My daughter is a huge fan of The Last of Us video game. You may have seen my photos a few years ago of us in Seattle as she cosplayed Ellie at some of the famous locations.
What I haven’t shared is these photos we took in our backyard about two years ago of her and her dad. He’s not one to cosplay, but she talked him into it. It seems like Father’s Day is the perfect excuse to share these.
A few notes:
These are BB guns in our backyard
I’m sure you can see how much fun they are having recreating scenes from the game
My photography and editing skills have definitely improved, but I still love these
If you haven’t played the game, my daughter got us all to play it and it’s fabulous. A wonderful story full of representation and complex relationships. The show…not so much 🙂
Happy Father’s Day to my husband and my own dad (see the last photo for a cute one of us).
#1#2#3#4#5#6#7#8#9#10#11#12#13#14#15#16#17#18#19#20My daughter and husband at her first birthday party.Me an my dad in my Holly Hobby bedroom.
After the tremendous high of self-publishing my book in April, I’ve spiraled into a funk so deep I’m hesitant to even speak about it. I’ve resisted naming it or giving it power, but the truth is as plain as the sweatpants I’ve been wearing for days.
I’m not doing great.
While I can rally when my friends and family need me, it takes everything out of me. My default Pollyanna attitude, always seeing the joy and wonder in everything, is slowly fading away. It’s harder and harder to put a positive spin on things, and as a result, I’m dissociating more and more. I check out for hours and days at a time by playing on my phone or binge watching TV, often doing both at the same time.
The creative spark I had just months ago seems lost.
Yesterday I looked in the mirror and didn’t recognize myself. I’m picking fights with my family, crying easily, and my body hurts all the time. I feel myself stiffening in all ways. It could be stress in my life, the state of the world, perimenopause, or most likely, all of those things combined.
It’s time to seek help. Again.
Sigh.
Why am I telling you all this? Well, I think part of getting through this is going to be recommitting to blogging again. Reaching out to this beautiful community as my whole broken self and saying, hey, I sort of need a hug right now and maybe you do too, so how about we hug each other with words? That sounds weird, but you know what I mean. We aren’t alone. None of us.
So, yeah. I’m here.
How are you? I seriously want to know. Good? Bad? Tired? Energized? Did you get a new dog? Your cat do something funny? What projects are you working on? Tell me all the things.
I might not be doing great, but I’m going to show up. I’ve taken a ton of photos lately and it’s time to edit them and share them with you. Maybe the joy of the tiny details will help me in my recovery, and who knows, maybe you’ll find something about them to love too.
I’ll leave you with this photo my daughter took of me in Washington earlier this month. I remember thinking in a world where an artist creates something this magical, anything is possible. I’m holding onto that feeling, even if it’s tiny.
“How blue is the sea, how blue is the sky, how blue and tiny and redeemable everything is, even you, even your eyes, even your imagination.” —Mary Oliver, Why I Wake Early
I’ve not been posting much. I’ve not been reading much. I’ve started rewriting my middle-grade novel, a fictional adventure story of Thor’s daughter. This means I will be less active here for a bit, but I’m not going away. I’m still around. I’m still moving.
These photos are from a brief trip I took yesterday to pick up my son in Chico. The sky showed me all the ways blue can be and how many clouds it can hold. I only found one spot to pull over as many of the sideroads were flooded from the recent storm, but I like these photos. They tell a story. Which one speaks to you?
#1#2#3#4#5
Photos were taken with an Olympus OM-D and edited with ON1 Photo RAW
“Fire spirit, fire sprite Share with us your golden light Come for us our candle light!” —Waldorf verse
This week’s assignment for the 52 photo challenge was to photograph something at night. As the days get darker faster, I find myself burning more candles. I wanted my photos to capture the warmth and comfort of flickering candlelight.
“This little light of mine I’m gonna let it shine”
My lovely daughter agreed to be my model and we ended up with these Victorian-inspired photos. I think they capture a bit of the danger of the darkness too and I’m in love with them. Please let me know if you have a favorite and have a wonderful week.
“Way out in the country tonight he could smell the pumpkins ripening toward the knife and the triangle eye and the singeing candle.”—Ray Bradbury
October was a blur of busyness and I’m behind in everything—laundry, dishes, yard work, and blogging. Life is like that sometimes.
