The end of an era

Posted on January 21, 2012 by Suzanne

If you have tried to click on that “Buy my books” link up there on the menu, you will know that an era has come to an end: I am no longer shipping printed copies of Meandering Magic or More Meandering Magic.

When I created the first book back in the summer of 2006, I was hoping to sell maybe a 1000 copies over a year or 2. I sold 1000 copies in 6 weeks. That was a really insane summer.

I switched accounting programs in 2008, and I’ve lost track of how many I sold before the switch. For the two books combined, I think it was in the neighborhood of 4000 at that point. Since then, I’ve sold another 1683. Not too bad for my little idea.

It’s past time to retire the books, though, at least the printed version. A couple of months ago I worked on combining the books into a single version that I could offer as a PDF, but it’s been awhile since I’ve done anything with it. I think it just needs some polishing, but I wanted to make the “official” announcement that my books have been retired. I have enjoyed the opportunities the experience provided me, but between a full-time job, a busy family, and other interests: I’m tired of printing books. And having to print and mail them in a timely manner to people who have paid for them.

I can’t really say the books are “out of print” — because they were never really “in print” — I literally printed them as they were ordered, partly because I never wanted to get stuck with a pile of books I couldn’t sell. I do have an odd assortment of book “parts” — coils and backs — that I don’t really know what to do with…

So, anyway, that’s sort of the end of that story. Thanks to everyone that has supported me over the years in that endeavor. It was fun.

Limits

Posted on January 14, 2012 by Suzanne

About two weeks ago, the boys went to a friend’s house to hang out. They were outside for awhile, and then ended up inside, to play video games. The friends they were with originally pulled out a game that was rated “M” (mature) — my boys said they weren’t allowed to play “M” games, and wondered if there was something else they could play. A “T” (for Teen) game was found, they played it, and everything was fine: and they even told me about the situation.

I was pretty proud of them, and told my Facebook friends about it.

They went over to the same friend’s house today and after being outside for awhile, they went in again…and this time, the friends refused to play any other game but the one rated M.

My boys were told “You’re just scared, your Mom will never find out.”

Guess who choose to come home instead of stay in that situation??

The friends were right, they could have stayed and could have chosen to lie to me later about what they did. It’s entirely possible that I would have never known. However: my boys are not very good liars. As soon as I asked what they did, they would have had to try to make something up, and they have faces like mine: I would have been able to read them like a book.

(It also turns out that they didn’t really care to play the game in question anyway…)

I want to make sure I’m fighting the right battles, but I’m pretty comfortable that this is a limit that’s appropriate to enforce. They are 12. The ESRB rating system says that games that are rated M are for audiences 17 and above. Even the Teen games they do play are supposedly “13 and up” — and I’m not always thrilled with the level of violence and language in those games. I can’t imagine what a game must be like in order to warrant the M rating.

I can’t help but think ahead and feel the tiniest bit hopeful about future situations, that if they are willing and able to follow the rules in a situation with video games, maybe they’ll be OK in harder circumstances. And believe me, we have talked about it: that the kind of response they had in this situation is the exact same kind of response they need to have some day when they are presented with drugs or alcohol or anything else illegal.

And I’m just fine if they blame it on me, I’m OK with being the bad guy. I think more parents need to be willing to set and enforce some limits on their kids.

Three weeks

Posted on January 14, 2012 by Suzanne

I have attempted, in the past, to do a daily photo project. I think that in 2009 I made it as far as March, plus a few weeks in June. I’m trying again this year, but rather than start on January 1, I decided to go ahead and start on the 25th of December, since that’s the day I got my new camera. It seemed less like a New Year’s Resolution That Would Fail that way.

Plus, I haven’t really told anyone that that’s what I’m “officially” doing, because that sort of statement can sometimes be the kiss of death for a project. I probably shouldn’t say anything now, but I’m pretty pleased with the fact that it has now been 3 weeks, and while not all of the photos are perfect, none of them are last minute crap photos because I want to get a photo in before I go to bed…

One of the things I have done that will hopefully help keep up my enthusiasm and provide inspiration and ideas is to join a community called Capture Your 365. Each month there are lists of photo prompts, and I get a daily reminder e-mail. I’ve used the daily prompt a few times, when I didn’t have something else I was already planning to capture, plus several of my photos have been inspired by ideas I’ve seen in the photo gallery at the CY365 site.

A lot of the photos I’ve used in my blog posts over the last 3 weeks have been my daily photos, but I’m not planning on making daily posts about the photos a habit. I might do a weekly wrap-up, and as I learn more about telling stories with photos, I will try to share what I learn, and hopefully I won’t totally screw up the explanations in the process.

Here’s a look at the first 3 weeks (click on the thumbnails for larger views…)

December 25 - Joe Laughing

My new camera didn’t get opened until the end of the unwrapping, but I tried to play a bit after and got some fun pictures of the boys. I love Joe’s smile in this, he his looking at his brother, getting ready to do something mischievous... Day 1

December 26 Family Portrait

There’s always got to be one in a crowd, and today, it was Joe’s turn. We set the timer and took a total of 10 pictures: he was smiling in exactly NONE of them. Day 2

December 27 - Cocoa

I was trying to experiment with taking pictures with slow and fast shutter speeds, and was hoping to get a picture of Cocoa wagging her tail, but she kept following me and getting up nice and close: she wasn’t interested in posing, she just wanted someone to pet her, as usual. Day 3

December 28 Will and laptop

I thought Will knew I was sitting on the floor with my tripod taking pictures, so I was a little surprised that when I called his name, he actually looked up at me. This was my only chance, though. I had to resort to taking pictures of the cat after this one. I really like this picture, though, with the abandoned shoe and the piles of quilts. Looks like our real life... Day 4

