Building Abstract

Mouseover Monday 2

Mouse over to see the original.

Check out: the million dollar question.

Also, Darwin Wiggett's photographer of the month post. Great conversation about the ethics of wildlife photography.

And, don't miss how to steal like an artist.

The Cat We Almost Rescued

Sorry, I don't have a picture of the cat. 50mm, f/1.4, ISO 100, 1/1000s.

For the first time in a long time, Evan and I were behaving like REAL PEOPLE. People who have dinner parties. I was so proud of us. Not only had we cooked a real dinner, with multiple courses, from scratch, but we were also schmoozing with the best of them.

If you had been a fly on the wall you might have been persuaded that we did such a thing every night. And thought nothing of it.

But then somewhere in between "pass the caprese salad" and "would you like a touch more wine?" there was a bit of an interruption. A banging at the door. Evan went to investigate, we carried on. Until he burst back into the room and said tersely, "Jess, take the cat downstairs. Alec's at the door with a cat." (For the uninitiated: Alec is Evan's brother.)

Imagining a sick, injured, abandoned cat, I followed instructions. Once our Mouse was safely stowed, I went to check out the newcomer, only to find Evan and Alec both still outside, now lying facedown on the asphalt outside next to a car. Apparently the cat had squirmed out of Alec's arms and sought shelter under the nearest vehicle. Eventually we lured it out with some salmon treats, I grabbed it, and we got it inside. Then we checked the collar and called the emergency numbers on it. I could only imagine the relief of the owners that someone had found their cat and was taking care of it. I mean, if we lost Mouse I'd be in pieces! The area of San Francisco we live in is all asphalt and concrete, cars and stoplights. There are pretty much no street cats.

Well, no one picked up at either number so Evan left a couple of rambling messages, trying to explain the situation without making it seem like we had stolen the cat. We put out some water for the cat, and pet it a bit. Under the circumstances, it was doing pretty well.

Then Evan tried calling again. And someone picked up! I was picturing their relief until Evan said, "So we should just put him outside again?" Turns out, we weren't heroes at all. Apparently there are some outdoor cats in our area after all. And we had just captured one, but not rescued it.

A bit sheepish, we shooed it out the door. It sat on the step for a few moments, unsure why it was getting the boot. And then it trotted away, into the night.

Caturday

Recently Evan and I have been talking about adopting another kitten to have a companion for Mouse. At the moment it's not feasible, because we simply don't have enough space for two kitties. But when the remodel's finished, we will. (Hope that's soon! Evan . . . )

So, you know, as we do sometimes, we've been on the internet, trying to figure out what kind of cat we want to have. We've almost decided on a Bengal, because it would look a bit like Mouse, and they have super cool personalities. Some Bengals like to swim, they're very active, and they're beautiful.

But part of me also feels like it would be better to rescue a kitty from a shelter (like we rescued Mouse from the streets of Thailand). And so I went down the dangerous path of looking at Petfinder for cats in our area that need homes. This one in particular stood out for me. She seems super sweet, and like she really needs a good home. Anyone want to adopt Tia??

San Francisco Afternoon

There's this great light by the water in the afternoons. Alois and I met up there and walked along the water taking pictures for a couple of hours. I had the Lensbaby on the camera (I promise, I'll start using other lenses soon!) and it was really nice. Kind of meditative. I love that quote on the lower picture. I don't know what an island light is, but I agree. We have it.

CreativeLIVE

Fun with shadows. 50mm, f/13, 1/1000s, ISO 1000

So I've been spending a fair amount of time in front of my computer, just staring at the screen recently. No, it's not writer's block. I'm not pretentious enough to think that if I wait some better sentences will come out of my fingertips. It's also not pondering the universe, questioning the meaning of life, or having a narcoleptic attack. (I hope.)

Instead, it's that nefarious brainchild of Chase Jarvis, CreativeLIVE. Long story short, they broadcast photography classes live online for free, and then you can buy them to view and download afterward.

The first class I bought from them was Wedding Photography with Jasmine Star. I'm glad I bought it, because it took me about 3 months of watching it at odd intervals to really make it through it all. 3 days of solid information, and watching her shoot a real wedding. If you're at all interested in wedding photography, it's definitely worth it.

And then last December, CreativeLIVE was offering a deal on all of its weekend classes, basically at half price each. I'm a sucker for a deal, so I bit the bullet. Aaaand then life intervened, so I never really watched much of them. But I got reminded recently, when Jasmine did her second class, on the business of photography, and I watched it live. (Great class, but I'm glad I didn't have to buy it, because a lot of the information was repeated from the first class.)

Then I watched Zack Arias's Studio Lighting class. I don't have a studio, and I don't have the space for one, but I could not stop watching! He is a force of nature, and I learned so much about lighting from this class. If I ever have enough room to set up some white seamless I am SO THERE. Great class.

Anyway, all of this to say: if you've been living under a rock, and you didn't know about CreativeLIVE, well, now you do. And Zack's teaching another course this weekend, called Foundations of a Working Photographer. (See his great ad for it here.) So if you want to hang out on Saturday, well, I might be busy. Sitting in front of my computer, staring at the screen.

And taking mad notes.