the details of a random life
Meet Kota. Let’s state the obvious….his name rocks. *ahem, this blog is called *koda*snap after all!!! This little guy made me w.o.r.k. He had just woken up from a nap when I arrived, so he was full of it and just could not be bothered with any silly modeling that I may have had in mind. So the tough job that I have…I played 🙂 a lot. And then the magic happened….Kota fell asleep 🙂
when you put a p&s camera (point and shoot) in this photographer’s hands? ummmm, apparently a whole lot of nothing!!!
<— this is what my pugger looks like while attempting to scratch her chin while mommy has a camera in her face.
apparently, my friend Jesse was right when she said taking snapshots will not be as easy as I expect. I have missed, for so very long, the joys of simply whipping a camera out, and snapping a moment up. A nice simple snapshot. But somehow, I seem to have gotten over-excited about the whole snapshot concept, and have reduced myself to taking many blurry pictures.
it seems as if this photographer cannot figure out the ways of a simple p&s. Hubby, a man that is normally my number one fan, that will sing his praises about my photographic abilities, is suddenly embarassed by this reckless abandon I have developed. The house is filled with the “beeeeep” of the camera’s shutter, and suddenly I am caught red handed, snapping a snapshot of a…..well, of a pen. I don;t know what happened. I wanted a p&s for so long that now that it is finally in my hands I seem to be dumbstruck. It has gone to my head. and now my friends….I am taking bad snapshots….. these are scary. horrendous. atrocities! how can I, who takes such beautiful images, take such horrendous snapshots?!?!?! HOW?!
I wonder if perhaps there is a law against this somewhere. It seems that there should be. slap the cuffs on me, because I have GOT to be breaking some rule of snapshot taking!
a disclaimer….this is 100% a vent from a grumpy girl 🙂
So, there are certain things that I ponder on a regular basis, and this is one of them; have you ever noticed that the people that buy the gallon jug of perfume that is priced at $5.99 are also the same people that wake up in the morning and decide that they should not just spritz themselves with the foulness that they call perfume, but that they should bathe in it? Why is that?
It makes me wonder if they are worried they may get lost, and instead of leaving a trail of breadcrumbs, they leave a trail of stench that can be followed for miles. Do they not have anyone in their life that can be honest with them and just say, "hey, you stink, you are giving everyone in a square mile radius a headache"?
Now don't get me wrong, I like perfume. I wear it every day. But it costs more than $5 a gallon. And smells pretty. And doesn't stay in a room even after I have left. You need to get close to me to smell my perfume- and that is the way it should be.
Sometimes I would like to hunt down the person that created cheap perfume, and smack them. You know the saying "cheap is never good, and good is never cheap"? That applies to perfume too! Did they not think this through before deciding to make cheap smells?
Okay, so I suppose if I am going to rant, I should give you some insight into the rant, no? I work in an office building that, apparently, has a prerequisite for anyone wanting to rent space from it- you must wear the stinkiest, strongest, most lingering perfume you can find. And they do. It is amazing the level of stink this place has. There are days I go home, and my hair has absorbed the god awful stenches these women call perfume. I have a sensitive sniffer as it is, and have been know to get crazy headaches due to smells, so this just pushes me over the edge. I have set up a system of fans, that are all aimed at my office door, to blow the stench away. But still, there are days, such as this one, that the smell sneaks past my elaborate security system and gets all over me. ICK ICK ICK. I want to tell these women that they stink. That their smell lingers even after they have left the building. BUT- I suspect my boss would not appreciate that approach, and so here I am….ranting. 🙂 Thanks for listening!
There is cause to celebrate! Wanna know why? My little blog here has finally had a monumental moment….we have reached the 10,000 mark!!!! That is huge! Exactly 10,138 people have taken a moment from their day to look at what little old me had to say. Wow.
So, I have a little speech prepared….okay, not really, but it sounded good in theory. Really though…for anyone who has taken the time to pop in here, thanks! It is strange to think that there are people out there that check in here, that have an interest in what I am saying or shooting- that means a lot 🙂 so thanks!
and on to snapshots. I don't take enough of them. Actually, scratch that- I don't take them at all. But that is about to change….look what arrived on my doorstep last night —>
yay!!!! technically….I got this awhile ago, but I got a bad copy, so I had to send it back for a new one : ( boo. But now it is back in my hands and I am sooooo excited! It is actually kind of funny, I am saving up my money for a new slr camera….yet I am SO thrilled to get this little booger. I really miss snapshots. a lot. I cannot wait to take pictures just for the sake of taking them. without having to put any thought behind them. without fiddling with my exposure. making sure my composition is good. checking to make sure the lighting is great. I can't wait to capture the little moments in our life- like when my pugger decides to give me her belly for a good scratching (a very rare happening). or to take a quick snap of hubby's beautiful gardening to share with family. or for a classic self portrait of the two of us! I miss those things. I am ready to have them back. I want to be old and look back at my photos, and yes, I want to enjoy my beautiful shots, but I also want to enjoy the shots that tell the story of our life. the snapshots.
So it seems one of my fave peeps, Chelsey, has tagged me. *sigh* did she tag me with something cool????? nooooooooooooooooooooooooooo. She tagged me with embarassing stuff, geesh! So here is how tagging works, for all you people whose lives do not revolve around the world of blogging 😉
Here are the rules!
