Cordelia's Mom, Still

Mirror, Mirror

Posted on December 18, 2019 by cordeliasmom2012

“Holiday Reflections”

Look familiar?

Unless you have short-term memory loss, you’ll realize this photo is very, very similar to the one I published at the end of my last post. For those of you who do, in fact, have short memories, here’s that photo again:

“Mirrored Glasses”

See the difference?

I had debated strongly while editing the original photo on exactly how to crop it. Because I wanted to name the photo “Mirrored Glasses“, I decided to include just a smidgen of the brown mirror frame to highlight the title. I also left a bit of the red table mat, because in my opinion it enhanced the reflection in the glasses.

One of my readers, an experienced photographer, disagreed. He was of the opinion that if I did just a bit more cropping (remove the brown frames and the red at the bottom), I would have a potentially “award winning” photograph.

Say what? How can I ignore a compliment like that?

So, I re-cropped the photo to remove the brown, but I ultimately decided I really like the red at the bottom. The new title is “Holiday Reflections.”

I’m still not sure which one I prefer. I kind of like the bracketed look of the brown frame in “Mirrored Glasses“, although I admit “Holiday Reflections” is a tighter photo. Is it potentially “award winning“? Maybe, maybe not – but I had a lot of fun with that editing software.

By the way, for those of you who believe a true photographer should be able to take a perfect photo that doesn’t need editing of any kind, allow me to show you what the original photo looked like (this isn’t the actual original photo, but close enough to give you an idea of what I was dealing with):

Totally boring. And crooked. I played with the hue a lot before I found the best effect for this particular shot. You would think enhancing the blue would have worked, but it didn’t. When I hit the green-and-red combination, my heart told me to keep it.

I think I did well.

What do you think – do you prefer “Mirrored Glasses” or “Holiday Reflections“? Or do you think I should have just stuck with the original blue-and-white? Leave a comment and tell me why. Just try to be kind when you do so …

(Many thanks [again] to the reader who took the time to write that awesome comment. I value advice from more experienced photographers and writers. I have so, so much to learn!)

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I love to hear from my readers. You may comment on this post, comment on my Facebook or Twitter pages, or email me at cordeliasmom2012@yahoo.com
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Images by Cordelia’s Mom/TeddyRosalie Studio

Posted in Holidays, Photography, That's Life | Tagged Christmas, glasses, holiday, photo editing, TeddyRosalie Studio, viewpoint | 16 Comments

The Pet Photographer

Posted on December 13, 2019 by cordeliasmom2012

Not really, but Cody does like to pose.

“Puppy Cody at Home”

“Did You Say Treat?”

Yes, treats help.

Maybe someday someone will pay me for this. One can only hope.

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Posted in Pets, Photography, That's Life | Tagged dog, pet portrait, Puppy Cody, TeddyRosalie Studio | 30 Comments

A Little of This, A Little of That

Posted on December 13, 2019 by cordeliasmom2012

I’m happy to report that it’s sunny today, with relatively mild temperatures for this time of year.

That was not the case earlier in the week.

Wednesday morning:

What would normally be a 35-minute drive to work took an hour and 20 minutes. Really, it wasn’t snowing all that hard – you’d think people in Buffalo, New York could manage to get to where they were going on time. It’s not like we never had snow and ice before.

Anyway.

The snow stopped by the time I actually got downtown, and then started up again in mid-afternoon. Glancing out my office window, I saw this (that’s the actual view, not a really bad photo!)

“Whiteout”

Fortunately, the snow stopped again prior to rush hour. It only took me 45 minutes to get home.

This will be a good weekend to stay in, avoid the crowds, and catch up on housework and gift-wrapping. That probably also means not much picture-taking, unless I suddenly become inspired. Which isn’t likely, since I also plan to nap as much as possible.

Enjoy your weekend, wherever you are.

“Mirrored Glasses”

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Posted in That's Life | Tagged Buffalo NY, commute, Mirrored Glasses, snow, TeddyRosalie Studio, Whiteout, winter | 11 Comments

Love/Hate and Unfortunate Solicitations

Posted on December 6, 2019 by cordeliasmom2012

May the stress begin! It’s the holiday season!

Mostly I love Christmas (the LIGHTS! the LOVE! the JOY!) [the cookies! the booze!], but I really don’t enjoy the events leading up to and surrounding the holidays.

Despite the fact that I stopped hosting holiday parties several years ago; despite the fact that I ceased holiday cookie baking; despite the fact that I stopped sending out holiday cards; and despite the fact that I no longer decorate my home.

But there’s still stress:

Figuring out what to give to each recipient, and then finding that item. Family usually isn’t too hard – every year each person sends out a “wish list” and the others coordinate to make sure there are no duplicate gifts. But what about a gift for someone who has been unusually helpful during the year, but whom you really don’t know all that well? What to give, and in what price range? (too little makes you look cheap and ungrateful, too much implies you’ll expect some further courtesy).

Once the gift decisions have been made, there’s stress involved in obtaining those gifts. Do you brave the holiday traffic/crowds and actually go shopping? [shudder] Do you order online and hope what you ordered is what actually arrives? (Already this year, I’ve made the mistake of clicking on a wrong, but very similar item, and now will have to return and replace it before Christmas. Ugh.)

If you order online, how do you obtain delivery? Do you assume porch pirates don’t live in your area, and have those packages delivered to your home – knowing they will certainly arrive on a day you’re not there and will mostly likely be placed in the absolutely most visible spot on your front porch or steps?

If you opt for home delivery, do you try to track the packages and monitor their arrival? Some security systems allow for remote monitoring through a smartphone. Even if you have a security system in place, if you see someone steal the package from your front steps, will you be able to do anything about it? Suppose you’re at work and home is 10 miles away – there’s no way to get there fast enough to stop a thief, and local police probably won’t consider your frantic call a priority. Even if they do, by the time they’d get to your house, that thief would be long gone, along with all your packages.

Do you assume porch pirates do live in your area, and arrange for pick up at the store(s) – thereby encountering the very holiday traffic/crowds you had hoped to avoid? Or do you arrange for delivery to a “lock box” location – which is bound to be even busier than the local mall, and with much less parking?

Decisions, Decisions.

I won’t even go into the whole how-to-wrap-the-perfect-gift issue; nor will I go into the how-to-choose-the-perfect-accompanying-card issue.

Of course, the season does have its humorous aspects. Sure, those “buy this now!” ads and “give me money!” campaigns are annoying, but some of them can be quite amusing (or unsettling, depending on your viewpoint).

A couple of for instances:

♦ A current online article touting new, improved cars, indicating how the most popular sedans have been improved for the 2018 model year. I would hope vehicles have also been improved for this year’s 2020 models.

♦ The TV ad that’s currently running, in which a cartoon rat host accidentally serves her little rat guests poison-laced food. Does anyone else find that ad obnoxious and gruesome, instead of amusing? Does the Grinch work for that advertiser?

♦ A radio announcement for a Christmas festival at a local religious shrine, with the slogan “Come Meet Jesus!” – thanks, but I’m not quite ready, no matter how stressed out I might have become over the last few weeks. Stress will end eventually; “meeting Jesus” is likely to be permanent.

If you celebrate the holidays, may your journey to “the day” be as worry-free as possible. Holiday stress is the one thing on which we can pretty much all commiserate, no matter our income level, geographic location, race, or gender.

Let’s be kind to each other.

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I love to hear from my readers. You may comment on this post, comment on my Facebook or Twitter pages, or email me at cordeliasmom2012@yahoo.com
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Image by Cordelia’s Mom/TeddyRosalie Studio