Winner of Photo Contest #2

And the winner is.....

April's contest topic was to post your Favorite Photo of your Spouse/Significant Other. I had 3 entries and they all posted their photos and linked back to me very early in the month.

PtheClown (www.ptheclown.com)
as the Crankie Director was our celebrity judge and he had this to say about Dustin Fenstermacher's totally fabulous photo of his girlfriend: "Cameradawktor... I just love JumpJump you know the human hummingbird shot, even though i am a crankie director i still can see the beauty in nature and the evolutionary change of events, i know i know this is all just speculation but this photo shows how we humans might just evolve into a higher thinking form of humming bird. Wait! it is all making much more sence i can see more clearly now about this evolutionary chain if events coffee, humans, hummingbird, Epiphany! YEEEEEEERACTION AND CUT!" -The Crankie Director.

Dustin's photo link is here: http://flickr.com/photos/dustinf/65506895/in/set-1413471/
Dustin's web page link is here: www.dustinf.com

My good friend Alison Koh also posted a fabulous black and white shot of her photoblogging husband Levin. Go see her photo here: http://mettaville.blogspot.com/2006/04/photo-contest-2-spouse.html

Master Photoblogger Karen posted this silly shot of her hubby on their wedding day. Check it out: http://museumofme.blogspot.com/2006/04/favourite-photos-of-my-spouse.html

I am still trying to decide the topic for Contest #3, so that is TBA. Thanks you 3 for playing and to everyone else out there, I hope you play in May for Contest #3.

BTFF: Spending Time with my Poppy

Sometimes in life you have to make the time to sit back and look at some good times that your brain has just decided to leave out of its memory bank. Pictures are a capturing of a mili-second of time, a time that was REAL, an event that HAPPENED.

I was editing some of the old slides my Poppy had scanned a few years back and found there were quite a few of just me and my Dad. In most all of them I am smiling and in all of them he has stopped his busy-ness just long enough to "kick-back" with me.

A part of me smiled each time I came across one and I enjoyed the feeling of peace and contentedness that it brought my heart as I discovered each one. There are many more slides to be edited, and as I do I will choose ones to put up, but this is what I found for now.

Poppy and I @ our dining room table. We had this table and chair set until I was in High School. The chairs were gold and made of a plasticky material. I'm not sure what I'm smiling about but it looks like we were talking about something and I must have been about 3 or 4 years old.

Like the avacado green cabinets? Totally 70's. This is about 1974 and we're either having a glass of Pepsi or grape juice. Looking @ this, I seem to remember sitting on the floor to drink a lot. We had a carpeted dining room so my Mom probably didn't want us carrying our cups out there. HEY- this was before sippy cups! I'm not sure what is up with my Dad's socks, he must have just come in from working outside.






Here's Poppies feeding me something...his hair is messy so he must have been sharing his breakfast. I think this is very sweet and like how I am looking at him instead of the spoon. And I so remember those bowls, they were so funky!

Woah, I just clicked on the feeding and drinking pictures to see them in a larger size. I cannot believe how much TSE looks like me. Scroll back through some of my older posts and I'm sure you'll see it. Quite freaky!

I really don't remember ever sitting with my Poppy on the couch to watch T.V. My Mamasita usually sat there and he in the recliner. Anyway, we're all kicking back together on this day with my first-ever girlfriend and neigbor, Alison Hyatt sitting at the end of the couch.

We've got a group hug going on here. In order L to R are Noonie, Poppy, Golden and myself. Golden was another girlfriend and neighbor girl. I just loved her name, Golden. She really was golden too. Her hair was golden with long, natural ringlet curls that would curl around your fingers. And her tan was amazing! She'd get this yummy-perfect marshmallow brown color. I think that's the perfect tanning color. If you click on this picture and make it larger you can see what an adorable, beautiful skinned little girl she was. I love Noonie's pants in this pic too!

SPF: Big, Small, Half

It's Friday and time for Kristine's Stuff Portrait Friday! Today the subject matter is Big, Small & Half. As usual, I just can't limit it to one photo in each category. I just have so much fun and get carried away. So here goes:

BIG



This is the big Fir tree outside my front door. Can't tell you how many feet it is, not good at guesstimating those kinds of #'s, but its BIG!







It was a foggy morning and it coaxed me outside for a photo shoot. I took this before I knew what the SPF topic was today. This is my neighbor lady's BIG house.





This BIG hole is the top of our brick, outdoor fireplace/grill.





