Photojojo#46 - Heigh Ho Heigh Ho, It's Off to Work We Go

It's Monday after a long, long weekend and back to work it is. On my way out this morning, I snapped another photo of Snow White and her seven little friends, this time with the Diana lens. This is paired with Nancy's Thanksgiving dinner hostess, who appears ready to carve up the Butterball.

Daylight Diana Photos

I went on a nice hike today at Wunderlich Park. We went about 3.5 miles round trip and up to 1,200 feet. It felt so good to be out in the crisp Fall air and exercising again. I took my camera, with the new Diana lens, on the walk. I had taken some photos last night with it that were not very good. I was anxious to see how it performed in the daytime.

The Diana lens is designed for getting dreamy retro shots. It was a bit ironic that I have this very expensive Canon 40D camera that I've now attached a $60 lens to so that I can get crappy quality photos. But I do like the look of these photos - with smeared and funny colors - and they are the opposite of what this camera can do which is crisp, extremely high res photos with colors that are to die for.

This is just another option, and one that I am loving. Here are some of today's shots take at the park while on the hike.

Photojojo#45 - Short Walk on a Long Pier

Today's Photojojo is a photo of the pier by Nancy, paired with Jenny Kompolt's fatbaby boots. I visited Jenny's booth at the Celebration of Craftswomen/Ft. Mason today. Jenny's assemblage work is amazing and lovely, plus she does a great service out there in the world raising money for causes through her business Kompolt.com.

Photojojo#44 - Dog Day

Today's Photojojo is going to the dogs. Nancy's shot of Riley at the beach today is paired up with my little baby Georgie. The doggy shot of George is taken with a Diana lens. The Diana lens is supposed to help me get dreamy, retro-looking shots.

I will have to practice more with it tomorrow.

Photojojo#43 - Shiny Christmas Coming Starting with Black Friday

Nancy's festive Christmas tree pairs up with my abstract - shot through a plastic water bottle with my iPhone.

Photojojo#42 - Turtle and Monkies Give Thanks

Dogs Give Thanks

Here are the happy puppies at Thanksgiving dinner tonight. Heck, George and KiKi. Much fun ensued - George was so happy with the play date, chasing his little friends all around the house.

The Best Photojojos

Photojojo#21
Fall Pine Cone (Laura) and Dia De Los Muertos (Nancy)

created by Nancy and me over the past forty days are now on display at The Print Society. My posts there probably get mixed in with all the others, so here's a perma-link to some of my stuff for now.

Happy Thanksgiving! Today, I give thanks for cameras - large and small, digital and polaroid, old style and newfangled. They help us remember and find the beauty in even the most everyday things.

Photojojo#41 - Flesh & Bones

Today's photojojo is a photo from the anatomy museum in Basel Switzerland by Nancy, combined with a photo of my hand up close taken with my iPhone.

Happy Thanksgiving all!

Photojojo#40 - Still As Fun As Photojojo#1

Today marks Photojojo#40 for Nancy and me. Her photo of the Poplar Beach from the coastal trail makes me miss our morning walks, now that I'm back in "corporate mode." My pine cone snapped of the foliage on my very brief walk to work is still in touch with nature, just that it's too short. Plus nothing really compares with that walk along the headlands. I am so blessed to live near the Pacific Ocean.

Thursday marks four years living in Half Moon Bay, after 40 years in Castro Valley. Thanksgiving eve, 2005 was the first night we spent in the new house even though we didn't officially move until December 9th. We had enough furniture to sleep on and sit on, and it was a weird weekend where it felt like we had a home at the beach, after returning to the Castro Valley suburbs for another two weeks. We didn't cook - instead going out to a local restaurant. The weather this time of year is so spectacular in Half Moon Bay, and tonight, is no exception. It was a beautiful warm and sunny day (as Nancy's photo attests) and tonight I have started the holiday cooking feast with the obligatory pies. The house smells like nutmeg, cloves and cinnamon, and the fridge is stocked with the turkey and all the fixin's ready to start some of the cooking tomorrow night (pre-cooking of cran sauce, prepping the mushroom green beans, and readying the onion/celery saute for the stuffing, maybe a cranberry relish jello dish. What would Thanksgiving be without a cranberry jello mold?!).