My month included poetry night. Housesitting. A music festival. Helping my sister-in-law after emergency surgery. Becoming a godmother. Dungeons & Dragons. Five pumpkin patches with my nephew. Halloween traditions. Movies. Haunted houses. Lots of treats.
My photo assignment, which I’m posting four days late, was to capture the fall season. I took these photos at our annual family outing to Rickey Ranch last week. Not my best work, but who doesn’t love cute animals and a beautiful sky.
To everyone starting NaNoWriMo—happy writing! I’m not participating this year but I’ll root you on. Bring on November!
“As long as there are kids who are pissed off and have no real way in venting out that anger, heavy metal will live on.”—Ozzy Osbourne
This week my assignment for the 52 photo challenge was to create an environmental portrait. Ideally, the image would be of a person in their surroundings and it would tell a story.
I didn’t quite follow the instructions. Instead of featuring a singular subject in an environment, I redefined it as featuring the environment itself. The place I focused on was Aftershock. It’s a four-day festival featuring 90 bands with more than 160,000 people in attendance.
As I wasn’t allowed to bring in my camera, all these photos are from my iPhone 13. I added a “gritty” look during editing which fits the mood of the audience and the music. Some of the bands featured on the day I attended were Avatar, Baby Metal, 311, and Korn. The temperature was hot. The crowds were wild. It was a lot of fun. I’m still tired.
If you are in the mood for some reading, here’s a short story I wrote this time last year. It’s one of my favorites. Week 40: Room 313
#1#2#3#4#5#6#7#8#9#10—the crowd walking out at the end of the night looking like a zombie movie.
Photos were taken with an iPhone 13 and edited with ON1 Photo RAW
If you want to join the 52 Photo Challenge, you can find all the information at nicolesy.com
“The empty blue sky of space says ‘All this comes back to me, then goes again, and comes back again, then goes again, and I don’t care, it still belongs to me.” —Jack Kerouac
This week my assignment for the 52 photo challenge was to capture a big sky, not an easy task in the middle of a heat wave. Knowing the sky was devoid of clouds, I took a drive at sunset in search of vibrant color instead. The sky and sun did not disappoint. After dodging fireflies and mosquitoes, I then drove to my local park to get some city shots.
Not all these photos showcase the sky, but I wanted to give you some variety to look at. Let me know what you think and have a wonderful week.
#1#2#3#4#5#6#7#8#9#10#11#12 *The pond at night. I’m quite fond of the distorted reflections in this one.
Photos were taken with an Olympus OM-D and edited with ON1 Photo RAW
If you want to join the 52 Photo Challenge, you can find all the information at nicolesy.com
“There are three things all wise men fear: the sea in storm, a night with no moon, and the anger of a gentle man.”—Patrick Rothfuss
This week my assignment for the 52 photo challenge was to think in threes. I had technical challenges and ended up getting sick, but I did manage to get a few images. The first shots are from the Vietnam Memorial in the Sacramento State Capitol Park. The second is from my daughter’s G.I.R.L.S. Rock Sacramento show on Saturday at Harlow’s.
I’ve not been sick in years and I’m feeling quite rundown. I’ll be resting while it’s over 100 degrees again today and hoping this cold passes quickly. Let me know if you have a favorite image and have a great week.
#1#2#3 #4#5#6#7#8
Bonus images (not threes):
Photos were taken with an Olympus OM-D and edited with ON1 Photo RAW
If you want to join the 52 Photo Challenge, you can find all the information at nicolesy.com
“Women have served all these centuries as looking glasses possessing the magic and delicious power of reflecting the figure of man at twice its natural size.” —Virginia Woolf, A Room of One’s Own
This week my assignment for the 52 photo challenge was to capture reflections. I went to Folsom Lake this morning at sunrise. The gusty winds made the water choppy and photography a bit challenging. As a result, most of these photos aren’t sticking to the theme. I’m learning to pivot when this happens and enjoy being in nature. I met a very charming fisherman and a beautiful grandfather taking his son and grandson out in a small boat.
Isn’t it remarkable what we can find when we stop to look? Let me know if you have a favorite photo and I hope your week ahead is filled with unexpected surprises.
#1#2#3#4#5#6#7#8#9#10#11#12#13#14#15
Photos were taken with an Olympus OM-D and edited with ON1 Photo RAW
If you want to join the 52 Photo Challenge, you can find all the information at nicolesy.com
Bridgette Tales 