CC Photography - Foto Free Friday
Archive for the ‘Random Thoughts’ Category
Foto Free Friday: It’s Tax Free Weekend…and Other Stuff
August 7, 2009Foto Free Friday ::4::
November 14, 2008I just had an interesting thought thanks to one of the people that I’m following on Twitter. That thought is…F I L M. Yes, film. Good ole Fujifilm or Portra. Sometimes I think about getting back to the basics. I’ve thought about possibly doing a whole 365 days of photos from film for 2009. If I can’t do the 365 maybe I could do the 52 weeks of photos from film. I think it would be fun. It will be even more fun if I can get more people to join me.
I’ve done the 365 days of photos before and I could see soooo much of a difference in my photography. Concentrating on creating 365 different photos was challenging, yet very fun and made me grow as a photographer. I really want to do that again. I feel like I need to grow again. lololol
Oh yeah, and as far as the contest that I was holding for the free holiday cards if you signed up for my newsletter, well, no one signed up. So I have no winner. 
Yeah, it makes me sad, but I do understand that this economy sucks right now and a lot of people are putting professional portraits on the back burner. It will get better. I’m sure of it. 
Have you had your portrait created today?
Betty
CC Photography
I Can’t Tell, But I Do Believe
October 23, 2008Lately I’ve been having a hard time being able to tell that it’s officially Fall season. It’s still hot. My leaves on my 13 trees have not changed. I have driven in other areas around Memphis and see that many trees have already begun their colorful display of Fall. However, when I pull up in my driveway the only thing I see are my leaves simply turning brown and falling off. They sometimes do that in the summer as well. So what’s the difference between now and back then? Well, I went out searching for a difference. Guess what. I found one. Hee hee.
©2008 CC Photography by Betty Gray
I found a red berry on my Holly Bush. Yep! That’s a tell tell sign that it will be getting cold soon and the berries will be bright red. Sadly, (in a good way of course) the little birdies will come along and eat them as food begins to become scarce. But with the weather still being warm and mosquitos still buzzing around, I believe it will be a while before the birdies get hungry enough to devour the holly berries (hahahaha get it? halle berry? Nevermind!).
©CC Photography by Betty Gray
Also, while I was out and about I thought I’d share my little Sally the Snail. Isn’t she the cutest. She’s supposed to have little babies following her, but for some reason they are missing. I gifted her and her babies to my mother as she loved gardening and decorating the outdoors. I tried to find the babies, but to no avail. Maybe the raccoons at my dad’s house took them away?? lolol
So here Sally the Snail sits (say that 10 times fast!) on my front porch. At night time, when I think about it, I light a candle so that she creates a little flicker of shadows on my brick wall. It would be really cool if I could find her babies. I’m not totally sure, but I believe I bought them at one of those candle party deals while living in California. Hmmmm
Have you had your portrait created today?
Betty
CC Photography
Foto Free Friday ::2::
October 17, 2008Why is choosing a cell phone company so vexing these days? We’re at the end of our contracts once again and are on the lookout for a new service provider. I truly feel that these service providers are only there to screw us over as much as they can without us knowing about it. Can you please offer me chocolate first????
Right now we’re with a small up and coming company Cellular South. The unlimited talk/text plan that we have with them is awesome considering that hubby uses his phones so much that he wears the keypad buttons out and I text nearly 1000 msg a month (Twitter is addictive!). However, their data plan S-U-C-K-S! To use the internet on their phones is like using a 14K dial up modem! Who has time for that these days? Most of the websites time out before they’re even finished loading. I can usually WALK to pick up my niece from school and walk back home faster than I can download the igoogle webpage on my phone.
So, we’re on the hunt again for another company. I think we’ve had services with all of the companies except for Sprint. I’d go with Alltel simply because I love their commercials (“Chad, you’re still a ding dong!” That cracks me up every time!!!). However, Alltel is not offered in Memphis. So…NEXT!
I’ve had Verizon. Couldn’t figure out a plan that suited us. Besides, they ticked me off when we moved from California and wanted to switch our phones to a Memphis number, they tagged on another two years to our contract without telling us! They have yet to explain why that would have added on another two years by simply changing a phone number and we were already out of contract with them. The fact that I wanted to change numbers and not switch to another provider would have been clue that I was going to stay. But nooooooooooo. Wonder if they can hear me now!
