photographs everywhere. Not everything I take is worth a second look. But sometimes what I saw...what drew me to just that scene comes through and I want to show it to others.

In the Botanical Garden at Balboa Park, I saw an interesting plant...or flower...I don't know what it is. The sunlight was shining down creating shadows and splashes of bright color. We were doing bw but I knew that this one was going to be color. I took a few photos and then the sun slowly moved to light up the edges of a greenish leaf with a bright red rim. I had to capture that. I snapped away and was lucky to get one that I liked...I was not using auto focus and with my eyesight getting a clear photo is sometimes a problem.

Then the sun moved a bit and the light no longer fell just right to illuminate the leaf edge. Still I had captured a moment in time that may not ever be there again. I haven't gotten to where I can easily set up lights and create my own scenes though I have done so. I don't usually see in my mind what I want to photograph before the fact and when I do I am often not all that happy with the results. I may get there someday...

A child's smile, a certain rose, the light falling on a leaf, we can find these again but maybe not quite like the first time. If I have a passion with this thing called photography it is capturing the light and a moment in time.

Saturday Afternoon

Jackie, Hailey, and I planned to have lunch in Alpine. I didn't take my camera. On the way we decided to drive up to Pine Valley instead. So I missed some great photo ops. Still we had a great lunch at Major's Diner. They have a 1950s theme and super good food. Photos of Elvis and the very front end of an old shiny red car on the wall behind the lunch counter...head lights turned on and all

We saw some back country on the drive which is always nice. Though every trip to the back country we see more and more new homes. On the way back home we drove through Guatay along the old highway 80. Then we took a detour through Blossom Valley. Some beautiful houses there. We wanted to see Lake Jennings. They have the parking lot blocked off, though we could drive along the shore. Jackie said she used to walk her dog along the path around the lake but now there is a no dogs allowed sign. Things change. When I was at the storage I sometimes used to buy fast food and drive up to that parking lot and eat my lunch and enjoy the view of the lake. Peaceful.

Saturday Morning

Congratulations to Serena! Congratulations to both Williams sisters for getting to the finals at Wimbledon. It is hard to cheer for one when I want both Venus and Serena to be the winner. And they are.

Del Mar Fair

We went to the Del Mar Fair today. Got there when they opened actually before they opened and still had to wait in line. I got in the line while Elizabeth and the girls went to the ticket booth. The girls won large stuffies. I told them that they needed to remember that they would be carrying them...guess what...I got to carry Hailey's and Elizabeth...Ashley's. They had gone on several rides while I was taking photos with the group. Cell phones are wonderful. Easy to meet up with cell phones.

My sister got us separated back when we were teens living in Milton, Washington. We went to the Puyallup Fair with some high school friends of hers. She had a bad cold that day. While I was not paying attention, Barb decided to leave the group and find a phone and get a ride home. Those girls walked off and left us. No phones at the fair, and we couldn't find the girls. We walked and walked. Finally we walked outside to a drugstore. My stepfather was a fireman...worked twenty four hours on and twenty four off. It was his working day and my mother didn't drive. Barb was totally not thinking straight. My stepfather's brother in law agreed to come get us when he got off work several hours later. Barb wanted to wait at the drug store. But I took us back into the fair and we went to the grandstand show after I bought a box of Kleenex! That was one long day.

Ashley

Ashley and Hailey

Hailey
Carousel

Took several photos of the carousel just having fun with my camera.

Wednesday

Summer is here. I have the air on in my room...hottest room in the house and would be unbearable without the airconditioning. We will probably have to set up the airconditioner in the main part of the house if this keeps up. Last year we didn't use it.

Went to my Flash II class last evening. Lots to learn...I tried to go over some of it when I got home. Looking forward to the next class. Tomorrow is our trip to the fair.

Tuesday Morning

This evening is the first Flash II class. I am so looking forward to that. I bought a cord for my flash but it is short. Hope it will do until I can get something longer.

This morning the sky was filled with lovely clouds edges lit by the sun. There was a beautiful sunset last evening...I didn't see it here...my daughter called me from her work and asked me if I could. She said it was amazing. We live in an area surrounded on three sides by hills. My only real view is east. I do get to see sunrises in the winter months that rival any sunset.

This house began life as a two room shack with a cobble stone fireplace. Later it was added onto several times. I am in the latest addition...the master bedroom with bath my dad and stepmom had built on. The original house was built of redwood and the first additions also used redwood. The back bedroom was added in 1940 I think. That is Hailey's room now. My dad and stepmom took the dividing wall out of the main house and opened it up to make a larger living room. Then my dad added on to the front porch and enclosed the whole to make a large room for a pool table. He put in a sliding door out to the pool area. The sliding door was put in backward. When we saw that it was worn out and needed to be replaced. We ordered one from Home Depot. E.R. and I put it in ourselves. He did most of the lifting. That was a hard job. Not only that in thirty years standard door sizes changed so we had to do some work on the door frame.

