An Obsession

If we are friends, you know that I have a bit of a love and obsession for hats.  I thought about trying to photograph all of my hats, but I couldn't think of a fun way to do it without putting them all into a pile and taking a picture.  So the next best thing, I took a photo of my 3 fedora's (or padora's if you're my father).  I feel a little bad for my fedora's because they don't get as much wear as my other hats do, but they are still very cute and chic and I do like them very much.  What they are displayed on is a coat rack that is usually over-flowing with coats from the men folk in the house, but I decided my hats were more important tonight, so I arranged them, we had a nice photo shoot...they listened very well...and this is my favorite photo of the evening.  :)

Hats

We have been doing this blog for close to a year now, you realize this every time you pull a topic from the hat.  You wonder what you are going to get, and this week the hat gave us HATS.  Interesting topic, but nothing we couldn't handle. 
I will tell you a little story about a speech I once heard.  There was a man on stage addressing a crowd that has gathered in a gym on a warm spring day.  In my line of work I have seen many speeches delivered by politicians, celebrities, scholars and students-but the speech I heard that day was one that I will never forget.  His speech that day was about hats, how over the course of a life time you wear numerous hats.  I remember the man had a hat with a block S representing the college he went, So in my photo there is a hat with a block S on it, my alma mater   The man put an army hat on and talked about how the army had toughed him up-I was never in the army, but I was toughened up working construction, so there is there is my old hard hat.  The man talked about all the hats that he had to wear over the years, husband, father, christian, Tigers fans and more.  In my photo I have hats that represent me over the years, hats I wore to look cool, hats I wore for work, hats that I got from places I have been and teams I have cheered for.  The hats represent the life that I have lived up to this point, and hopefully I can add more hats to it. 
There is one hat on the rack that I never wore and never will wear.  But it is a very special hat, it is a hat from the man who gave the speech.  It was his brown police mans hat he wore for work.

The speech probably fell on many deaf ear that morning, but I listened.  I listened to my dad give the speech about hats at my 6th grade graduation, and never forgot it.   

Better Late then Never

   I know, I know...it's past sun-down on Saturday.  The first time in the several months we've been doing this blog and I slacked.  I can come up with many reasons as to WHY I didn't get this photo up on time, but it doesn't matter...I broke one of the rules.  It still has not been declared what my "punishment" will be.  But, I am here now, posting my Senior Photo Style photo.
   I'm not really sure when this "idea" started, but I remember when Adam and I went on the Grand Haven Photowalk and we had been to Grand Haven before and were kind of done taking photos of the surroundings, so we started taking "Senior Picture Style" photos.  That is my earliest memory of this photo style Adam has proclaimed.  So last week Monday I had the day off, and Adam has been in town on Christmas Break, so after a visit to our jewler Cliff at Chimera Design in Lowell we very briefly wandered around for a place to take our photo of the week.  This is my favorite photo I took because it shows off how good looking, stud muffin of a Fiance.  Who, in just 2 short months (yes, I said 2!!! months), will be my husband. :)  That's right ladies, he's all mine!

Senior Photos

Our topic this week was 'Senior Picture Style'.
Senior Picture Style may need some explanation, you see the best way to pose for pictures is to pose like you are a teenager having your photo taken for your senior photo.  A senior photo has to capture the personality of the person and this photo of Erica does just that.  Erica is a wonderful model and I do enjoy taking photos of her.   I could write about how much I love Erica here, or how beautiful and stylish I think she is, or how much fun I have with her while we are out posing in downtown Lowell on a Monday afternoon for our blog.  But I am not going to, I am just going to post a senior photo of the coolest babe I know....Erica Joy.

A weekly token

Every day I have three choices, front door, backdoor or thru the studio while entering the office.  The decision usually depends on a few factors but I don't have the time to get into them.  But if I choose thru the studio there is a chance I get see some flowers.  My co-worker always has flowers in a vase sitting on his desk.  These flowers are a gift from his wife, who also works in the office.  She has arguably the best flower garden in all of Mt. P. and every week a sampling of them are picked and positioned next to the computer screen.  When Erica pulled the topic this week, it was one of those things-flowers in December-lets go find a poinsettia.  But the other morning I opted for entering thru the studio door and saw flowers back on his desk, so when I walked by later in the day I broke out the iphone and snapped a photo.  I thought how nice, flowers again even if they are the kind that won't die or wither.

Who Knew?

