Christmas Vacation | Mikaela Joy: El Paso Portrait Photographer

I finally got through all my photos from Christmas vacation: guys can I go back? I'm missing the snow and cozying up by the fireplace with good books and hot buttered rum.  I could very happily live in a permanent state of winter.

I think little man could too.  To him, there is not much exciting than putting on his Lightning McQueen boots and his gloves to go play in the snow.  And really can you blame him?  Who doesn't love a good snowball fight?

We really didn't do much while we visited home (well I didn't, anyway) and that's what made it so perfect.  Winter is the perfect excuse to curl up on the couch like a cat, soaking up the heat from the fire.  

I didn't take as many photos as I thought I would on this trip, but I did take some.  This was pretty much Riley's first experience playing in the snow (besides about 5 minutes when he was 1 and our El Paso snowstorm) so of course I had to document that.  Probably the best part of the whole thing was when he nailed me in the eye with a snowball (my fault, I asked him to throw it at me thinking he wouldn't hit me).  

I also took a LOT of instax photos that I still need to scan, and some holga photos too.  But until I get those all developed and ready, here are some of the digital shots I took.  I could probably photograph little man playing in the snow all day (except that it was flipping cold!)

Friday Photo Dump: Week #5 | Mikaela Joy: Savannah Lifestyle Photographer

  Ok, so I know I'm a day late.  I had to work today (I normally have weekends off) and it completely threw my week off.  I crawled into bed last night and my last thought was, 'oh crap, it's Friday isn't it? I didn't post my photos!' And then I went to sleep, because I had to be up at 330 this morning, and therefore it didn't seem that important.  So here I am posting last week's photos a day late. Enough excuses.

This week's theme was cold, and despite the fact that my fingers were numb for the majority of the time I spent at work, I didn't really have a lot of cold to take pictures of.  See in Georgia, even though it may be freezing outside, it'll still probably look like swimsuit weather (and then the next day it probably will be swimsuit weather, as a matter of fact).  So let's just say that I struggled with this week a bit.

But even if they weren't what I was envisioning, I still think I came up with some pretty interesting photos.  Let's see what you think!

1-25-14: After meeting with some potential clients about a Wedding, I spent my morning wandering around Savannah (there's a post to come with photos of that whole adventure).  Every time I am downtown I try to take a photo of the fountain, and I never actually like the photos I take. But this time there were icicles on the statues and the light was hitting them just right and-- well you can see it for yourself.

1-25-14: What better way to warm up on a cold day than... ice cream?  What can I say, I just love the stuff.

1-27-14: The nice thing about this winter being a little cold is that I got to bust out all my old winter clothes.  It's even been scarf weather lately!

1-28-14: I'll confess, I was a bit uninspired this day with the whole cold thing.

1-29-14: Ok so Wednesday was kind of a big deal.  This was the day of the big southern storm that everybody was all freaked out about.  It even had a name- Winter Storm Leon.  Sounds pretty intense, right?  The forecast predicted in snow in Savannah which hasn't happened in basically forever and I was very excited.  Well what I woke up to that morning was rain.  We got some sleet and some serious ice build up, and half of my coworkers called in to work due to ice and closed bridges, but I didn't get any snow. It was very disappointing.  I did get these wicked icicles hanging off the back of my trashcan though.  Maybe that counts for something?

1-30-14: After that storm craziness, I just needed a cold beer. Or cider. Close enough.

1-40-14: Which leads me to Friday: more rain.  This started as a picture of water droplets on my car but I started messing around with it and it became something abstract, yet pretty cool in my opinion.

So there you have it: my week of cold photos.

I still don't have a theme for this week, so if you have any last minute suggestions please leave a comment below. Otherwise, I may just make it a freebie week.  We'll see.

How I Feel about Winter Storm Leon (In Poem Form)

For a blog called "Poetry and Pesto," there sure hasn't been a lot of poetry on here lately. Well, have no fear, I am about to change that.

