the other side of myself

happy anniversary baby!

2009-08-24T11:33:05Z

yesterday was our 7 year wedding anniversary :)
time goes by so fast, it seems like it was only yesterday.

mosh as a sculpture

2009-08-06T21:20:06Z

mosh, originally uploaded by photo_obscura.

sculptor Gene Phillips asked if I would permit him to sculpt a photo of mosh that i took a few years ago. he sent me a photo of his progress. it is an honor to have artists use my work as source material.

is it just me...

2009-08-06T02:47:30Z

mickey sends you birthday wishes!, originally uploaded by photo_obscura.

or is mickey wishing you more than birthday wishes?

disneyland was fun, back home now.

had a fun photoshoot last night with rachel

2009-07-20T18:35:57Z

rachel, originally uploaded by photo_obscura.

i have known rachel online for years, but this was the first time we worked together. i got a lot of really good shots :D life is kind of difficult right now. just signed a lease on an apartment in brooklyn. leaving wednesday for anaheim for about two weeks. missing loved ones and feeling very down. on the bright side, ran into prelapsarianme at target of all places. i am sure i scared her to death by stopping her since we had never met. sorry keiko!

i am proud of this picture

2009-06-29T19:26:47Z

sophie, originally uploaded by photo_obscura.

sometimes i doubt myself. i wonder if i should be a photographer at all. other times, an image comes out like this, and i realize that i can't give it up. i really love this picture. i have been able to say that about more and more of my images lately.

Duck...goose

2009-06-05T14:52:14Z

I was walking the dogs this morning when I noticed man leisurely walking in the rain on the metro path. As I got closer, I realized that he was walking slowly because a Canada goose was on the path in front of him barking at him in a treatening way. As I approach with my dogs, the goose flapped it's wings and turned to shoo it's family towards the pond. I said to the man "were they holding you up?" and he responded that he didn't know if they were dangerous or not so he was going slow. "good thing" I said. "canada geese are really mean".

"oh, then I don't feel as embarassed for being afraid of them then".
He was six four, 200lbs and afraid My little 38lbs dogs were fearless.

"up" and down

2009-06-04T11:50:53Z

v and i went to see "UP" last night. it was incredibly sad, something i wasn't expecting in an animated film. years ago, i went to see John Lasseter speak at the Smithsonian right after Toy Story came out. he said that at the core of every movie should be a truly great story, because if you don't have a great story, it won't matter how good the animation is. both the story and the animation were amazing. we saw the digital 3D version and after a while, i forgot it was in 3D, it just felt like i was there, watching things unfold.

when we left the theater, it was pouring down rain. by the time we reached the car, we were soaked for the drive home. the movie left me in a very emotionally raw state, so once home, we opened the window, listened to the rain and watching the lightning. it was a very nice way to end the evening.

ps - saw the trailer for Toy Story 3, due out in June of 2010. long wait!
pps - squirrel!

20090215 - valerie and michael

2009-02-17T20:19:05Z

valerie and michael, originally uploaded by photo_obscura.

i got a new laptop recently that has one of those tiny little integrated camera's above the screen. my wallpaper is very red so it colored the entire picture *lol*

i look happy.

musings

2008-07-07T11:40:47Z

"I thought I knew, but now I know that rose trees never grow,
in New York city."

for the second weekend in a row, we went to new york for an overnighter.
that makes three times in the past two months we have been to the city,
and before that it was four years ago with azcra and aliona,
who coincidentally called me yesterday for reasons i don't yet know.

if you have been wondering, i haven't intentionally been hiding away, i just
have a lot of new things going on in my life, some that take every spare
moment. there have been both wonderful and not so wonderful things happening,
and i have been learning a lot about myself and the people that i call family.

i have a tendency to see the potential in people and when people don't meet
their potential, i find disappointment follows. part of me wishes i wasn't
blessed (cursed) with that gift, but i am and so i learn to take the bad with
the good and find a middle ground where everyone can meet. it occurs to me
that this applies to many situations i have going on at the moment...

years ago, i read the fountainhead, and it changed me. i think about it now
and how it's words still apply, even to this situation

"Anything may be betrayed, anyone may be forgiven. But not those who lack the courage of their own greatness."

perhaps i need to read it again...

mason and michael

2008-06-09T11:19:21Z

P6080029, originally uploaded by estilos30.

i haven't updated in ages so when i saw this pic of mason and i hanging out at vicky and dan's i thought i'd share :) hope you all are well! life is really looking up these days :D

20080309 - unplanned shoot with brittany

2008-03-20T01:31:33Z

brittany, originally uploaded by photo_obscura.

i had not intended to do a shoot today, but azcra asked me to come to the studio with her and when she got tired, i picked up a few sets with brittany athey.

20080308 - liz and michael

2008-03-10T16:39:52Z

liz and michael, originally uploaded by photo_obscura.

today, azcra was modeling all day, so i hung out with a girl named liz.

20080307 - brynn

2008-03-10T16:21:07Z

brynn, originally uploaded by photo_obscura.

today, brynn and i braved the cold to take pictures. "i know the perfect place!" she said and proceeded to take me to a spot where she and her husband had gotten lost by accident one time. we only got to shoot for a short while before it started to rain and we ended up back at our studio.

i got some news today on my bloodwork, i don't have mono, but it turns out i have had mono in the past, both forms of it. i was completely unaware of this. i seem to be getting better, so the doctor wants to wait two weeks and see how i am before sending me for a sleep study.

