Shot In The Park

As many of you know, I love to take pictures. My parents got me my first camera as a Christmas gift when I was a junior in high school. And I took that thing EVERYWHERE. If you knew me back then, I’m sure you remember me snapping away at dances, in school, at parties etc.

Also, if you knew me back then, you’re probably now nervously wondering if I still have all the party shots I took at places like Phil’s Camp or Andy’s Farm. The answer is yes, of course I do. I’m waiting for one of you to become incredibly famous so I can sell them to the National Enquirer and make a fortune.

I continued this tradition in college and beyond—though I’d like to take this moment to breathe a sigh of relief that Facebook, Instagram, etc. weren’t available then as I’m pretty sure I would have made some poor posting choices. “It’s not inappropriate, it’s funny!” I would have said, completely oblivious to the fact that I was ruining my and my friends' future employment opportunities for the sake of a quick laugh.

Anyway, I finally got my first digital camera around the same time that my first niece was born. I—and her grandparents—took so many pictures of her as a baby that even now she can sense a lens pointed in her direction and can freeze, pose, then continue on without even noticing the interruption.

Seriously, this is her at 12 stopping to pose ON A WATERSLIDE.

A few years after this picture was taken, Opie got me an amazing camera for Christmas. And immediately became my trusty assistant, lugging my camera equipment around the park, up and down mountains, and into the woods while I learned how to get the best shots.

He has since refused to participate in what I call “encouraging the wildlife into activity” and he calls “running through the woods like a lunatic.” But that’s possibly because the one time I did convince him to run through a flock of seagulls on the beach (so I could get one of those cheesy vacation photos of him with birds in the air all around him), the seagulls thought they were in a Seinfeld episode and didn’t move out of his way – except to lunge at him in a threatening manner, hissing and making other angry noises.

I'm not going to lie, it's really put the kibosh on further bird-startling adventures.

Anyway, for years people have asked me “What do you do with all your pictures?”

In the early days, the answer was “Print them out and stick them in a drawer.”  After the digital age dawned, the answer changed to “Post them on Facebook then stick them in a file on my computer.”

But this year the answer is changing in a more interesting manner. For Christmas this year, my parents took some of my pictures and turned them into handmade photo greeting cards – to encourage me to take the initiative to make more of my pics into handmade photo greeting cards.

And, since they are so much smarter now than they were when I was seventeen (weird how that happens!), I have decided to take their advice and try my hand at the handmade greeting card business.  

If you've liked my pictures over the years and would like to check out my online shop, Shot In The Park, I've included the Etsy address below.  If there's a picture I've taken that you like that isn't currently on a card but you'd like on a card, shoot me an email at shotinthepark@gmail.com and I'll see what I can do.

Unless, of course, the picture in question is one of my nieces or nephews and you're not related to me because, let's be honest, that's creepy.

In all seriousness, I'd love it if you'd check out the shop, check out my Facebook page, and tell your friends. I promise I won't bombard you with constant emails and updates or beg you to buy my stuff!

FYI, if you're one of the people now nervously wondering just how crazy you were in the Phil's Camp photos over the years and just how much it would cost you to get those negatives destroyed, you can shoot me an email too and we'll talk. 😝

Etsy Shop:  Shot In The Park

Facebook Page: Shot in the Park on Facebook  

When Good Gifts Go Wrong

It seemed like such a good idea for a Christmas gift...a fleece blanket for Opie with all his favorite pictures of the two of us and our fur babies.

And then, of course, it all went horribly wrong.

Largely because I said to myself, "Self," I said. "I want these pictures to be clear.  I want us to show up.  I don't want our faces to get lost."

So, I cropped all the pictures and got nice, tight close-ups of all of us.

Then the blanket showed up and I almost cried.  "I didn't order THAT," I screamed.  "There has to be some sort of horrible mistake!"

And you might be saying the same thing that a lot of my friends and family said when (after checking the computer and realizing that I had, in fact, ordered such a thing) I sent a picture to them "Oh, that's not so bad. Sure, that black dog's a little big but it's nothing to cry about."

But that's because you are seeing this picture small on the computer screen, much like I saw it when I ordered it online not in all its full, over-sized glory.

It's just when you get it in person that you realize that your head in the picture is at least TWICE the size of your head in real life.

And then, when you decide to throw caution to the wind and give it to your husband anyway, you see that he almost looks like a tiny little pin-head in comparison to his head on the picture:

And while your little, fluffy Maltese doesn't look crazy out of proportion

Your hairless cat  (who, of course, refuses to cooperate with being photographed) looks downright freaky-deaky huge.

And--far worst of all--your poor Rottweiler mix looks like he's roughly the size of a COW.

This, my friends, is just one reason that we have champagne BEFORE opening our gifts here at The Yates' Estates.

No One Said The Road To National Geographic Was Going To Be Easy

You know what's NOT relaxing?

When you're hiking along, honing your photojournalism skills, your trusty assistant at your side, carrying all the things he insisted you didn't really need to bring...

Yes, that is my camera case, binoculars, and jacket.
And no, I couldn't carry them myself because I had
to walk around with my camera at the ready.

...taking pictures of beautiful butterflies...

Ok, that's a moth but butterfly sounds prettier.

...and birds...

Does anyone know what kind of bird this is?
I'm a photographer not an ornithologist so
 I have no clue, I just thought it looked cool.

when you see a huge bird diving...

...and another one swooping...

and you run after them wildly, sure that you have come across a bevy of eagles, ignoring your trusty assistant's assurances that eagles don't nest in this area.

And you realize that they aren't eagles at all.

They're VULTURES.

Which means that, in light of all the swooping and diving and the sheer number of the creatures in the trees, you're pretty close to something DEAD.

That, my friends, is NOT relaxing at all.