So I live in Georgia, and right now there is this big hype about the fact that it might snow tomorrow.  Apparently it hasn't snowed here in like 20 years.  Well, I'm from Washington State where it snows all the time, so I'm finding the whole thing quite entertaining.  I get that down here our houses and vehicles and power lines aren't prepared to handle snow, but come on guys, its a possible inch. In fact, I will be legitimately mad if it doesn't snow after all this hype.  I haven't seen a proper snow in years!

Anyway, I wrote my feelings on the matter into a poem, partly because I was inspired to do so, but mostly because I didn't want to work. Here it is:

So there you have it-- My thoughts on Winter Storm Leon (in poem form).

Enjoy the soon to come snow!

Friday Photo Dump: Week #4 | Mikaela Joy: Savannah Lifestyle Photographer

Hey guys! It's that time of week again for a bunch more photos. This week I came up with a last minute theme (I seriously decided as I was taking the first picture).  The theme is:

Outdoors

it's pretty straight forward.  You would think that would be quite easy except for one little thing--

It's been really cold.

Okay I probably have all my readers from up North shaking their heads right now.  Fair enough, it's been really Georgia cold.  But the thing about Georgia cold is that it's not pretty in an "I want to go outside and play in the snow" kind of way.  Things are just brown and dead and cold.  I also haven't been feeling super motivated to leave my house this week, so that left me with the challenge of finding things to photograph in my cold, dead yard.

Let's see how I did.

1-18-14: For Saturday and Sunday I did actually leave my house.  My husband and I took our dog Jerry on a walk at the park.  It was pretty dang cold in the shade, but when these lovely rays of sun showed up it was perfect out! The rare thing about this photo is that my hubby is actually in the picture.  He hates cameras, so this may be one of only a few photos of him this year.

1-19-14: After my dad brought home my childhood kite during Christmas, the hubby and I decided to take it out for a test spin (I never got the chance to use it as a kid).  Well, during this endeavor we learned that Jerry loves kite chasing.  I'm just lucky those big sharp doberman teeth didn't snag my kite!

1-20-14: Did I mention that it's cold out!  Well, I had this brilliant idea that I was going to have a bonfire with the Christmas tree that is still sitting patiently in the backyard.  Turns out I kind of suck at starting fires.  This is the best flame I got.

1-21-14: I took advantage of this blue sky day to take a silhouette picture of the tree in our front yard. I love the crisp lines in this photo.

1-22-14: Here's Jerry basking in the evening sun.  Don't let the warm colors of this photo fool you though. I still had two sweatshirts on.

1-23-14: The Christmas tree is still in the backyard.  I should really do something about that.

1-25-14: It's just another beautiful, blue sky, sunny day.  And freezing.  I had to continuously pause from my paperwork at work this morning in order to breathe on my hands to warm them back up.  And that was inside the store!

And that's it for this week.

Since I've used this word entirely too much in this post, I've come up with a theme for next week and it is: Cold.

I'm still on the hunt for new themes, so if you have any ideas please leave them in the comments.

See ya next time!

Winter Hair

I worked the morning shift today and, up until I was trying to leave, work was incredibly slow. After running out of ways to keep myself busy I decided to do some writing.  It's awfully peaceful in the mornings at Sam's when two or three members straggle through the store.  Anyway, along with a page or two for a piece of fiction that I'm working on, this is what I came up with.  It's a little out of season, but being in Georgia has deprived me of my winters, so I'll write about them year round. So here it is:

 

Winter Hair

The tips of her trembling toes entice me, peeking from beneath the fire-soaked wool of her blanket.  “The winter’s

too cold,” she says ,”Let’s migrate south like the geese where I’ll never have to bother with icicles again.   But I like

the goosebumps forming on her freckled forearm as she clutches the blanket tighter to her chest. “Come,” she says, “Hold me close,” and I know

the sweet scent of home lies in her cold, winter hair.