march of the spambots

I guess this little blog is bigger than I initially thought since it is now a target for spam bots!
I see a lot of it at work. People buy a tool, pick blog specs (like page rank, blog type, where it's hosted, whether there's word verification to comment, etc.) and set a robot to leave comments galore. Apparently my blog is awesome enough to attract some attention because I keep getting spam bots. I considered following their links and spamming them but that's silly and a waste of time.
So... One Thousand Words Home is getting the dreaded captcha. I know it's a turn-off and may deter some comments but I need to stop the influx of spam. I'm sorry, I know it sucks but it needs to be done. I refuse to let their links be cached and have Google think I support them. You have to earn a link from me.

Since this post became a little ranty, I figure I owe you a picture from the archives.

When I was photographing Baby Ariel the first time, there was a wedding going on just down the beach. The view was great. I took a photo during one of Ariel's outfit changes and wasn't going to blog it. I guess you can thank the spammers because now you get to see it.

dice are nice

Slowly but surely, Doug is bringing out my inner geek. The newest achievement is getting me into tabletop gaming. (I had been previously interested but a bad gaming group put me off D&D for a little while.) The last campaign we played had my character fighting vampires with a custom-modified camera flash. As part of the fun, I've been slowly building up my dice collection. I just got an amazing dice bag and wanted to send some photos to the creator, Crystal.

happiness

Isn't this how it always goes? I don't post for a week or two and then I suddenly flood the blog with recent photos taken all at once. That's just how it goes sometimes. I'm sorry? Maybe...
Truthfully, I post in fits and bursts because that's when I have free time. Time to shoot, time to edit, time to blog, time to breathe... Sometimes that means that I have photos in my blogging queue that never see the light of day. They lose relevance when they sit on my desktop too long. This time, I wanted to share them before they got buried under the photos of the upcoming weeks.
After all, these are what make me happy.

I make ridiculously cute happy sounds when I watch my boss with his daughter.

I love to sit there and kiss Doug's freckles.

I smile every time I walk past the grapevine.

I stopped and stared while one cow nuzzled and licked the other.

I laughed until water almost came out my nose at Brotherface slurping Ramen.


These are the moments that have been getting buried in my 'to blog' pile, yet these are the moments that remind me why I blog in the first place. This started as an open letter home as to how I was enjoying my life. Now I'm home and the function has changed: this blog now serves as an open letter to the world about how amazing and wonderful and full of love home really is.

just one frame from today

I was photographing these wooden butterfly lights in the Aventura Mall. While everyone else was looking up, I looked down.

blue skies, happy hearts, next 100 miles

These end of summer, transitioning to autumn skies have the most lovely shades of blue. Whenever I am in the car, I am pressed to the window with my camera, just watching the clouds go by and hoping I can capture the way I feel.


This week, we managed to get a little lost on the way to visit a friend and managed to pass the airport a few times, with a plane landing each time. I was in heaven.






Days like today, I just want to soak up the sunshine and squirrel it away for those cold January mornings.

world photography day 2011

Today is World Photography Day. I probably wouldn't have known if I didn't have twitter, but all my photo friends are excitedly tweeting about it. Not to mention, there's a photo contest going on today to win an awesome camera bag. I'll admit that Scarlett and Stephen gave me an extra incentive to write this post. ;)


Lately I've been shooting less and working on being more precise with my photography. While agonizing about settings will make me a better photographer in the long run, it takes away some of the passion from the day-to-day. I carry my camera with me everywhere but I don't take nearly as many pictures as I used to.
Today, I decided to take a step backwards and reevaluate what made me love photography so much in the first place: it provides me with the opportunity to share the way I see the world with other people. That's why I'm glued to my camera all the time; that's why I blog. Sometimes, I swear that's what I live for.
As I was contemplating what I wanted to photograph, my house was filled with a strange quality of light. I looked out the window and then ran to get the camera. The colors of the sky after a stormy day in South Florida are unreal. With the exception of a slight boost in contrast and a touch of sharpening (because I don't let my camera do that for me), this is straight out of camera. I shot in program mode so Kaylee (my 50D) picked the settings. I couldn't be bothered to fidget with my camera; I just wanted to marvel at the sunset. This is what photography is to me and it's what I should be celebrating today.

cupcake love

I really have no idea how to categorize this but I just had to blog it. I probably should have started this post hours ago but I was busy being followed around by a snake.
Before the snake decided I was exciting, I had been doing a happy dance because I got a care package in the mail from Miss Alexa. When she's not blogging about being a professional fangirl or spinning cotton candy fluff into yarn for me, she crochets (and sometimes knits) amazing things. Today's amazing surprise, tossed in with the yarn she made me, was a crocheted cupcake garland. So much cuteness, so much love, have to share.

Pardon me while my brain continues to be mush. At least it's shiny, right?

Marty McFly Monday

Yesterday, there was a really cute bee hitching a ride on the windshield. I posted a photo but said nothing. If you clicked through to the photo on flickr, I made a kind of silly joke. Then, I mentioned off-hand to Doug that since I felt guilty about not posting, I might throw together a Marty MyFly Monday -- a one time feature for my little windshield buddy.
Since I can't sleep at the moment, I'm trying to put together this blog post. I'm running into some difficulties since I've never actually seen Back to the Future (and the only reason the name popped into my head was a Facebook event in the sidebar). But since the middle of the night is great for half-thought-out posts, I'd like to introduce you to Marty.

He hitched a ride on our windshield home from the grocery store.

He posed for a photo session.

He 'held' my hand.