20080306 - christina beasley

2008-03-10T16:15:44Z

christina beasley, originally uploaded by photo_obscura.

tonight, i shot christina beasley at the studio. victoria stiles did makeup and azcra did styling. we make a fabulous team, the three of us, and we got so many good shots! christina was looking to update her book as she is planning to go to nyc to visit agencies in the near future and this shoot was just what she needed.

20080305 - azcra at famous daves

2008-03-10T16:10:53Z

azcra at famous daves, originally uploaded by photo_obscura.

i don't know why dave is famous, both times i have eaten at 'famous daves' have been mediocre at best. i forgot to take a picture of myself today. oops.

20080304 - more time in the server room

2008-03-10T16:08:51Z

more time in the server room, originally uploaded by photo_obscura.

my anxiety about active directory server were unfounded as the new server i put in last night fixed the problems and we were able to get a good start to the day. unfortunately, the install process that was supposed to be done by noon didn't end until about 6pm.

problems with the cluster on failover caused the tech to have to install hotfixes to only one of the boxes. it baffles me how you can order two servers with identical hardware and one works fine and the other needs a hotfix. go microsoft.

20080303 - windows hell

2008-03-10T15:55:04Z

windows hell, originally uploaded by photo_obscura.

today, i had an installer coming from dell to put two new servers and a storage unit in and configure our os and sql servers in a cluster. the hardware install went quickly, but the software install and configuration took a bit longer than anticipated.

we had a problem getting domain account permissions set up as our controller was allowing the accounts to be added, but the new servers weren't seeing the domain in computer manager. i was pulling my hair out by the end of the night and finally just pulled my directory server out of the rack and put in a spare, configured it and went home (after a 13 hour day).

they are coming back tomorrow to finish the install and i have a lot of anxiety about whether i configured AD correctly so we can get this working. i guess we will just have to wait and see.

20080302 - pacing the hallway

2008-03-10T15:46:54Z

pacing the hallway, originally uploaded by photo_obscura.

this morning, i had to go into work for emergency power work. we had to bring all of our servers down while they worked on a transfer switch. what was supposed to be an hour turned into about 5.5 hours. because they only anticipated an hour, none of us planned to do anything other than sit and wait. i found myself pacing this hall when the server room got too cold to handle. there were stacks and stacks of old paper records from another society in the building and a few from ours. i opened one of ours and found invoices from 1984. this building wasn't even built in 1984.

20080301 - azcra at the girl scout cookie table

2008-03-10T15:35:27Z

azcra at the girl scout cookie table, originally uploaded by photo_obscura.

today was nice. we declared this date weekend and went to lunch, then saw 'the other boleyn girl'. i read an article that made much ado about natalie portman playing anne when it is much more natural to see scarlett johansson as a bad girl. i thought that was pretty silly for anyone who has seen 'girl with a pearl earing' will feel like they are having flashbacks to that film at times. i really liked natalie in a dark role. it reminded me of her first role in 'leon' in some ways. i enjoyed the film and the day :)

oh, and we only got one box of cookies... thin mints

20080229 - more testing

2008-03-10T15:30:02Z

michael, originally uploaded by photo_obscura.

today i had more blood drawn for my lethargy. they apparently didn't actually test for mono before, but for something called monocites which are mono indicators. this time around, they are testing for everything and if it all comes back negative, next stop is neurology. the doctor has a theory that even though i am getting enough sleep, that perhaps it isn't good sleep. we shall see.

20080228 - a bit off

2008-03-10T15:28:01Z

letters, originally uploaded by photo_obscura.

is it just me, or does the 't' look like it is going to fall off? today was just another day at work. follow-up dr appointment tomorrow.

20080227 - forbidden fruit -or- keeps the doctor away?

2008-02-28T02:04:37Z

forbidden fruit -or- keeps the doctor away?, originally uploaded by photo_obscura.

one of the busiest days at work i can ever remember. home now. tired. going to watch america's next top model.

20080226 - dead tired

2008-02-28T02:02:16Z

tabasco, originally uploaded by photo_obscura.

i had planned to go with azcra to her art modeling session, but as we walked the dogs, i realized i had zero energy. i asked her if she would mind if i skipped it and she was fine with it. we still needed to eat before she left so we went to chipotle (did i mention i love chipotle?) and then i went to bed at 7:15pm, got 10 hours sleep and was still dead tired. i forgot to mention that my bloodwork all came back negative. doc says "call me if you still feel crappy". i think i need to call him.

20080225 - sing

2008-02-28T01:57:05Z

sing, originally uploaded by photo_obscura.

i pass by a 'no trespassing' sign every day, but today, i deconstructed it and noticed that it spells out all kinds of things... sing high, pass age, dang ass. for this shot, i chose 'sing'. i can tell when my mood is good on my way home from work as i will sing in the car. there haven't been many songs sung lately.

20080224 - missy and azcra

2008-02-28T01:52:39Z

missy and azcra, originally uploaded by photo_obscura.

azcra isn't looking forward to going to work tomorrow. they have been overworking and underappreciating her there. monday, someone from hr is supposed to be coming to meet with her. that is never good.