This year, I plan to go for a walk in the redwoods on Thanksgiving morning with my yoga group. Not to worry though, kids. Because the bird is smaller it will have plenty of time to cook for our 3 pm feast when I return home around 11 am. That's why I get a lot done the day before - so I can cook at my leisure and enjoy the day.

This year, I don't plan on a rerun of the sink getting all stopped up though like last November. A year later, we are composting nearly everything, so the potato peelings will go into the compost bucket rather than the sink. Better for the plumbing, and for the environment. I like the dirty dirt I get from the bottom of the pile for my plants.

Photojojo#39 - Snow White and the Decorative Wall

Today is time for Photojojo#39 - Snow White and her Little Friend lawn ornaments (Laura) and a decorative wall at the local mall (Nancy).

Photojojo#38 - Hers and Hers

Nancy's graffiti goes with the mannequin shot I got today at an Old Navy store. Enjoy!

Photojojo #37 - Bubbly Trees and Airport Ceilings

Nancy snapped a photo of the ceiling in the Frankfurt airport and I got a weird blurry bubbly photo of some trees from inside the shuttle yesterday. It was raining, so the screening material on the windows, which is this black material with small holes in it, had water puddling in the circles. This made for some nice optical distortion when I put the iPhone camera up to the window.

Today's Pictures - Without My Photojojo Partner

I think Nancy's on a long, long trip in the air back from Basel today, via Germany and Canada, so I haven't gotten any photos from her.

This morning's trip through the woods to work was spectacularly foggy. I got this one of the trees as I was driving out from 92 to 280, and another shot of a glass partition in a local restaurant.

Photojojo #35 and 36

Here are today's Photojojos #35 and #36. No. 3 5 is the Dirty (Laura) Clown (Nancy):

and No. 36 is the Happy (Laura) Tree (Nancy):

Three Photojojos - #32, 33 and 34 - Today

Nancy's been busy snapping photos all over Basel over the weekend. I took a few myself. Here they are paired up in the order we each took them.

I like the clown (Nancy) and the reflection of tin foil and plastic on the pan of baklava I made yesterday #34).

I have titled #33 Dangerous Tea. A warning sign by Nancy goes nicely with the teapots at the Hillsdale Mall Teavana Store.

And #32 - a photo of the sculpture that marks the confluence of French, German and Italian influences in Switzerland by Nancy, which goes with a box of Danny Boy pumpkins and squash at the local market on Saturday afternoon.

Photojojo #31 - Laundry Day

Today's Photojojo is a beautiful felted pot taken by Nancy in Switzerland, and the Ching Lee Laundry sign in San Mateo taken by me.

And yes, I did do my laundry today.

Photojojo #30 - Take No Prisoners

Hello and happy Saturday afternoon everyone. Today's Photojojo is one part sad gorilla at the zoo in Basel Switzerland (Nancy) and one part police patrol in San Mateo CA (Laura). Again, the synchronicity of this pairing is amazing.

Photojojo#29 - Girls and Boys

Nancy's fancy girlie dress goes with my stern holiday nutcracker and someone lurking in the background.

Photojojo #28 - Swiss Smoking

I'm not sure where Nancy took this photo of the lovely little girl in stripes. She's in Basel right now, so perhaps in the airport or a shop near her hotel? Mine is from the American Cancer Society booth at today's Health Fair. Dangers of smoking I suppose.

Not Photojojo

My Photojojo partner Nancy is on a break - out taking more great photos - but away from daily internet. So, I will post my photos just to stay in the spirit of Photojojo photo challenge-ness.

