Bluebird of Happiness

I have a few bluebird knick-knacks in my collection of home furnishings. The one pictured above is a coin bank. I call it my “Bluebird of happiness” bank. It’s a bit confusing, gender-wise, because it sports both a brown bow-tie around its neck, and pink flowers on it’s head. But that is inconsequential to me. All I know is that, to me, this is a bluebird of happiness. I got this idea of dubbing objects as  “the bluebird of happiness”  in my head as a little girl, when I watched a Shirley Temple movie entitled “The Blue Bird.” Ever since then, that’s what I think of when I see an actual bluebird or things such as my bluebird chotskies: happiness. That’s the reason why I like to have a few bluebird things around to look at from time to time.

[I originally took this photo for The “Amanda Loves” Project, and to test a new accessory for my camera that had been sent to me by a friend. My bluebird coin bank is sort of my “go-to” still life subject when I need to try out a  new piece of camera equipment or film. It never disappoints.]

[equipment: Yashica D TLR + close-up filter)

From Warmer Times

Summer-time, Cross-processed
Yashica D TLR 

March 1, 2010

Happy 2011!

I am SO excited about the photographic possibilities of 2011! I did so many wonderful photo shoots with amazing people in 2010, and I think 2011 is going to be even brighter. Here’s to a new year and lots of new photo opportunities!

About the above photo collage…

On New Year’s Day, I was at my sister’s house and I decided I wanted to introduce my niece to the idea of painting with light in photos. So these photos in this collage are some of the experiments we did that day. My niece did the star and individual letters for “Happy,” and I put them together as one word in post-processing. My sister wrote the word “Year” and I did “New” – my niece triggered the shutter in bulb for me and held the shutter down until I finished the word.

My sister told me that Anna Marie was trying to get my sister to let her paint with light using a camera phone the next day. That made me smile, even if my sister had to explain that a phone’s camera’s shutter wouldn’t stay open long enough…