I’ve had Cingular. They were awesome. Then they switched to AT&T and all of the sudden, service got bad in our area. There were places on main thoroughfares that we couldn’t even get a signal! Drive down Stage Road (it’s one of the main streets here) and you’ll find that you have so many dead spots, which is really hard to believe. Then don’t get me started on my home. For some reason, I truly believe, that an extremest lived here prior to me because they put some kind of lead lining in the walls to keep me from getting a signal from AT&T! I literally had to hold on to our metal door knob while leaning out of the door with the phone held up in the air to get a signal! Imagine what my neighbors were thinking every time my husband or customer called me.
Anyway, so here we are. Trying to figure out which way do we go. It has to be one that won’t charge me roaming everytime I go to visit my dad in the sticks of Arkansas. It has to be one that I can use the internet on with no problems. It has to be one that will allow me to text my 1000+ msg a month without adding on an additional $300. It has to be one that we can easily send sthoopid pictures to each other with no problems. 
It has to be one that my hubby can operate his business with and not have to stress out on overage minutes and an another additional $300. The total bill has to be less, waaaaay less than my mortgage payment! hahahaha
Oh yeah, and for those of you that caught that Twitter comment, I’m bcatgray on Twitter. Look me up and send me a tweet! You tweet me and I’ll tweet you back. :-p
Have you had your portrait created today?
Betty
CC Photography
Afternoon of Photog Fun
October 8, 2008
© CC Photography by Betty Gray - DO NOT COPY
Had the wonderful chance of meeting with a local photog, Yolanda Rowe, yesterday. Just sat at Starbucks and chit chatted. She took me to this really nice place next to the local college. I never knew it had a lake, an old pump house, ancient ruins and lots of other stuff that could be useful for a senior photo session or a couples photo session.
Yo allowed me to use her Pentax K10D. I’ve been eyeing the Pentax K20D for a while now. After using her’s, I think that will be the route that I take. The colors right out of the camera were so yummy! Did I mention to you that we were shooting in the rain!!! Yes, full blown rain. I had my little Canon camera wrapped up in plastic under my shirt praying to God that it wouldn’t get an ounce of droplet of rain on it. The Pentax is weather sealed so the little rain that we got into was nothing.
Yo went into the trees and scared all of the herrings out of the trees. I’m no wildlife photographer, but I totally thought it was really cool to shoot these birds. This photo is NOT the greatest, but I don’t think it’s the worst either.
©CC Photography by Betty Gray-DO NOT COPY
We also came across some ancient ruins. Believe it or not, this is the only frame of this that I was able to get. As soon as Yo and I started talking about it and wanting to take photos of it, a HUGE thunder clapped right over our heads. Freaked us out! Needless to say, we quickly got the point that we were NOT to take photos of these ruins. So we ran back to the car as fast as we could. The ground was wet, there were mole holes there and I had on flip flops! It was a riot. I had no idea that Yo’s short legs could move so fast! Fortunately we made it back. I was so glad that I was able to get a really great feel for the camera. Fits my hands perfectly and wasn’t very heavy at all. So…yep…the Pentax K20D has been added to my Wish List at B&H Photo!
©CC Photography-DO NOT COPY
Have you had your portrait created today?
Betty
Say Hello to My Little Home!
October 6, 2008
Wow! Can you believe that I’ve moved? This new place is pretty cool. Lots of nice features that I’m hoping to use real soon. Hopefully, I’ll have lots of great posts to make here. It seems that it will be a lot easier than before.
My first photo to post is from a local park. Went there to feed the ducks and came across this sign as I walked up. I had my little P&S with me and thought I’d document this horrid idea by the Bartlett City. lol Made me wonder quite a few things about these ducks. The park has always been full of beautiful ducks. It was always exciting to go there in the Spring and try to find where they laid their eggs. But no more. There were only two ducks there on this particular day. I guess the ducks got the hint when people stopped bringing them stale bread to eat. Either that or they could actually read the sign! hahahaha
Have you had your portrait created?
Betty