May Goals

So, how did I do on my April Goals?

Photography:

-Start one new photo project and see it through to the point where I have a few good images for it  Hmmm, maybe I did this one with the Lensbaby Sweet 35? I'm not sure. 

-Marketing marketing marketing: direct mail? Perhaps. SOMETHING. Marketing may be my Achilles heel at this point. <-- Still need to get on this one.

-FINISH TAXES. Oh yes. And soon. Must be done in April, absolutely, no excuses. The IRS is a good motivator. Done!

-Get all those photos I've been promising to friends to those actual friends and off my hard drives. This is a worthy goal. I did pretty well on this. 

-Refresh the content on my website, tweak it a bit, maybe add something more. I have a few ideas for this percolating. <-- Now this is a May goal.

-Create a really sustainable, easy backup solution that doesn't cost a million dollars. <-- Still working on this one.

-Read Enchantment. I'm halfway through. Part of what took me so long is that I dithered for two weeks about whether to buy the hard copy or just read it on my phone. I had long internal conversations about which was greener - electronic or paper? In the end I chose electronic.

Life:

-Spend at least half an hour every day outside. Honestly, if I get this one done, I'll be sitting pretty. And I mean quality time, one half hour all together, not five minutes here and there. Yeah! I did a pretty good job on this.

-Organize. Get my ducks in a row. <-- Hard to say, really. I'd say I didn't quite. 

-Go to bed earlier. <-- Actually I probably went to bed later.

-Streamline. Do fewer unnecessary tasks. It's a process, but I feel like I'm making progress on this one. 

-Buy nothing except groceries. I've got all the photo gear I need, and my place is full. So no more little impulse buys. At least for April. <-- Total failure! Oh well, there's always May.

And now for my May Goals:

- Shoot 10 portraits of strangers. I'm feeling more confident and like I might be able to do this one.
- Do some marketing 3 times a week.
- Declutter. Get rid of at least 3 full bags of stuff I don't need or use.
- Stay on top of communication, be it email or phone.
- Finish reading Enchantment.
- Update my website.

I feel like I created too many goals in April, and so I had a harder time keeping up with them all. So I've scaled back a bit for May, and focused on what's really important. What about you? Are you making any goals for the month? If so, good luck!

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.