Spider with egg sac

We have many of these cellar spiders in our house—too many, in fact. I feel that it’s partly my fault because I don’t like to kill them. I will catch and release spiders outside but more often than not I just let them be. Which means they’re left to multiply and build more messy webs. The other morning I found two in our kitchen and one had an object that didn’t look like a meal. I was getting ready for work so considered just leaving them alone, but I was fascinated by the object and thought it might be an egg sack. Ooooh! I’d love to photograph that. Long story short (errrr… sort of) I did pull out my camera, macro lens, flash and a large corning ware dish. I caught each spider and put the female in the dish. They can climb walls and many things, but have trouble with glass and ceramic. The white casserole dish made a decent photo studio and kept her in one place.

Close up of spider and egg sac

She was holding onto an egg sack and here are some pictures. I thought the pattern on the eggs was really something; they were certainly not what I’d expected. In many ways, these are uninteresting spiders. They don’t have much color, are extremely common, and leave their messy webs everywhere. As is often the case, however, there can be something interesting when you look very closely.

Female and male cellar spiders

The second was definitely a male, possibly her mate although she wasn’t particularly interested in him. She seemed pretty upset to be in the dish. After I snapped several shots I released them both outside.

I’ve recently had several changes in my life, but they’ve been for the better. The first of September I left my job of almost three years and started a new one. In the process I also got a very different schedule; I’m working noon to 8:30. I do leave earlier on the two days of the week that I teach clogging; my bosses knew of my classes before I started and were fine with that. I’ve adjusted OK to this schedule, which has it’s plusses and minuses, of course.

I feel the new job is working out; it’s quite different from what I’ve done for the last 25 years or so (working in the printing industry). Much of what I’m doing is not difficult or challenging, but I do get to be a little creative now and then and I like the people I work with, which is so important.

Along with the new schedule—having mornings free—I started swimming laps three times a week. We’re fortunate to have a large indoor pool about 10 minutes away. I’ve always enjoyed swimming but rarely get to do it, so when I started I took it very easy and gradual. I’m not a fast swimmer but I am a comfortable swimmer. I’m now swimming twice as far as I did on my first day two months ago and feeling really good about it.

This fall I upgraded to an iMac from an Apple G5 computer and I’m loving it. Along with the new computer I also have new office space—our sons’ old bedroom. Having the whole room gives me space for my photo projects and I’ve already filled it up. I’m really enjoying my new office.

The last major change—and the most exciting—is the birth of our first grandchild at the end of May. He’s now five and a half months old and never ceases to make us smile. What a charmer! He lives about 6 hours away but thanks to the internet, email, cell phones, and videos, we get regular updates on his progress. We’re looking forward to seeing the family at Thanksgiving.

Around the end of the year we’ll welcome our second grandchild, also a boy. The excitement continues.

The picture at the top of the post was taken in the fall of 2009. A solitary red leaf clings to and otherwise bare vine climbing a wall in Fremont, California.

Before and After Restoration

I’ve always loved old photographs. Both of my parents had plenty of old family pictures. I loved to pore over them and think about the lives of the people in them. Fortunately, my mom was very meticulous about labeling the pictures and even contacted other family members to help identify some. Needless to say, I ended up with the large bulk of these old photographs when we cleaned out our parents’ house many years ago.

Several years ago I started scanning the pictures, logging each one into a database, and cleaning up a few of them with the very minimal Photoshop skills I had at the time. Over about 5 years I scanned, identified (as best I could), logged, and cleaned up over 600 photographs, including ones from my husband’s family. By scanning the pictures it has been so much easier to share them with other family members via email, online galleries, a CD, or prints made from the scans.

Last year I started learning so much more about photo restoration and I hope to be able to even earn a little extra money by offering my services to others. I’m still learning, but am miles ahead of where I was when I started doing this years ago knowing nothing more than how to use the clone stamp.

The picture above is an example of one of my family photographs taken in Kansas in 1895. This is a favorite picture of mine; I think the kids are adorable. The young blonde guy at the back right is my grandfather. The picture is especially poignant because their father didn’t take responsibility for the family and their mother died in 1901, leaving the kids to either fend for themselves or be taken in by caring relatives.

