My Valentine[s]

So in our house,  I have 7 valentines...  the 4 cats, the 2 ferrets and of course the hubs!  While they all have their moments that annoy me to death (some of the cats pin me down in my sleep while others whine until they get wet food, the ferrets shake their cage and Josh sometimes snores like an old man), I couldn't see life without them.  When I'm at my worst, their undying love and affection makes me smile.  That is unless I'm queen PMS then it takes a good dose of chocolate.  ;)  So here's to my Valentines and the affection they bring me.

In the above photo: Josh and Alice (our youngest and only girl kitty...  she's a feisty female princess kitten and she knows it) sharing a kitty hug as she won't let you hold her but shows her love with a head bump!

The reason for the above short and sweet post is the lovely paper mama and her photo contests.  I'm using those as a reason to write more.  Plus I just love her photo skills!



And as always...  the photo above is unedited and uncropped as this lil grad student doesn't have the time to edit plus is attempting to master her SLR before depending on photoshop to fix things.   lol.  =)

Birthday Wants...

So seeing as this year is one of those milestone years (I'm turning the big "3" "0" on the last day of March),  I've decided to compose a list of things I want that I will indeed use.  Oddly enough, they all have something to do with my SLR.  ;)

The first is an Epiphanie camera bag.

I've been pining over these bags for almost a year now since I saw one online last spring.  Originally I fell for the Ginger but now am leaning more towards a Lola as turning 30 has me wanting to attempt a lil trendiness before I get too old and wrinkled...  ;)  Plus as I love to take my camera everywhere but don't want to scream to the random thug on the street that I'm strapping a several hundred dollar SLR, a discrete yet protective bag is key.  =)

The second thing I desire is a remote for my camera.  This way I can start perfecting self and staged portraits.  An added bonus is that when the hubs and I play with sparklers outside, we don't have to take a dozen photos where half are me running back as it shoots of 10 in a row.  

And the last thing I want (that I'm more likely to save up for than to expect as a gift) is a fisheye lens called the Scout from lensbaby.  I love that their lenses are affordable and the bodies can be used with different lens inserts or the funky aperture kit.  Plus eventually I'll get around to getting one of their bundles that comes with a swivel lens.

So what are all of you hoping to save up for in celebration of a milestone birthday?

Eeep... another photo contest!

As it turns out I happened upon Paper Mama's site on the last day of a photo challenge that didn't require your children (furry or fleshy being) present in the photo... This being that this weeks challenge is a self portrait!

http://thepapermama.blogspot.com

The self portrait I've chosen is one of the many I took after the hubs and I returned from getting his 30th birthday present...  Cheesecake style pin-up photos of moi.  (For those of you unfamiliar with this style of retro pin-up, it's that of the 40's and 50's where the women were still sexy and beautiful without having to be naked.   Showing a little garter & stocking with a smirk was all the rage.)  At any rate... as hubs and I are big fans of the photography, I searched high and low for a classy place that gave superb results as it originally was going to be a surprise for his second tour in Iraq.  (Luckily he was medically discharged before then and it turned into a 30th B-day present).  We traveled out to Baltimore to the home of Atomic Cheesecake Studios where the wonderful Action Girl (aka Stacey B) did the most amazing job on hair, makeup and photography.  I couldn't stop smiling as the whole experience made me feel empowered and beautiful.  (Not that the hubs doesn't tell me I'm a beauty every day but looking flawless and seeing his jaw drop in new ways was even more empowering than usual!)  After getting home I felt I couldn't just wash the makeup off without getting a few photographs of my own.  The best one is the following self portrait in the bathroom mirror.

"Say Cheesecake!"

ps.  Be sure to check out Retro Lovely.  It's a new retro pin-up magazine and one of the sexy scientist photos from my shoot was used in issue #2  =)