Yay, it’s official. My image of the Golden Gate Bridge was selected in schmaps.com (see previous post).

You can see my picture here.

Personally, I don’t think it’s one of my best shots, but I’m happy and thrilled to have been selected. “It was an honor just to have been nominated.”

Now I’m motivated to start taking pics again.

on a clear day you can see forever…

Originally uploaded by creativepeeps

My picture of the Golden Gate Bridge was selected…well, “short-listed” as a candidate for www.schmap.com, the free digital travel guide!
Yay!

I took this pic when BFF and I decided to play tourist in SF the day after 4th of July.

Now that I’m settling into our new home, I’m starting to pick old hobbies again. I’ve dusted off my Nikon and am taking pictures again.

Last weekend, I spent an hour just taking pictures in our backyard. This one was one of my favorites just because it seems so fresh and clean.

Daisy, Nikon D40

I also started to press buttons and turn all the fancy knobs on my camera. Here are examples of some of the shots I got. The first shot is one where I focused on two pots in the background. I shot at 1/40 sec and f5.6.

Pots on the bench, Nikon D40

For the second shot, I focused on the flower at 1/60 sec and also f5.6.

Purple flower, Nikon D40

These were taken at dusk, so there was no direct sunlight, but it also wasn’t dark just yet.

Have you heard of cats bringing their owners their prey as a show of their love and appreciation? Well if that’s true, then I know BGP’s cat really loves me.

Although he’s technically BGP’s, I’m Cat’s favorite aunt/pet-godmother. I am usually the one who feeds him and cleans his litter box. I also play feathers with him.

Cat "helping" me make my bed

A few weeks ago, I was just soooo tired that I decided to call it a night really early. I think I was in bed by 8pm. At that hour, Cat is usually not in any mood to sleep. Plus, I wanted to sleep in as long as I could. So wanting to avoid a 5am wake-up call, I purposely left Cat out of the room.

I woke up at about 6am the next morning to go the the restroom. I was greeted by a very eager and especially affectionate kitty who was probably wondering why he was left out in the ‘cold’ living room by himself the night before. After a few obligatory pets on the head, I went back to bed but decided to leave my bedroom door ajar so Cat can go in and out.

I must have dozed off for another couple of hours, because the next thing I heard was my two roommates, BGP and Mun, sneaking quietly into my room to see if I was up yet. But their attempt at being quiet was short-lived when I heard BGP gasp and exclaim, albeit in a whispery voice, “Oh my gosh! What’s that on her bed?!”

Now before I continue with my story, there are two things to keep in mind here:
(1) My bed linens are all white. White pillows. White sheets. White duvet. Anything un-white would immediately stand out against it.
(2) Cat is an indoor-only cat. He doesn’t have prey.

The gasp and exclamation were then followed by BGP, in her controlled yet task-ready voice, telling Mun, “Quick! Go get some wipies!!” As drunk with sleep as I still was, my curiosity had understandably been piqued at this point. So I raised my head, squinted at my roommates who, even without my glasses, I can tell were trying to stifle laughs, and asked groggily “What’s going on?”

“There’s poop on your bed!”

And the stifled giggles from BGP and Mun suddenly erupted.

Sure enough, once I put my glasses on, I witnessed the 2 pieces of dried poo in the middle of my bed.

Once we recovered from laughing (and cleaning up the poop), we deduced that Cat had been upset about being left out of my room the night before that he had raided his litter box for a peace and love offering to me, if you will. I have to admit, it was better than finding a dead rodent on my bed.

Now I have to ask you, what can be better than being loved like that?

I recently joined swap-bot.com, an online swapping community where members from around the world swap photographs, letters, crafts, handmade goods, books — practically everything you can imagine.

Since I like to write and have been wanting to get the creative writing juices flowing again, the first swap I decided to do was to list 100 things I miss. I had to put together my list then send (snail mail) it to my swapping partner as chosen randomly by the swap-bot wizard (or some equally mysterious entity that generates the swapping partners).

I must admit, I was a little apprehensive about completing my list. I didn’t think I missed 100 different things. But surprisingly, I completed my list in about 40 minutes on a recent flight to L.A. Then when I got back from my trip, I just typed it up and sent it off.

Here’s a photo of the actual list I sent to my swapping partner:

My list of 100 things I miss, Nikon D40

So if you’re into arts, crafts, gifts, swaps, etc. I encourage you to check out www.swap-bot.com. Maybe we’ll end up being swap partners!

a day at the park, Nikon D40

We had a bit of sunlight in the Bay Area a couple of days ago and I was able to steal away to the park for a few shots of the local residents.

even the trees worship on I-5 S, Nikon D40

got a new remote control for my Nikon D40. It was one of my fabulous Christmas presents this year (courtesy of BGP’s dad via BGP’s suggestion). It’s really a universal remote control, more commonly used for TVs and video playing devices, but I was testing it out with my camera last night and it worked pretty darn good. I can’t wait to put it to use!


universal remote control, Nikon D40