My step mom after my father passed away had the posts taken out and the room truly opened up. She had two large beams installed to hold up the roof. When we got the place that roof was sagging so we put in a large post to hold it up and two smaller posts. Basically putting back the original porch posts. Then made a separate small room out of that area. E.R. stays in that room. We live in a strange sort of peace.

Mostly because of our son David. It is hard to think of David as almost 43 years old. In some ways he still seems like the teenager he was. I read up on schizophrenia and tried to learn all about it. It has been over twenty years since then. When my parents trust was settled I bought this place from the trust to make sure David had a place to live. E.R. had rented the little house from my stepmom after my father passed away. She didn't want to be on the property alone. Her mother moved from LA to live with her. David began staying with E.R. then.

For several years, I was alone at the storage. Just me and my cats and the dogs. The first time in my life that I was ever alone. I found out that I liked it. I took classes at the community college and started painting. Sometimes John was there. When John married, and Lynn was expecting Hailey they lived in a trailer in a trailer park in Lakeside. Since it was our travel trailer, the manager called me and told me to remove it from the park. John and Lynn fought all the time. That is when they moved into the RV storage lot. I had said never! A lot of good that did me. I saw a lot of Hailey as a baby never dreaming that I would be raising her. And then my life would be changing again forever.

Sunday at the Park

We went to Balboa Park this morning for the Flash I class. I really enjoy the classes we have there. Today was learning what our pop up flash can do and also what it can't do. We spent time in the Zoro Garden and then walked over to the Rose Garden. Such a lovely place. Then finished up in the Cactus Garden.

Elizabeth, Cody, Dennis, and Ashleigh went to LA over the weekend for a trip to visit the Museum of Tolerance and a visit to Universal Studios. E.R. is in LA too. He picked up some family members at the airport here and drove them up for a family party then will bring them back on Monday for their flight back. Hailey spent last night with friends and church today so Dave and I were here alone for a quiet weekend.

We had a good talk last evening while sitting outside in the cool evening air. Nice. He has his problems but he has a good heart. A large empty area of Eucalyptus Hills was home to two Mexicans that Dave became acquainted with. They have been moved out by the sheriff's, their makeshift house and possessions destroyed and removed. Dave worries about them. Hard to convince him that they will be all right. Dave has been picking up the trash and removing it from that area for years and collecting the bottles and cans dumped there. He will have to stay away from there from now on.

Passing

Farrah Fawcett the loveliest angel is flying free. Cancer is a tragic way to die. I saw what it did to someone I loved...most of us have. I feel so sorry for the people that loved her. She will be remembered.

The other death in the news is also sad. Sad for his children. The world has double standards. Why should we mourn a known child molester because he is said to be a kind gentle person and a talented performer? We vilify priests that molest children. We send them to prison. Are the victims any less damaged because their molester was someone rich and famous?

It's Wednesday...

Middle of the week and I feel like I'm drifting again. Not in a photo class at present but will start again next week. It is morning and the sky is cloud covered. Hoping it will burn off early. We wake up to cloudy skys and I think where is sunny California? David and I had a nice talk this morning. I enjoy talking with him on good days. My son John turned 40 on Monday. He is my youngest We live in a stressful situation. John is staying in our travel trailer when he isn't up in Valley Center. Elizabeth lives next door with her son Cody and her boyfriend Dennis and his daughter. E.R. and I have been separated since 1983.

E.R. rented the little house from my stepmom and David lived with him most all those years. I knew when I got this property that there would be stresses. Though I didn't know how bad. E.R. and David moved in here with me and Hailey, and Elizabeth moved into the little house. E.R. is at the other side of my house from me thank goodness. Elizabeth and John are not talking to each other. Lots of anger between them. I have to remind them both that they are both my children and that I love them both. So there is a edgy truce. Dave has bad days where he upsets everyone. Getting this place seemed a good thing at the time and maybe it was. We needed a place where David could live and he was already here. It isn't easy finding a place for someone that is schizophrenic. He couldn't live in an apartment or where the houses are too close together. He yells and rants sometimes and it is better to have some space around I miss being in my own house...just me and Hailey.

I lived alone at the storage for several years. Though John was nearby and then when he was first married to Lynn they lived at RV storage in a trailer. Hailey was born in 1994. In the late 1980s I started taking classes at the community college and getting back into painting. I don't mind living alone...so what happened? We make choices and we wonder if we did the right thing. Hailey is happy and she wasn't lost to her father as she could have been in foster care. I love her very much.

Sunday

We had some sun today after a cloudy morning. Hailey and I went to Walmart. She saw her friend Haley and Haley's sister Tyler. Told them that they will have to come over and swim in the pool if it ever gets done!

Here are some photos of the empty pool. The deep end is at least nine feet maybe nine and a half. The shallow end dips down pretty fast and then it just drops off to the deep end. I never saw the pool with water in it. My Dad had it cleaned out and used it for a few years. At the time he and my Stepmom were mad at me. So we didn't see each other during those years. When my Dad moved here the pool was full of gold fish and water lilies. Then by the time we were reconciled my Dad had filled the pool with dirt.