He's pretty cute and photogenic and I hope he's happy in my grapevine.

little things

Lately I've been suffering from what I assumed was anxiety but is actually my heart being a butt. (I mean that in the nicest way, as my heart belongs to my camera.) I've been spending a lot of time at my desk instead of adventuring or working on photo projects. But today, I thought I was going to go insane if I didn't shoot something.

The spiderweb outside my window was glinting gold in the sunlight. I saw a bird's nest in my favorite tree. There was a bird of paradise backlit by the setting sun in the middle of a parking lot outside the book store. These are the little things I absolutely loved today. While I don't feel better physically, I feel a little more calm and happy having seen and captured them.

Happy Halloween!

I hope everyone has/had a safe and sweet Halloween.

We made a last minute run to a pumpkin patch today and got two baby pumpkins, which we painted while watching horror movies. What did you do?

gearing up for battle

In the next few days, I will be writing a midterm essay exam, followed by having a crazy Halloween photo shoot at Islands of Adventure.
Starting on Monday, the majority of the Honors College will be playing Infection and I will be attempting to photograph the crazy zombie tag attacks without getting killed myself. On top of all my school work, of course.
I have a paper to write next week and the Fight Like A Girl Halo charity tournament next weekend.

Today, my Cactus flash trigger is going to arrive and try to tempt me. (I've been tracking it as it slowly shipped from Ohio to here.)

In case you are wondering why I am telling you this, it's because this post is tagged as 'apology'. As in, I know I've been neglecting the blog and I promise I have a lot of cool stuff to show you but first, I need to get around to doing it.

However, I can show you Doug's zombie hunting uniform:

He wouldn't be nearly as effective without the Jayne hat.

a glimpse into my heart

This is what love looks like. Forget being "patient and kind"; it's messy and awkward. But it's mine. I would only make it better if I could.

(Since we can't communicate telepathically or cure anxiety, let's just call it perfect and get on with our lives.)

just another occasion to wear a party hat

dear home,
I don't really need a reason to wear a party hat but when the opportunity presents itself, why not?

While I don't look quite as festive as Chris, it's not for lack of celebrating.
After a long time thinking it through, I've finally decided on the colors I want to use for my branding and what I want my logo to look like.

Seth traded this shoot way back when for logo design when I finally got my idea. I sent him a photo of my idea as soon as I came up with it and he sent back a logo that is so me.
I still need to work on making Brendazzle Photography a legitimate business but this is a start. The name is much more professional sounding than my previous idea (shuttered smiles) and captures my personality a little better. It's going to be a long process but I'm looking forward to it.

the calm after the storm

I just finishing writing a paper that took more out of me than I even knew I had. So I am going to spend the rest of tonight staring at the photo and thinking calming thoughts...

...at least until I go camp out for the midnight release of Reach with Doug.

a good day

I wrote on Twiiter a few hours ago "if, at the end of the day, my feet hurt but my soul does not, it has been a good day."





These are not the shots I went out for; they are the shots that wanted to come home with me.

it's not what you see but how you see it

I was playing with these photos last night when a friend walked in and starting asking questions. The biggest question for each one was "where did you take that?" Every time I answer that I took it on the walk to Publix (less than a quarter mile away), he expressed a slight bit of dismay. He's probably passed these trees a million times (in his car) and never noticed what I captured yesterday. It's not Photoshop magic; the trees are magical enough just as they are.

I was told, long before I got seriously into photography, that I had "an eye for composition." I think I just see things as they could be, instead of how they are. When you're always looking for faces and stars, you see the hidden potential in everything to be a face or a star. It's my sense of wonder, combined with my eye for composition, that makes me so happy when I go through my photos.

I also think it helps that this is how I see myself.

I'm somewhere between an intrepid adventurer and a wannabe hipster. In other words, I am totally 'that girl with the camera.'

letter from home

dear home,
I'm here. I'm writing this from my purple bedroom and I can't sleep. It's just so strange to be back. I'm having a bit of a hard time settling in. Doug is sleeping in my bed--which could either be helping me acclimate or hindering the process--and I'm going through all the photos from today. I should be sleeping. I have so much I want to say about mom and brotherface and Doug and being home but I'm just too tired to be even remotely eloquent. So instead, I'm sharing with you the awesome car we saw in the parking lot today.

what made me happy this week

I don't really have anything specific to share but I checked my camera today to see if I had any photos I missed and I found these. It's often those random photos that I take, a few at a time, that make me smile the most when I see them in my screen saver. I know from personal experience that it is often the littlest things that become the most meaningful memories.


I always have cream soda when I have brunch with Auntie and Uncle Larry. It's a silly indulgence from my childhood. I blame my grandpa for getting me addicted to Dr. Browns. It just sparkles and glows in the light.

This is the way the light plays through the custom glass front doors at ten in the morning, after I've slept in and I'm ready to great the world with a smile.

I hope that when I go back to school and I am stressed beyond belief, I can look back at these photos and remember how absolutely cheerful and sunny my summer was.

magic light

There's something about that late afternoon sunlight that is just so magical. It goes beyond just being the 'golden hour' sometimes; it's like the entire world is coated in gold dust.

And sometimes, when I catch the light just right, there are even rainbows.

The golden light molds and sculpts even the most mundane things until they look like works of art created solely to be appreciated in these brief moments.

The Little Prince was certainly on to something; sunsets make life that much more wonderful.

"God is in the rain"

Whether or not that quote from V For Vendetta is true, what I know is that there is something special about the rain. A gentle rain like today, under a softbox sky, is often what I need to help me clear my mind.





Sadly, not all of my babies were doing well. Two of my pines died of shock.