December 29 Self Portrait

71 pictures later, this is the best I could come up with. The expression was a pretty accurate representation about how the entire day went. Meh. Day 5

December 30

I was taking pictures of the socks that I'm making for Mark when he walked in. I turned around and snapped quick. He's a good sport. Day 6

December 31 -- Handsome Miles

I'd love to take pictures of my family, but all they do is sit and play PS3 and computer games and give me the stink-eye when I try to turn my camera on them. The cat, now, sometimes I get lucky and get a really nice shot of him. Day 7

January 1 -- 12 Pairs of Socks

Inspired by Yarn Harlot's personal sock club, I'm making my own sock-a-month club. Some are partially started pairs that need to be finished, one has a planned pattern and the rest are spare skeins that have been laying around and need to become socks. And even though I already have 4 in progress, I think I need to go start a new pair, don't you think? Day 8

January 2 -- Mark and Katie

I spent most of my camera time today experimenting with aperture sizes, looking for a creative interesting shot of a number of different inanimate objects. 170 shots today. And of course, my favorite picture of the entire day is the one I snapped with hardly any thought of Mark and the dog. Day 9

January 3 -- Frozen Ball

Need to experiment more with shooting basketball games. I ended up wishing I were lower in the bleachers, and that I used a faster shutter speed, rather than letting the camera choose. I have plenty of opportunity to experiment over the next month! I was pretty tickled to find this shot with the ball frozen up in the air! Day 10

January 4 -- My Office

My office, the nerve center of the secondary school. It's not much to look at, but it gets the job done. Sort of. I really need a window in this wall next to me. Or for the wall to go away... Day 11

January 5

Will's got the basketball in this one. I used a much faster shutter speed, but had to turn the ISO up pretty high. I think I could have dialed both down and gotten better pictures. It also didn't help that I didn't seem to be aiming in the right place, ever.... Our JH kids won all 3 games: girls, plus 7th boys and 8th boys. Yippee! Day 12

January 6 -- Miles Inside

Miles thinks it's terribly unfair that the dogs get to go outside and he has to stay in. The Capture Your 365 prompt for today was "Framed by a Doorway." It's not a great picture, but it's pretty typical and I thought it was funny that he was there when I ran outside in the unseasonable warmth to see what I could grab a photo of before I lost the light. Day 13

January 7 - Mark and Cocoa

We joke that Cocoa is his girlfriend. She loves him so much, she can hardly stand it. He kind of likes her, too... Day 14

January 8 - Light painting

The boys and I experimented with light painting this afternoon. It was a lot of fun, even if our photos didn't turn out real great. This was my favorite. Joe is posing, Will was behind him and "outlined" him with the flashlight. Funny how they were so willing to do this project, normally when I turn the camera on them, they frown or run the other way... Day 15

January 9 -- Feet

Totally stole this idea from another photographer. I have been trying to capture the timeout huddle at other games, getting everyone's bodies in, but this is way cooler to me. Day 16

January 10

Far too soon my boys will graduated from RC cars to REAL cars. This photo was inspired by a shot I saw of some matchbox cars, but I wasn't happy with my pictures of the cars until I hit upon this composition with a kid in the background. Day 17

January 11 Real Life

One's on the PS3, the other's on his computer. It was the other way around before supper. The prompt today was a narrow aperture, I used f/22.0 for this. The camera is sitting on the table. You could probably do a scavenger hunt picking out all of the stuff sitting out and about. Day 18

January 12

Oh goodie. It finally snowed. And it was super windy. But on a bright note, my children shoveled the drift in front of my side of the garage, without being asked... Day 19

January 13

Miles might be a black cat, but he is anything but unlucky. Well, I guess he thinks he's unlucky, since I still won't let him go outside... Day 20

January 14 -- My Guys

The boys were about a month overdue for a haircut. I wanted an "after" shot to share on Facebook, and Mark came running down because he wanted in on the action. I think he would like some of their hair, too... Day 21

Two hour delay tomorrow

Posted on January 12, 2012 by Suzanne

I think I might be more excited than the boys.

It’s just crazy that we waited until NOW to get snow. Someone came in to my office today and said “On the bright side, spring IS coming.”

But, heck, winter only just got here. I’m worried it’s going to stick around as long as usual. And as longtime blog readers recall, Suzanne is not a big fan of winter. Or snow. Or being cold. Why do I live in Iowa?

Telling a story vs. taking a picture

Posted on January 11, 2012 by Suzanne

I had something of an epiphany last night about taking pictures.

It was late and dark and I was extremely tired. I put the camera on a tripod, and sat in a chair just looking around, for anything, any possible subject for a decent picture, in the low light that was available to me.

And as I sat there, just looking, and thinking, I noticed the RC cars sitting on the table. Please ignore the rest of the crap. Somebody really ought to pick up this joint.

The cars made me think of a photo I had seen of matchbox cars strewn on a table. It was a great photo, and it made me the nostalgic for the days of toys like that. I snapped out of it, though, because I like having big kids. They can be smelly and loud and obnoxious, but they are funny and independent and life is physically so much easier.

I started to see what I could do with capturing those RC cars, but it was just not happening.

At the high school basketball games, when the visiting team has the ball and they are just passing it around, without taking shots, the student spectators start to chant:

BOR-ING BOR-ING BOR-ING BOR-ING

That’s how I was feeling about these pictures. I won’t even bore you with everything I tried. Because they were:

BOR-ING BOR-ING BOR-ING BOR-ING

And then I sat the cars and the camera on the floor and tried for closeups of one of them.

And then Will sat down at his laptop on the couch.

And then I had a picture that tells a story: