Photo Op Firsts

As promised, I'm back to share some shots from a couple of recent photo ops. First, there was the very unexpected wintry weather! I never thought I'd get a "snow day" while living on the Gulf Coast, but we ended up with three days off work because of the ice that enveloped us a couple of weeks ago! It was a fun sight to behold.

Unfortunately, the crazy weather also foiled my husband's plans to travel to San Antonio for a presentation at a conference for his work. I had planned to meet him on the last day of the conference so that we could spend the weekend with our friends the Cokes (remember them?), but I ended up going without him. It was a bummer, but I still made the best of my first-ever trip to Texas!

So many new images to edit and share! Only one of these has made it into my Etsy shop, but I hope to make time to list more soon. Which ones would you like to see there?

Lots of new prints in my Etsy shop!

I have so much catching up to do! For now, let's start with a run-down of all the new photos in my shop--there are lots! Most of them were taken with the awesome 50mm lens I got for Christmas (thanks, Alex!) In fact, this was one of the very first pictures I took with it on Christmas morning. A wide aperture, manual focus, and Christmas lights created this wonderful abstract bokeh beauty.

Speaking of wonderful new things, Alex and I took advantage of a fabulous end-of-year furniture sale in New Orleans, so naturally I took some pictures on our walk to lunch after our shopping day. We were way too hungry to stand in the crazy-long line for Felix's, but I took a picture of the sign anyway. :)

Then there was a wonderful solitary walk around the neighborhood (with my new lens, of course). I cut my leg tripping over some kind of thorny vine on my way to this field of weeds (or as I prefer to say, wildflowers), but it was worth it. Can you tell how obsessed I am with my new f1.8 capability? Shallow depth of field makes everything look so dreamy, don't you think?

This one's in the backyard. I love how it's hard to tell whether this is a photo or a painting or whether it's a reflection on water or the real thing. 

Then.... it got cold. Too cold for leisurely outdoor photography fun. So I resorted to re-visiting old shots that hadn't been edited or listed but deserved to be. My dreams of warmer weather led me to this photo of an umbrella at the beach last summer on the Outer Banks. 

And this live oak tree shot from my visit to Oak Alley, also this past summer. These gnarly branches really speak to me.

I hope I can keep the new stuff flowing into the shop at this rate! Stay tuned for some lovely images from (1) the freakish ice storm we had on the coast last month, and (2) my trip to San Antonio!