As seems to be a theme with my photo options I had many ideas going through my brain as to what to do with this topic.  How do you go about making a Flower more creative then just taking a photo of a flower and saying "this is a flower" in case you didn't know.  But where is the fun in that?  Where is the challenge in that?  So while I was sitting in a chair at home looking through emails I remembered something that a patient told me at work recently.  He was very talkative and somehow we got on the topic of plants and the odd things he has grown.  Now, I have to take a moment to share something...for the "G" rated viewers I apologize for this part of the story, but I feel I need to share it.  The gentleman was older and little difficult to understand, so when he first informed me of what he and his wife planted I wasn't sure how to react.  Why you may ask?  Well...I could have sworn he told me he grew "penis".  Yes, now you may understand my shock and lack of knowing what to say.  I just said something like "oh, ok...and what kind of plant is that?"  He looked at me a little funny and said..."You know, PEANUTS!, that you eat?"  OH!!!!  Now it makes way more sense!!!  So, now that we've established the type of plant we ARE talking about...he continued to explain that these peanut plants are generally only grown down south but he was able to grow them for a little while here and as many people don't realize (I didn't know this) the peanuts grow in the ground, much like a potato, and the plant buds small yellow flowers.  Now, they aren't anything beautiful, but it is a flower.  Being that you don't normally grow peanuts here, it makes it difficult to photograph a peanut flower, so I went to the next best thing....actual peanuts.  I realize these are already shelled and not the same peanuts that grow from the flower, but they are peanuts that come from the peanuts that are grown.  My flower photo this week is quite abstract but it has a story that leads us to the reason why it works for a flower photo. :)

A New Week, A New Topic

Throughout our many weeks of doing this blog adventure, we have had a wide variety of interesting topics.  Some that have taken a lot of thought, energy and planning.  And others that have been more of an after thought.  There are many days I think to myself "are our 52 weeks over yet?", but then I remember the whole reason we decided to do this was so that we were taking photos.  I, Erica, have found the past weeks to be hard to come up with something creative to capture, and even write.  But each week, something presents itself, and each week a little story is written about why the photo was taken.  So, let's hope that this week is no different.  This week is an "Adam Topic":

FLOWER

Check back later this week to see what blooms from this topic. (Sorry, that was cheesy) Till we meet again! :) 

Last Minute Story

I am thankful for a fiance who reminds me of things that I need to do throughout the week.  This week was full of "things to accomplish", but unfortunately I forgot one pretty big thing that needed to be done...our blog!  How could I??  So once Adam and I hung up, mom ran downstairs and grabbed her wooden carolers figurines and after a few different spots in the house, different lighting, different flash intensities and came up with this shot. I will be honest, it is not my favorite, but it is a photo with a story.  As many of you know I love music.  But as I learned when I talked to my college roommates on the phone for the first time years ago, what my thinking of music and what most peoples thinking of music is is quite different.  When I think of music, I think of singing in a choir, singing in church or playing an instrument.  But to the majority of people, music is listening to the radio, your favorite artist.  So, if I had given myself a little more time I would have some how positioned and lit this photo with my music folder and music in the background, but I like having the Christmas Tree there.  I love Christmas, I love Christmas music.  These carolers make me think of growing up and I think in either grade school or with youth group in Highschool we used to go to the nursing home and sing carols for the residence.  Some people would be in their doorways waiting for us, others probably lying in their beds hopefully enjoying the sound of Christmas carols.  It's something I haven't done for years, but something I think would be fun to do again.  There is just something about Christmas time and Christmas music, as my friend once said, that just makes you smile.  God sent His one and only son to be born to a virgin so that he could die to save us from our sins and allow us to have a relationship with our heavenly Father.  So this Holiday season, remember what Christmas is all about.  And think about those memories where a song either touched your heart that maybe someone else sang, or a song that you sang that touched someone else. 

BMG CD's for a penny

This weeks topic is MUSIC.

The topic is music, but today I heard that Col. Potter passed away, he was one of the actors on one the greatest shows of all time, MASH.  MASH is hands down one of my favorite shows of all time, and when I think back on that program there is a scene that ties into this weeks topic.  In the series final Charles Winchester III teaches a group of POW to play music, those POW are later killed in an attack.  In a somber moment Charles tells the group of 4077 that "music use to be an escape for me..."
That is what music is to me, an escape.  I have figured out that I lose myself in music, I usually work with music playing, most people usually need it to be quiet to concentrate, I'm the opposite.  I need noise, I need music, there are fall back albums, artist and groups, but that is how I work best.  I can't answer who my favorite artist is, what my song is-it varies on mood, on activity and what I have been listening to earlier in the day.
Now for this photo, this is my iphone and home headphones (I have the same pair at work and if you are looking for a good pair of headphones get these, Sony Professional).  I love my phone cause I always have music with me, I throw on my headphones and can block everything out, and escape into the tasty beats that are filling my earholes.

For an extra little treat while taking this photo and writing this post I listened to Bon Jovi-Bad Medicine, and Bed of Roses and then switched it up to Frank Sinatra singing Christmas tunes.