At this size it’s hard to see all the restoration that was done other than the obvious tear running down the center. Besides the repair, I also added contrast, tried to bring out the detail in the girl’s dress, and “erased” the dark thumbprint on my grandfather’s face and jacket. Click on the picture to see the original in larger detail.

Bee on flower

What did I do on February 22, 2010? I went for a walk in a nice neighborhood on the other side of town. I only know this because I have the pictures to remind me. Sometimes my photo catalog is like a diary of what I did and where I went each day. I snapped photos of plants in people’s yards and the one above is from that day.

There are many pictures on my hard drive that I’ve only looked at once. I enjoy walking and snapping pictures but I just don’t have time to process through and edit them all, or even the cream of the crop sometimes. (Not that there’s a lot of cream… it’s mostly milk.) Occasionally I’ll go back and look at some photos I took several months ago and discover something I like. I thought a “One Year Ago Today” post every now and then could highlight an older picture, perhaps a rediscovered one.

I’d really like to help out but know that it would not be good for me in the long run. I wish I had the time and resources to be able to volunteer my time for many organizations. Since I don’t, I have to say no to some of them, even though I’d enjoy the work. I think most of us have a part of us that wants to please others. We feel good if we’re able to help someone out. Volunteering our time can do as much for us as it does for the recipient, unless it gets to be a burden. So we have learn when to draw the line.
The photo above was taken a few years ago near my work. The stop sign had been planted in the middle of some unused railroad tracks. I’m sure it was a warning in case a train accidentally ended up on those tracks. Notice the tracks behind the sign.

Small fishing and sport boats can be seen on the ocean just off Dana Point, California. We were there in January on an especially warm weekend. I almost feel bad showing this while thinking of the folks dealing with blizzards in most parts of the country this week. I love California!
The sea was so calm and flat that day – rather unusual, even for California.

Christmas dogs

These are the dogs at my workplace: Dutch, Chloe, Buster, and Lexi. We love ‘em!

(This is a composite from three shots. Boy! It’s tough to photograph a group of lively dogs!)

Moon partially eclipsed

I’ve seen quite a few lunar eclipses, but this was the first that also coincided with the winter solstice. Not that they really have much to do with each other, but they’re both “astronomical” events, I suppose.

I didn’t expect to see it as we’d had predictions of rain and cloud cover for some time. When I left my clogging class in San Jose for home, the clouds were very thin and we could see the full moon through them. By the time I got home there was a nice big hole in the clouds and the eclipse had started.

So I hauled all my stuff into the house and grabbed my camera, 200mm lens, tripod, and heavy coat to spend some time outside. One nice thing about a lunar eclipse is that it can usually be viewed from your own back  yard. It’s nice to have a warm house with other comforts close by on a cold night.

Lunar eclipse in totality.

Back to the photography… The 200mm lens really isn’t long enough to fill the frame with the moon so these shots have been cropped considerably. It can be hard to focus at night but I recently learned a cool trick. I turn on my camera’s live view, enlarge the image, and then fine tune the focus manually. It works really well! These moon shots still aren’t as sharp as I’d like, but I think that’s more a limitation of my optics. Still, it’s nice to have some of my own pictures of the eclipse.

During a lunar eclipse, the moon appears red because the light is reflected from the earth and must pass through our atmosphere, particles and all.

Multicolored tree

It’s autumn. That means the trees are showing some of their best colors. Although I live in an area that isn’t known for spectacular fall colors like in the east, we still get to enjoy some. This year I’ve noticed a bit more color for some reason. Perhaps I’m just more observant.

The tree above is near my work place and I’ve been watching it for some time. I haven’t been able to get a picture of it with the light just right, but this one, taken on a partly overcast day, at least shows the variety of color. It tickles me that one tree can have every color from green, yellow, and orange to red in the leaves. The next couple of trees next to this one haven’t been nearly as spectacular. The picture was taken about 10 days ago, and it already looks much sadder with half the leaves left on it.

Here’s where most of the leaves end up – on the ground. These are from a different tree. I loved the glossiness of these leaves, and they weren’t even wet.