SMALL

This tiny LITTLE guy is the new pill I'm taking during my migraine hell week I get every month. I set it on top of an aqua green binder that is kind of transluscent. I played with the saturation and hue controls in Photoshop and ended up with this. It makes it look like one hip pill, although it makes me drowsy and kind of stoned.

HALF


Half a tuna sandwich that was made before the kids went to school. Half the fingers are showing too.





Half of my hot red retro shoe.






Half the face of my precious daughter Meyers D. She was helping and giving me advice before school as I did this little mini photo-shoot.



DID YOU PLAY?!

Infant Emotions

Reminder, tonight 12 p.m., PST is the deadline to post your favorite picture of your spouse/significant other if you would like to participate in my Photo Contest #2. I really hope you'll play!

Yesterday was a tough day healthwise, but I really got some enjoyment from taking this series of photos of my nephew while I was babysitting him. As I changed them to B&W, I realized that they expressed some different emotions. If you click on each picture, or on the set it will take you to my flickr page and you'll see what emotion I think each one is portraying. Form your own opinion first and see if our thoughts match up! Let me know if they do/don't!

www.flickr.com cameradawktor's Infant Emotions photoset

TSE's Trading Card

TSE's Trading Card
Originally uploaded by cameradawktor.

TSE's Trading Card I created.

Max-Ay's Trading Card

Max-Ay's Trading Card
Originally uploaded by cameradawktor.

Just a fun little project with one of the many thousand baseball photos I've been taking!

Buddies-2

Buddies-2
Originally uploaded by cameradawktor.

Max-Ay had a great game last night. He played against a team that had 3 of his school friends on it.

This photo is of Tanner playing first base. It was really cute to watch these two as they spent a few minutes on 3rd base together.

Click on the link to see more photos in this series and other shots from the game!

Chicken Fritz's Latest Episodes

Last Friday night we went to watch a High School Production of SchoolHouse Rock! Remember those little cartoons between Saturday morning cartoons? This was a high-energy recreation of many of those songs. It was absolutely fabulous and entertaining. Of course, I had to take some pictures.

Before I put some up though, I have to tell you that my son the self-described Drama Queen was totally inspired. He was branching out into all sorts of ad-libs as he was supposed to be getting his jammies on. Maybe it was inspired creations. Or perhaps, too much chocolate or spiked milk at his dinner. I'm really not sure, you'll just have to check it out for yourself.

The first one I've titled Chicken Fritz: Appropriate, because I had to remind the kid to keep it appropriate as he was grabbing his hiney. This 7 year-old has a fascination with grabbing his butt! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mtkG7OXJUhA

So here's the trick, on both of these videos, when you click to play, WHILE IT SAYS LOADING, click loading, it will automatically play the video in another window. Sorry, but that's the best I can get here!

The next one features his own costume design, a throw-back to Charlie & The Chocolate Factory/Gone Mad, and his description of some guy who MISTAKENLY calls him a Drama King. Chicken Fritz informs the world that he is, in fact, a Drama QUEEN!!!!!!!!!!!!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bHroZ0ZX20o

I'm having a problem with my videos playing when I embed them, so you'll have to hit the links to watch them. Let me know what you think!

More photos of the play up @ www.flickr.com/photos/cameradawktor

Photos from Busy Saturday

Don't forget to post your favorite picture of your spouse/significant other if you are going to participate in the Photo Contest #2. E-mail me if you have questions about the details.

Our day on Saturday started off with a baseball game for Max-Ay. This is the first time he was ever gotten to wear the Catcher's gear. They don't do that in t-ball. So he really looked like a big kid here! Between Papa D and I, we took at least 180 photos of the game. So if you would like to see a few more of Max-Ay's game, go to www.flickr.com/photos/cameradawktor

After, the game, it was home for 30 min. to download pictures and then off to Uncle Noonie's for some triple Birthday action.

Noonie's wife (haven't thought of a nickname for her yet) and her twin sister will be celebrating 30 years on May 1st. They celebrated with Noonie a little early on Saturday and had some of their out-of-town relatives over for a BBQ. I told Noon that now that I know he can BBQ so good, and just moved down the road, that we will have to hang out more often! I am looking forward to him cooking me some more grub!

I got this photo of his dog Bruno out the screen door. Notice how his eyes are different colors and how the screen makes a cool effect? I really like this shot.






Didn't I tell you he has "Sickle" Blood? During the party he realized that he's never given Meyers D a ride on the Harley, so he's gearing her up here. When the engine started (it is a Night Train) I started thinking that I should get a vide. Duh,....I have that feature on my camera. So took a little movie and now do you think I can find it anywhere on my computer?!

I hope it's not lost or accidentally delted. Yikes!


