An Empty Glass...and Some Pictures

I have finally figured it out. I have a very set amount of Creativity in my being, so when it is being used up on Project A, there is little left for Project B. It's like I start with a glass full of Creativity. Then I slowly pour it on on one thing, resulting an empty glass.

I've been pouring (see?) all of my creativity into planning school for next year, so there has been little left for anything else (ie: photography and writing). But you know what I discovered? I have skipped 3 or 4 of my regular photography challenges, and--are you ready for this? Life kept going on as normal; the world did not end, the planet did not implode.

So I've decided that, since there is more to my life than just blogging and photography, I'm not going to put so much pressure on myself to post daily and link up, link up. In fact, for this post, I am pulling photos from the archives--more from our New York City trip.

I feel that, in photography, my greatest weakness is portrait photography. The following pictures are the result of the first planned "shoot" I did, though I wouldn't even call it that since it was a rushed 5 minutes I took as Mark checked out of our hotel. I guess I should also mention I kind of bribed my children to act right; they are a little tired of the lens and are becoming less and less cooperative.

I had seen this warehouse door with the graffiti several times in our walks down the road. I thought it was a perfect backdrop for some shots of the kids. I'm not entirely happy with all of them. I shot them in manual and, I guess, got the shutter speed too slow for photographing kids because some of them were blurry. I find that converting to black and white helps cover up some of the blurriness. Anyway, there are a lot of photos here, but I felt bad leaving any out.

Here are my girls:



















And my rascally boys:

NYC Transportation

(Linking up with Sweet Shot, You Capture (theme - Vibrant), and Live Every Moment (theme - A Different View) and Communal Global .)

In a city as crowded as the Big Apple, there is certainly nothing as important as getting around. Of course, the most old-fashioned way to get around is to walk to your destination.




We did a lot of walking.

It didn't go unnoticed that there is a subway entrance on every corner...if you can figure out the system. I had to ask the advice of a couple of people, but we did eventually figure it out.




If the subway is not the best option, there is always the iconic New York City yellow cab.


I love the vibrant color of the taxis.




Although we saw a few minivan taxis that would accommodate the six of us, there was not one of those available when we walked out of the Intrepid. And we knew the Princess's little legs were not about to make it all the way from Pier 86 to 59th and 3rd. 59th and 3rd of course is where Bloomingdales is, but who cares about Bloomingdales when Dylan's Candy Bar is right across the street? But that is a story for another day.

Anyway, as luck would have it, a limo driver approached us as we stood there freezing our butts off outside the museum. He offered to take us to our destination for a reasonable rate. Obviously, the kids were THRILLED to be riding in a limo. What is more, our driver was from Cote d'Ivoire, West Africa, which is the country where my husband was born and the country where we spent the first 18 years of our lives. It was fun chatting with him.






Funny thing about New York transportation and traffic. It. Never. Stops.


And you can still hear it...even from a 23rd floor hotel room!

A Spring Tease

(Linking up with Sweet Shot, You Capture (theme - Youth), Black & White Wednesdays, Communal Global, and Live Every Moment (theme - Spring).)

It's a very gloomy Monday. Two inches of snow accumulated on the ground throughout the morning hours, and it continues to fall. You would never know that just 3 days ago, the mercury was flirting with the 72 degree mark.




The day was just too beautiful. We took a break from school and from co-op and spent the day with friends at the park.


We enjoyed the beauty of the waterfalls.






We hiked




all the way to the top where a tower with few railings stood, inviting the children to climb...and giving the mamas a few heart attacks in the process.


And along the way we climbed lots of rocks




and some trees,


one of which was covered by the initials of other hikers-by.


Oh, and we saw enough bear poop to cause those of us with middle-aged legs much angst over trying to keep up with the energetic, youthful legs that insisted on carrying the children seemingly miles ahead on the path.


But the boys assured us in true Lord of the Flies fashion that, with their walking sticks, they could easily take on any bear...even a famished one just waking up from a long winter's nap.






It was a long hike--about 2 hours--and at the end, the children were delighted to become spectators on the sidelines of another visitor's remote-controlled car fun.


A lovely sunny day, a good long hike, a fun time with friends...it was definitely a spring tease, but we'll certainly take what we can get!