LP in late day sun

I was playing with sir fluffy pants late in the day, sun slanting low over the garage. I was being blinded as I was throwing him the toy, and while usually not great light to photograph directly into, I snapped blind shots of LP running around anyway.

I got a lot of bit of nose and toy, washed out back paws leaping out the frame, black and white blur against larger blurs.  But then I got this picture:

 LP and I have become close friends this summer, maybe closer than we have been for the eleven years we've known each other.  He's with me pretty much all the time and it's hard not to drop everything and cuddle, scratch, or wrestle with him. Dogs are pretty much the best thing in the world--along with husbands and gardens and family and friends and good food--and LP is easily in the top 2%.

I also got this picture, which I had to share.  It's just his butt, but the way the sun is lighting it up. . . it hardly looks real.  Am I wrong?

Seriously. It's lit like an aerial shot of the Swiss Alps.

New View

I keep up with a bunch of blogs (see the blog roll to the left of the page) and I learn all kinds of cool stuff from them.  I learn about gardening and design and people's lives in other countries and food and art.  Sometimes I also learn about new or cool technology.  So, this weekend, I got a few new apps (Tangent, Lory Stripes and Fragment) and I'm having a little fun:

So dreamy. . . 

Good Thing Ten:Digital Cameras Allow for Unfocussed Picture Taking

I feel like this wasn't the case when I got my first digital camera. Everything was always in focus--unnaturally so--and so I had a very hard time giving up my film cameras. Nothing is as velvety or dreamy or beautiful as out of focus lights photographed through rain with a reflex camera. . . but digital cameras are giving it their best shot.

And that's a great thing, a fun thing, a thing that allows for experimentation and fun, that allows for capturing the dream version of the world, the memory version of the world, the softer, less literal version of the world. . .




And this year, I have needed a less literal version of the world. . . or at least, my photo library from the year seems to suggest that. 25% of all my photos from this year are blurred from speed or lack of focus or refusing to ever use a flash even in the lowest light imaginable. It's as if I never wanted to see this year clearly again. . . and it's all pretty beautiful as a result.

Marketing I Can Get Behind

I love finding original product images on etsy--not just the typical object perfectly lit against white or gray or other solid color background. The off kilter images are the ones that catch my eye and make me want to find out more about what the artist is doing.

So, today, I'm posting images from bless that dress's etsy shop. All of the images I'm posting here are images this fun shop from Spain is using to sell clothing. These skirts aren't my size, but if they were, these photos would undoubtedly have sold me.

I love that the images are beautiful and sort of nostalgic while also being pretty dark. . .





What is that. . . mustard gas? I'm completely jealous of these photo shoots.

On top of that, she's selling some pretty cute clothes! Go check it out.

Valentine

I love Chicago. I say that a lot here, but I think I go through swings with Chicago throughout the year. I never ever hate it, but I think I'm constantly going back and forth between being madly in love and simply taking it for granted.

Before I lived in Chicago, I imagined the different ways people might live in a big city--maybe hating living in the hustle and bustle or maybe loving it and having the luck to take advantage of all a big city has to offer. But I don't think any of my imaginings were correct. Truth be told, living in a big city is a lot like living in a mid-size city or even a small town. It takes longer to get from here to there in Chicago, but otherwise, I go to work and come home and hang out with my husband and dog and do housework and read and cook and lead a life.

But occasionally, I look up from my life and realize that I'm looking at the Willis Tower (nee Sears Tower) or that my office is on Michigan Avenue or that the Art Institute is always just a lunch break away during my work day. And I am struck by the fact that the place where I live is actually a place where millions of people decide to go on vacation every year.

My home is also a destination.

So, I am in the midst, again, of one of those moments, wide-eyed, a little in awe, certainly, suddenly, in full bloom love with Chicago. I mean, look at it. Who could blame me?

Wow, right?

The hotel workers have been on strike at the Congress Hotel for over 8 years. I can't recommend it as a place to stay. But it has one of THE best marquee signs in the city--not just old, but an old version of what someone once thought was modern. . . which is a special kind of old that Chicago specializes in.

And this final blue blur of photo. . . the shake of my hand turning Chicago into a dream, and the rear lights on the back of the Metra car into tiny hearts.

Maybe Chicago loves me back. . .

Morgan hearts Dogs

It seems obvious to me that, in this picture, Pepper (my folks' giant pointer/lab mix) has licked Morgan and she is squinting under the moment ago onslaught of a tongue that's twice the size of her tiny noggin.


But what the picture seems to be saying is that she's puckering up and my mother is having to hold Pepper back from that enticing offer of love (note: wedge of mother's leg in lower left hand corner of photo holding the beast at bay). If photos are worth a thousand words, this picture makes it abundantly clear that those 1,000 words could be the wrong ones.

WhatIS true, though, is that besides lucking out with a unbearadorable niece. . . the family has also lucked out in having dogs that are brilliant with babies. Both Cincinnati dogs love her to death (note: possibly yours if you move at Morgan too swiftly. . . just so you know).