After the BBQ it was back to the ball field for some TSE baseball action. He was playing catcher too. Notice the lack of heavy gear?

What a ham-bone. I love this look on his face. If you notice other pictures I've posted of him, he gives me this look all of the time. It's his "Mama, I know you are lookin' at me and I love you" face.


I was thinking that I had told you about this cutie pie, but I had talked about her on my flickr page. Anyway, she's a cousin of one of our players. Her Daddy was big into baseball when he was growing up and she seems to be following in his footsteps. She also has an adorable grin when she thinks you are a Whacko but likes you anyway. Long story, search around for it on but it has to do with what she thinks about my hair! www.flickr.com/photos/cameradawktor


Next it was off to the most beautiful place in town to eat dinner. It looks out over the industrial area, which is sort of ugly, but its pretty with all the lights at night.

Anyway, the place was closed down when I was growing up but somebody opened it back up as a restaraunt. Usually the food is pretty good but it sucked on Saturday. That was a bummer. But we weren't there for the food....his (Papa D's) co-worker is retiring. So much of the office staff was there whooping it up for her.

Afterwards we went outside to hunt for the raccoons that had wandered by earlier. My honey wanted me to get some photos of them. I got this wonderful shot instead. I think it might be my new favorite of him now.


He is saying, "What are you doing that for?!" Maybe he doesn't think he is good subject matter, I happen to think differently!

Well yesterday there was nothing to post about. Just worked on editing over 300 photos from the day before. Some of which are over at www.flickr.com/photos/cameradawktor

And, potted some flowers that had been waiting for me for a month, cleaned house a little bit and fought of a migraine. Not too bad for a days' work!

Sickle Blood: What's That You Say?!

Happy Birthday to my little brother Noonie! He is 33. In between Baseball Games today and before a Retirement Dinner we have a party for Noonie and his wife. She and her identical twin sister are turning 30 on May First. So we are having lots of fun around here today. Did somebody say busy??

I was searching the archives and realized that my Father's side of the family has Sickle Blood. There aren't too many families that have it. But those who do know it. It's kind of like Huntin' Blood, Fishin' Blood. It's where brothers & sisters, dad's & uncles, about as far back as you can remember all have a love for things Motor"Sickle." I didn't need archival proof that we've got it but here's the pic.

This is my Aunt sitting on the back of a Sickle with my Great-Uncle. My Great-Grandma Bertha is holding his cap. How does he think that is going to stay on once he gets going? Curious.....

The photo was taken in the 1950's.

Here's proof again that the blood, Sickle Blood, flows black like the oil that feeds the engine. Black and strong 50 years later!


This is my little brother Noonie about 3 weeks after his 31st Birthday. He bought his-self a Harley. Do they call this a Night Train?? I think he looks pretty stylin.'

He also has off-road bikes and has just started racing on the Worcs Off-Road Racing circuit. His second race for the 30+ unclassified category in Honey Lake, CA got him 3rd place. We are really proud of him. This has been a life-long dream of his and its great to see him pursuing his passion. My Dad swears he won't go watch him race,

but in the next few months they will be having a race locally. We'll see if my Mama can drag him there. Don't get me wrong. It's not that Poppy doesn't support his kid, its just that in Poppy's Provider mind, Noonie's a Father and needs to keep his body in once piece so he can provide for his family. That's not a bad desire to have for your kids and grandkids, so don't get the wrong idea about Poppies.

Also, to make matters a little harder for Poppy, Noonie's friend broke his back and should've been unable to walk after crashing on a jump just down the road from my house. Because of his friend, Noonie makes sure he doesn't try to hot-dog-it and do jumps during a race that he's really unable to do yet. All the guys in his racing class are careful that way too. I can't wait to watch him ride. Of course I want to take pictures!! I don't have an SLR though so would have to try it w/ my Nikon point-and-shoot.

I was just telling Papa D the other day while the boys were spending the night @ Noonie's house, that I'm glad they get exposed to "Sickles" over there. The Dawktor Family does not have Sickle Blood and the only way my boys are going to tap into that side of their bloodline is to spend time with Uncle Noonie.

Max-Ay already learned to ride last summer. Noonie said he learned in 20 minutes and is a "natural." Maybe TSE will learn this summer.

More photos of the Birthday Boy.

BTFF: More Waipukurau Memories

Well, unless or until I can take the rest of my slides into be scanned OR my Dad remembers how he did it and helps me, this will be my last story about my 1989 NZ trip for a while.