This one I took yesterday at a place called Buck's. Wonderful atmosphere and great food too.

Photojojo#27 - Nine Inch Nails

Nancy's graveyard and my big nails.

Photojojo#26 - Winter Foods

I'm not a big fan of brussel sprouts, but they are a beautiful vegetable with their repeating pattern of stalks. There are some growing in a field between where Nancy and I live, but I took this photo at my local Trader Joe's with them cut from the stalk in a box, ready to be placed out in the produce section for all to buy.

Nancy's photo of punkin's looks to me like it was taken at the local HMB Farmer's Market.

Another Art Class

Today, I took a felting class taught by Jodie Stowe. Jodie taught us how to make 2D felted pieces into 3D vessels. We had a great time squishing the soapy water around and we squealed with delight at seeing the design on the inside emerge on the outside.

Photojojo#25 - Where the Wild Girrrlzzz Are

Today's Photojojo is #25. Happy Friday!

I took this photo of what looks like an attempt to celebrate the release of Where The Wild Things Are. Nancy's book cover goes nicely with.

Have a great weekend! Tomorrow I go a'felting with friends and Sunday is The Nancy and Laura Trunk Sale.

Photojojo#24 - Greco/GNE

Here's Photojojo#24 today. Nancy's sidewalk art and my photo of the sunset outside the building I work in.

Photojojo#23 - Oh No, Barbie!

Today's Photojojo features Nancy's Barbies and a photo Laura snapped of white board doodles in someone's office.

Photojojo#22 - A Food Theme

Today's Photojojo is a synchronicity between Nancy and me, as always. She took the photo of the bananas and tomatoes, and I took a close up of the kale, which matches Nancy's countertop.

Bon appetit!

Photojojo#21 - My 1,000th iPhone Photo and the HMB Library

Today when I pulled up the photo for Photojojo today on my iPhone, it said it was photo 1,000. I've had my iPhone since October 2007, so two years now. I loved it from the moment I held it, but until I upgraded to the new one about two weeks ago, I was not so in love with the phone part of it. It never really worked right. It has this sleek touch screen but that proved to be a disaster for the phone function, which needs a number screen interface to appear when you are doing things like phoning the bank ("Press 1 to speak to an agent now") or getting Sears on the line to find out where the hell the repair guy is ("Press 2 to connect to the Service Department").

What would happen with my first generation iPhone is that it would connect the call, then when I pulled the phone away from my ear to press 1, or 2, or hang up, that nifty screen would not reappear. In fact, the screen would be completely blank and would not reappear for days, it seems. Because I had a Blackberry at work, I just overlooked this annoyance and used the Blackberry for calls and the iPhone for it's other may wonderful features (calendar/schedule, iTunes while working out, Cowbell for singing along in the car...and the camera for Photojojo, of course). Sometimes, I'd receive a call on the iPhone and that would go okay, as long as I could just talk and then attempt to hang up at the end. One time, I'm ashamed to admit, I was on both phones at one time, in a less than legal place. So having two phones was not something I really liked. Also, it confused many friends who didn't know which number to call me on.

When I upgraded to the new iPhone, I was ecstatic to learn that it is equipped with a SIM card and that allowed me to swap the card from my Blackberry into the iPhone thereby retaining my seven-year cell number which everyone including god had for me. I've now ditched the Blackberry, the old iPhone, and the newish iPhone number that I could never remember because it is so so close to my daughter's number. Problem solved. And, the new iPhone takes the same great pictures, and video. Voila!

So here is Photojojo #21, with my iPhone pic of a pine cone at the shuttle bus stop this morning, and Nancy's Dia de Los Muertos from the HMB Library.

Photojojo#20 - Fog and Sun

These photos were both taken today in HMB and are a good example of how diverse the weather can be from one location to another and within the span of a single day. Nancy's morning cobweb in Miramar and my sunny afternoon shot at 92/1 of New Leaf Market. We are celebrating being at Photojojo #20 today!