1. Link to the person that tagged you and post the rules on your blog.
2. Share 5 songs you are embarrassed to admit to others you like and tell why.
3. Tag 5 random people at the end of your post and include links to their blogs.
4. Let each person know that they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.
1. "Baby Got Back" by Sir Mix A Lot. yeah, I am very serious. and a funny story to go along with this one…hubby hates this song with a passion. I drive him absolutely nuts with it. hee-hee…I was loading his iPod for him, because I am such a sweet little wife. and then brilliance struck! hubby needed a little sir mix a lot in his life! So I shared with him. Super nice, right? I thought so. SO, being the man that he is, what better place to test out the new iPod than in the bathroom (yeah, he will probably kill me for revealing that one!) anyways, he is in there, and then suddenly I hear him scream "NOT NICE!!!!!!!!". apparently, he did not appreciate my effort at sharing.
2. Okay, I CANNOT believe I am revealing this one, but here goes…"Magic Dance" by David Bowie
3. I absolutely cannot believe that I found this. So obviously, my name isn't Gail, but hey, beggers can't be choosers!!!! I kick myself to this day that I lost my birthday tape….love love love this song! And you should have seen the look on hubby's face the first time I played this for him!…the birthday song!!!
attention dear readers…I am now officially cheating and making my own tagging rules 🙂 I have sat on this for three days (!!!) and cannot seem to come up with five songs. To be fair, you have to admit that the three I did come up with are pretty good, no? SO, my next two items will just be two embarassing quirks I have. That is pretty fair, I think!
4. I refuse to let dirty feet get into my bed. I am all about happy clean feet 🙂 If I think my feet have gotten dirty between my shower and the time to crawl into bed, into the sink they go, and I scrub away.
5. I constantly tell my pug that I am going to put frosting on her and eat her up like a cupcake. This freaks hubby out. a lot. it's just a saying, geesh!
Now, I would like to share the love with some of my friends…..
I forgot how much I missed the sound of kitty purrs until I spent some time with these crazy babies. These are the culprits that caused all those blurry pictures in my previous post 😉
Meet Birdie and Bogie, two lucky shelter kitties that could not have found a more loving home. These babies are so sweet….but so wild! This is actually the second time I shot them, as I was not thrilled with the result of our first shoot. It was a difficult shoot, and we were on a time constraint, and I knew that I could offer better. SO, back I went, and I am thrilled with the results! I wanted them to crawl in my bag so I could take them home with me!
they make me giggle. I don't think I ever show my outtakes, but sometimes, as bad as they are, they just need to be shared with the world! These outtakes make me giggle every time I look at them. I cannot bring myself to delete them, because they remind me of how hard I work to get teh keeper shots!
These babies are my hardest customers to date. Anyone who knows me knows that my biggest challenge has always been two year olds—no more my friends! Kittens are officially placed at the top of my list for most challenging.
I present to you, my super fancy blurry kitty shots : )
sometimes I forget that my yard is pretty kick ass. I married a gardener. and not just any gardener. I married a man that loves unique plants, things a bit more out of the norm. technically, he isn't very good at growing the normal things. they tend to die on him. but the more exotic stuff…he has a special green touch. and I forget that, I suppose maybe because I am surrounded by it all the time.
I love being married to a gardener. sure it has it's downfalls….lots of dirt tracked into the house, my car always has a layer of dirt on it's floor, we go to the home depot every. single. weekend. but the pros far outweigh the cons….I have a kick ass yard. and when macro photography is your passion, this is a good thing. Sometimes I feel like I have my very own mini botanical garden right outside my door.
when I am feeling down, or in a slump, I like to grab the camera and just wander my yard. I discover things I never noticed before, I discover that even weeds can be beautiful. I squat, kneel, and lay on the ground, surely giving passerbys an entertaining show, and I walk away feeling refreshed. renewed. every time.
look at that face, just look at it! Have you ever seen such a sad pugger? My poor girl is not feeling good, and the mean mommy that I am, I tried to force her to model for me. Needless to say, she was not having it one little bit. no siree.
The woes of The Doodle go something like this: She was on a mega treatment for two months to try to tackle all her ear troubles. We finished the treatment a week ago. I smell her ears yesterday (because yes, when you have been battling ear infections for this long, you are reduced to sniffing your pup's ears to get a status report) and nooooooo! the smell. the infection. crap! So off to the vets we went, and yup, the infection is still there, and she is back on treatment. *sigh* We leave this morning to go to a plant show, the kiddos all get a quick treat….and we return home to pug puke all over the couch. *siiiiiiiiiiiiiggggghhhhhhhh* apparently the treat + the medication = pug puke. now she is moping big time.
Just look at that sour puss face~ I know pugs look sad, but geez! I keep waiting to see her lower lip start to quiver. poor pug face 😦
that he makes me proud. I don't tell him. I don't encourage this scary pasttime. I technically hate it. But the fact is, he makes me a proud wife. He is so determined, and I guarantee he WILL get the big one one of these days. How do I know? Because he will not give up.
These fishing ventures scare the living bejesus out of me. I choose to not look at the gear as he packs, because the reel is ginormous. the hook is as big as my head. and fishing line? it's not freaking line, it's rope!!! And the way my little mind works, all I can wonder is what happens if the shark pulls him out of the boat? then what? It scares me. a lot. But shhhhh. he still makes me proud. Do you know how strong you have to be to bring a big fish in? strong! every year, he works to make sure when shark fishing season comes around, he is ready. I do not have the determination to do what he does every year.
So yup, he makes me proud, even if I don;t tell him. Even if I hate seeing these images because it makes me afraid fo the water, I still love seeing these images, because it is my hubby doing what he loves 🙂
*just for the record…I didn;t take these pics, the wonderful Elyse did, because I have not mastered the talent of puking and taking shots at the same time 😉 I hate boats!
kulik photography 