These last photos are all from Waipukurau. I fell in love with the quaintness of that small city. Green, lush, rolling hills. Sheep dotting the landscape everywhere. It was really out of a storybook. Especially the people there. Just genuine, good-hearted people. I really didn't want to leave.

My host family was just fantastic. Just the nicest people ever and their kids were so sweet. It was so easy to feel like family with them. Here's proof I even helped out with the family chores. And here's their home.

I mentioned before about mixing gin & tonics for the New Zealand Grandpa. That was a first! Well he also took me to my first horse races. Here he is getting ready to take me.

Here I am betting. Can you see me, I know I'm SHORT!!!

Here's his wife, my New Zealand Grandma, in her kitchen. See the tea in her hand? I loved having "tea-time" everyday @ 10 a.m. and in the afternoon. The cookies (bikkies) weren't bad either but were NEVER homemade. Sorry you had to hear that Mamasita.

Here's the neighbor kids. I know the one of the boy isn't very good but I couldn't leave him out. I love his freckles too much.

As I've talked about in previous BTFF posts such as Remembering Rotorua. My Waipukurau family took me to see some really cool stuff. One picture I left out before was from Rotorua. These are Maori men and women doing a traditional dance. They took me to something that was similar to a luau. They did a performance and we had a delicious feast!

Something else my Mum took me to do was to go to a Meat Packing Plant (aka slaughterhouse) where they process (kill) sheep. The lamb industry is huge there and outnumbers the people (at least it did in 1989).

Anyway, you vegetarians are going to think I'm really sick. But I loved it and took tons of photos. I know, I'm dememnted. I even showed them to the old-timer Lions Club here in town when I got back. I am so sick that I loved to hear the OOOOH and the YUUUUCCCKKS from the audience. That is primarily why I searched my attic to find the rest of my slides that my Poppy hadn't scanned. I knew I was missing my beloved meat processing photos. To me, it was fascinating. Wait and see when I get them up, maybe we'll all come to the conclusion that I was just a sick-0 back then.

On a more civilized note, these lovely Maori women were basketweavers. They came to the Waipukurau Lions Club meeting to talk about their craft. The bag right in front of me they honored me with by giving it to me. I still have it!

They take the leaves from the Flax plant to weave with. Fascinating.

Last but not least, this was the best thing I did by far on my whole entire 6 week trip. Maybe it was the same day we went to Takapo, I can't remember. But it wasn't just because I was surrounded by B-O-Y-S! These guys attended a Maori Boys' School. We had the EXTREME pleasure of watching them performa a traditional dance. If you have ever seen Whalerider, it was just like the scene in the movie. Tongues out, grunts, the whole nine yards. And with their deep voices, their chants were just enough to give this poor girl chills! I will never forget their voices, it was mezmerizing. If you ever go to NZ you absolutely have to take part in watching a traditional dance performance by the men. GOT TO DO IT! Also, if you have never seen Whalerider, I suggest you watch it. It's an awesome movie and my kids loved it too!

Since you have to scan over every word in my posts to be able to see if words are linked or not, I will just copy and paste the url's for past posts about New Zealand if you want to check them out. This way you don't have to search through the archives.

http://troublealwayshasadoor.blogspot.com/2006/02/back-to-future.html

http://troublealwayshasadoor.blogspot.com/2006/02/back-to-future-fock-who.html

http://troublealwayshasadoor.blogspot.com/2006/03/back-to-future-remembering-rotorua-nz.html

http://troublealwayshasadoor.blogspot.com/2006/03/btff-back-to-future-friday.html

http://troublealwayshasadoor.blogspot.com/2006/04/btff-auckland-nz-and-bay-of-islands.html

SPF: Pictures that start with my initials

Kristine's SPF this week is about pictures that start with our initials. I found so many examples today that I had to include more than 3 pictures, so here goes.

Initial M:




Sorry Jana! I was reading her SPF before the kids woke up and thought, hey! what a good idea. I had to wake him up for school anyway. Only he wasn't too happy when the flash went off.




Initial :

Oh, I had lots of fun with this one.

After the kids woke up this a.m. I saw an Arm.

I saw this on the way to Starbucks this morning. Azaleas.

Initial D:

After Starbucks and the Azalea photo, I dropped TSE @ a friends and got the red streak touched up in my hair. My hairdresser was such an inspiration! She added another photo to the letter A (*see bottom) and a great shot for the letter D as her first name starts with this initial. She is laughing hysterically because of the first photo (*see bottom).

When I got home w/ my lovely less-likely to fade red streaks my Dog was beggin to go out. Here's what the Dog looks like when she wants to go out.

Here's Another Arm photo that the Hairdresser added to picture having to do with my Initial A: