As much as I love photographing a whole variety of things, it is days like today when I find myself surprised by my love of photographing people. That may sound strange, but until a year ago, my primary focus was really everything but people. Now? Now I can’t walk through certain places without thinking about how I wish that I had a bride, a couple, a senior, a toddler — whatever — there to photograph. Today while we were out photograping Anna & Jon, as soon as I saw this swirly rock formation outcrop, I HAD to get this photo. This was *exactly* the image I had in my mind, although the curl that fell into her face was an added bonus. The light, the colors, the wall… it all came together into an amazing moment of harmony.

On top of that, I learned a new appreciation for shooting with my 70-200mm lens - the long one that looks like something a sports photographer would use? Yeah, pretty darn sweet for getting up close without getting right on top of the couple. Giving them space to relax while I fire away.

All in all, a good day. I have lots of other photos, but this was THE shot for me for the day. I’m saving the rest to edit later.

It just surprises me every time it happens. I love, love, love photographing people, and I am grateful every day for the support of my family and the opportunity to capture something so special.

One of my shots from yesterday’s wedding, speed edited just because it caught my eye. I love how the black of his jacket is separated from the black of the background. I made sure the light was just right in order to lift him like that. Squee! It just makes me so happy still after all these years when my mental vision of a photograph works out to be the same as the final version.

Finally, finally!, finally the “take two birth control pills a day” solution seems to be working. I found out that if I take them 12 hours apart, that is the key. So things are finally getting better. Good thing too, because yesterday did not start off well - the iron deficiency was really obvious. I felt woozy and dizzy a few times, especially after taking a shower - I think the heat got to me. I ate meat every chance I could get and took an iron tablet, and by about 3pm or so I was feeling much better. Adreniline probably helped take over too, since that is about the same time that Regina and I started shooting the wedding here in Asheville!

So I made it through the day just fine, and I’m pumping up on iron and water today and feeling pretty darn good. Whew! Attending a workshop all week while feeling less than human would not be fun.

The weather here is AMAZING. Amazing!!! As someone said, we had a “Chamber of Commerce” day for the wedding yesterday. Outdoors with the groomsmen for a few hours? No problem - we didn’t even break a sweat. It was a bit cool when the sun went down, and we were pretty cold by the time we walked 3-4 blocks back to the car, but I would rather be cold any day than hot! One of the best men commented on how it was like summer for him, coming from Colorado. I commented that it was like winter for me, coming from Houston!

We were exhausted by the time we were driving home, but needed a few essentials and stopped at Ingles to pick them up - only to discover that someone has bought one of those crazy witches!!! Can you believe it? I mean… WOW.

As I’m still dealing with bleeding (NOT as heavy as it was on Wednesday night, but still happening) I decided I should do some more reading up on fibroids. Everything about my symptoms makes more sense after reading up on them.

- WebMD’s guide to Uterine Fibroids
- Fibroid Tumors

I woke up this morning in pain. Not cramps, like normal menstral cramps, but pain. Strangely enough, I discovered that if rolled over and laid on my stomach it felt better. I am normally a side sleeper, but I was willing to do anything. I’m trying to make sure I take it easy, and watching what I eat to make sure I’m getting iron.

I have also noticed that I’ve lost weight, but I feel bloated in my abdomin. After reading the above sites (and a few others), I’ve learned that the pill can relieve the bleeding, but actually make the fibroids enlarge. Oh, fun!

November 14th can’t come soon enough. Matter of fact, I’m going to call the doctor’s office on Monday and find out if there is any way they can move my appointment up even sooner. For now, I just really want to feel normal again.

I just posted the latest engagement session photos over on the wedding photography blog. (I think I was messing up my own Google pagerank by double posting everything, so I’m going to go back to the “go look over there” method to see if it helps recover it somewhat.)

I actually posted the photos on Flickr last week, but just realized I never shared them on the actual blog. They are such a wonderful couple, I couldn’t resist posting more of them!

Like I didn’t have enough to do last night, I ended up spending a good chunk of it in the ER. *sigh* Related to my previous problems (the first several posts in this category if you need to catch up), it is the cycle of the pill that is the “off” week, and while everything seemed to be normal for the first 2 days of the cycle, last night at 9pm that all changed. By 10pm I was concerned enough about the bleeding, I called my doctor’s office. He told me to start my new packet of pills (stop taking the blanks (ok, not completely blank, as they fortunately have iron in them) and start taking the hormone pills for day 1) and stay on pills until my hysteroscopy on the 14th.

Also, since I’m flying to Asheville today, he wanted me to go to the ER to be checked out. He was especially concerned about my iron level and making sure I wasn’t anemic.

So Mike & I were off for a late night trip to the ER. I didn’t want to leave Jason home alone (and I didn’t want to wake him and take him to the ER with us), so my Mom was kind enough to come over and stay with him. Mike had been doing computer updates for me, so once I was in line waiting he returned home too for awhile, coming back at 3 am or so? Not really sure - I was asleep when he came back to the room I was finally in. Ahhh, sleep. Everything checked out ok, they decided that this is all related to the fibroids, the doctor cleared me to fly, gave me strict instructions that if the pill doesn’t stop the bleeding or if I have any other symptoms to get checked out, and finally at about 4:30 am or so I got to come back home.

Today I just feel tired, and sort of crampy. Better than last night though, and hopefully I’ll be back to normal by tomorrow. Seriously, I really hope so…

“We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful what we pretend to be.”

– Kurt Vonnegut

Hello from New York City! Last week was such a whirlwind, I didn’t even have a chance to post about my upcoming 48 hour trip to New York; hard to believe it is almost half over! I was told last spring by friends of ours that they wished I lived in New York so I could photograph their baby when he was born. I pointed out that for what NYC photographers charge, they could buy me a plane ticket and bring me up here. They loved the idea - so it was just a matter of waiting for his arrival! He was born last week on the 15th, and I’ll be photographing him later today! I can’t WAIT!

Of course, I had to experience all that is B&H Photography while I was here in the city. It was a great ONE TIME experience. That place is INSANE. From now on, I’ll just order my goodies from home and have them shipped to my door!

I also spent this past weekend at a workshop put on by the guys at Tri-Coast Photography. I learned many great, amazing things! I can’t wait to put them to use at the next wedding that we photograph!

More when I get home from the Big Apple — for now, there is a city out there calling to me!

First, I didn’t want an iPhone.

Then they lowered the price, and the gadget geek in me started to toy with the idea. I mean, just think! I could use it to show people my portfolio, no matter where we were! (This may be completely unrealistic, because I have no idea how it would display on an iPhone, but a girl can dream.)

Then they started crippling phones that had been modified to run third party software, and while I might not have ever wanted to run third party software on my pretend iPhone, I still didn’t like that Apple was taking the phones down with their updates.

Now, Apple has finally gotten a clue and has decided to open up to third party apps. The people (geeks) have been heard. Because seriously, in today’s tech market, if you want a product to be successful you have to get the geeks to be early adopters. Without the geeks, your product won’t go far. And with the price drop coming so soon after launch - another poorly thought out move if you want to keep the early-adopters happy - shutting down people’s phones was a bad decision.

I’m glad to see that they woke up. I have actually played with an iPhone now. Last week while at the ShootQ Set-up Party, Eric Hegwer, one of the Austin wedding photographers, showed me his. I thought that the interface was a bit wonky for typing, but he said that you get used to it and it is quite intuitive after awhile.

I’m still not sold. But maybe … someday … I will change my mind. Maybe.

Dr. P’s office called me back; the second lab reviewing my endometrial biopsy didn’t find anything conclusive. Now making it even more of a mystery why the first lab sent the results on. (I do plan to ask for copies of all the reports.) So the next step now is to do a hysteroscopy. Now waiting for the staff to call me back to schedule it. I don’t know if it will be done in the office or in the hospital. Personally, if it were up to me, they would do a laproscopy at the same time to check out the ovarian cyst also.

I have a feeling that I have a bit of a battle for myself ahead. I will fight for what I think is the right thing to do. My vibe is that there is something more going on and I want them to find out what it is. None of this is normal, and I want an explanation.

Oh, and while the pill was doing its job for awhile, it isn’t now. (Whee.) Plus I don’t like the side effects it is giving me. So I’m planning on discussing that with him too.

Ah, the fun never ends.

I found this article earlier today while purging magazines, and just had to post it here. It is from “Outwitting Housework” by Nancy Rosenberg.

——-
If you have trouble throwing anything away because you may need it “someday,” then author Nancy Rosenberg has a club for you. She calls it the Prudent Possessors Club.

“It’s fine to keep things as long as there’s plenty of storage space, but once that is filled, and the Prudent Possessor continues amassing items that ‘one day may be of use,’ space becomes more cramped,” says the author of Outwitting Housework.

Prudent Possessors hang on to things for a variety of reasons, Rocenberg says. See if you recognize yourself in any of these:

- I may need this someday.
- My spouse/son/daughter/Great Aunt Nelda may need this someday.
- It can be fixed.
- I paid a lot for it.
- Someday it may be worth something.
- It used to belong to my grandmother.
- It’s a family heirloom.
- It may come back into style.
- I have fond memories associated with it.
- I can wear it again when I lose weight.
- My grandmother made it.
- I put a lot of effort into making that.
- My kids may want it someday for their own children.
- It was a gift.
- It’s too good to throw out.

Her Solution:
Ask yourself these two questions as you cull through your belongings.
1. Have I used or worn the item in the past two years? (I cut this down to 1 year, which gives you plenty of time.)
2. If I needed to, could I buy another?

“Remember, items don’t always add value — in fact, they keep you from having something valuable: an orderly, clutter-free home,” Nancy Rosenberg says.

“To play it safe is not to play.” – Robert Altman

We cleaned, purged, and cleaned some more. All weekend long. My allergies have been in overdrive, but it has been SO worth it. I’m not kidding when I say that we hauled about 20 huge lawn bags full of stuff out of the house, and I still have to go and clean out our bathroom and our closet. I haven’t even touched the upstairs yet. There is a TON of stuff to purge.

When we moved into the house back in 2004, we were merging two apartments into one house, and it was just 2 months before our wedding — we just didn’t seem to have time to focus on purging things before we moved them. Time was of the essence. Since we have a large house, we were able to stuff things in without thinking much about it. Problem is, we were still bringing new things into the house, on top of the stuff we moved in. ACK!

Eventually, I hit the point where it was all just too overwhelming for me, and while I desperately wanted to do something about it, it was like I didn’t even know where to begin. I hate it when I get like that, and it happens quite often. So I was thrilled when the opportunity came up for Tara, the Queen of Purge, to visit and help us out. My mom had offered to help us out this summer, but purging? It is a highly emotional thing. I needed someone very neutral to all of it. I needed an “outsider” involved. Even then, I had a little bit of a meltdown each day we worked. Matter of fact, Tara had to help Mike purge the study, because when I started to push him to toss things he wasn’t ready to let go of, it was going to turn a bit ugly. She went in like an expert and diffused the situation, and helped turn our study into a fabulous workspace for him.

There is still a lot to do, but she got us going and that was the most important part.

Tips for purging:
– If you can not justify within 3 seconds why you MUST save something, get rid of it. It isn’t worth it for you.
– Set up the bins: Give Away, Recycle (paper!), Trash, Put Away. Use them. They are your friends.
– If you noticed that a lot of the “put away” items are related to one topic, say photography, make a bin just for that stuff. You obviously need a true home for it, and you will want to have it all together to set up that home. It will make things easier in the long run.
– Focus on one room at a time, and stick with that room until it is done. Start in one corner and work your way around the room in a circle. Clear out the bins as soon as you are done before moving on to the next room.
– If you are the sentimental type like me that wants to hold on to things, let them go. It is ok. You have the memories. You know what you did, where you were, etc. in the past. I think about this every year when hurricane season begins. If we lost everything tomorrow, what would I miss the most? (Photographs, books, photography equipment, and my knitting stuff.) The rest is just taking up space. I can let it go.
– If it is impossible to let something go, make a “memories” box. Look through it before you store it, and reevaluate, you may not want to keep it after all. Funny how when you faced with storing something in your pretty, purged room you start to change your mind.
– Just because you once spent money on something, it is in perfect shape, and you may use it “someday”, you don’t really necessarily need it. We tend to overbuy, and if it is just taking up space it isn’t doing you any good. Most likely, when you truly need it, you’ll forget that you have it anyways. Let it go — and truly think about your purchases in the future. (I’m really good at buying stuff just because it is on sale. Now I just don’t shop to avoid the temptation, and when I do shop I make sure I buy *quality* items, not just “make do” items or things that are cheap. Inexpensive is good, cheap is bad. Just because something is on sale at a great price, if you wouldn’t have bought it at full price and you don’t truly need it, don’t buy it!)

I didn’t go through all of my crafting items yet, as I was just feeling a bit too emotionally raw. I will be doing it soon though, as I want to reclaim the space. I’ll post here first if there are any goodies I want to sell, before moving them on to Ebay land.

All of this is somewhat spurred by my dream of someday living in a house half the size of this one. Crazy, but true - I don’t want a house as big as what we have. I would LOVE to live in closer to downtown Houston when Jason graduates from high school. I also dream of living in Europe again someday (not likely, but a slim chance thanks to Mike’s employer) and the houses overseas are just smaller. I want to purge now and be ready for the future move!

On Wednesday, I called my doctor’s office and asked to speak to the nurse to find out the results of my biopsy and my ultrasound. It went something like this:

Nurse: Your ultrasound shows a cyst, but nothing that he is really worried about.
Me: Uhm, ok, I’m glad HE isn’t worried, but me? I’m worried. (Flashbacks of ovarian cyst 18 years ago going through my mind - I’m NOT going to just wait for this to go away.)
Her: And, well, we hadn’t called you yet because we don’t have the results of your biopsy. I’ve been here for 8 years, and I’ve never had Quest Diagnostics do this — they sent it to another lab for further testing.
Me: [crickets churping]
Me: Uh, well, that can’t possibly be good.
Her: Oh, it may be nothing. But I’ve never seen them do that before. So now we’re waiting to hear back from them.
Me: I want to come back in and see him. I’m not going to just wait this out. If I have a cyst, I want it removed.
Her: No problem. We’ll get you in, but we need to have all the results first.
Me: *sigh*

I need to go back up to the local lab and have a CA-125 blood test drawn; not sure why they didn’t do it the day of my first appointment. I normally have them every year, and my last one was in November, 2006, so I’m due for one soon. I’m slightly freaked out about the whole thing, but trying to remain calm. Really, I just want to know what is going on. There is still some minor pain, but nothing as bad as it was last week. I’m back in the “wait & see” phase of it all.

I’ll keep you posted as I know more. Now, back to cleaning out the house!