My Mouse

I found her on the playground when she was a few weeks old. "Please, can't we take her home?" I knew that life on the streets in Thailand was pretty short for a cat. Evan said no and I knew he was right. It made no sense. We weren't ready for the commitment of a pet, we had no idea what diseases she might have, and we weren't staying in Thailand forever. There was no way that we could take her back to the states with us. So I left her there.

Fast forward a few months and there's a scrawny cat begging outside of the lunchroom. Weak with hunger, it can barely walk, but it knows where the food comes from, and that the first graders are good at dropping morsels. I spied her and spent the entire lunchtime with her, fed her some pieces of chicken good vegetarian that I am!) and dreamed a little more about taking her home. But I knew it was impossible.

After that lunchtime, she showed up every day. And Evan was weakening. Finally he said that if she was waiting outside the teacher's room after school we could take her home on a trial basis. Bad luck for him, she was. We took her home, fed her, bought her some litter, food, and a soft place to sleep, and the rest was history. It took her a few weeks to get enough strength to jump up on the couch. And a few months more to completely settle in with us. She's still a little wild at heart, but she's completely ours. And I wouldn't have her any other way.

(PS For those wondering about the title, we named her Mouse. Strange name for a cat, I know, but somehow it just seemed to fit.)

Macarons

I feel like I've been reading about these little cookies forever, without much desire to try them. Tafari obsesses over them. Helene bakes them, again and again.

I had never tried them, so I had no idea what I was missing. But finally I decided they would make a good photographic subject, so I bit the bullet and made my way over to Paulette Macarons in the Hayes Valley of SF and picked up a few. They are scrumptious! And, of course, photogenic. I'll have a few more shots processed for you tomorrow.

Sprouting

Alternatively...

What do you think about it in black and white?

At Sea

All At Sea

A rather gray and foggy day at Ocean Beach today, but I did get this one shot that I enjoy.

Black and White

I recently downloaded the trial version of Nik's Silver Efex plugin for Lightroom (I have 4 days out of the 15 days left), and I have to confess to a completely new appreciation for the intricacies of a good black and white photo. I still have a lot to learn (and only 4 days to do it, better get cracking!), but there's something about the subtleties of the tones that just gets me. And I really enjoy trying out all the different color filters to see what kind of effects they might give me.

Anyway, here are some black and whites from a recent shoot, and then a few more color images to give a nice balance to it all.

As always, I am forever interested in your opinion. If you, like my boyfriend, 'don't really like the black and whites,' I won't hold it against you. I think.

Amazing dress, right?