Almost Here

So we leave tomorrow night for our 1,600-mile/26-hour drive halfway across the country!  I'm getting pretty excited for the trip, it should be fun doing this with other people this time, instead of on my own.  Let's just hope that this time there's not a breakdown in the lovely city of Gallup, NM.  Seriously, that city is cursed.

I don't know how I'm going to get through tomorrow, it's going to seem like the hours will just drag by.  The good news is that I will hopefully have some photos to share after this trip and this blog can finally turn back into a true photoblog!

I've got another random selection of a couple photos though:

First off, our new table!!  Finally!  We have gotten rid of the TV trays, never to be heard from again. :]

I wasn't quite sure how I would like the pub height at first, and I'm still getting used to eating from that high up... but I LOVE the table.  It's different than what we had originally planned to get, and the other table would have saved us some space in that small area, but it had also increased $100 in price.  AND those placemats that we bought wouldn't have worked on that one, which was round.  They barely fit on this square one.

I'm just happy that we finally have a place to eat again, instead of on those damn TV trays.

And here's some more food photography...

I'd actually forgotten that I took this photo of the banana bread I'd made a few weeks ago, but I found it after having to use my big camera for the photo of the table, because my little point-and-shoot was being difficult.  So this was taken back when I was more into the food photography vibe.

And here's some of the BEST homemade fried chicken that I've ever had, made by Jacques.  It gets better every time he makes it and this was no exception.  It was even good warmed up in the oven as leftovers.  I think I captured the most appealing side of it here... arranging fried chicken for a photo isn't as easy as it looks, as I've found with most of my food photography experimenting...

On a completely different note, I finally finished editing and uploading all of my photography for the Fauna section of my portfolio, both wild and domestic.  Feel free to check it out.

That's all I have for today.

Growing Excitement

Well, less than two weeks from now, Jacques, Erin and I will be on our way halfway across the country!!!  I am very excited for this opportunity at a road trip, even more excited than I am for the reason for making the trip in the first place!  Which is to finally pick up my stuff from my old apartment from way back when.  I've been waiting for TWO years to make this happen, and I'm finally in a place to do it.  I mean, it's only stuff.  But it's more than that, it's a part of me that I haven't been able to access every day for these past two years, a part of what reminds me of home.  I know Jacques must think I'm just being crazy sentimental about a few pieces of furniture, DVDs, books, photo frames, etc... but I can't help that I'm a sentimental person.  And it's better than the alternative. :]

Anyway... so I know this is supposed to be a photoblog, but I've been hit with a crazy amount of inspiration and creativity lately, so I'm going to share some recent designs that I've made within the past week:

Made for a St. Patrick's Day themed SOTW!

Oh, Zachary Quinto...

Originally made for a video-game-themed graphic battle against a very good long-time friend of mine!

The majority of these were made on a whim, for graphic battles and contests on a graphic design forum that I've recently joined: Jasper Designs.  Which means that I've been bitten by the PB bug again.  I hadn't realized how much I truly missed the forum era until now.  I knew I'd missed the incredible activity that my own forum once had, but I just didn't realize exactly how much.

That's about all I have to report right now.  Life has been good, I've secured my first ever paying design job of building/designing a website for one of Erin's friend's mother's graphic design company, so that's exciting!  Plus, I've been maintaining my dad's website as well, which is getting a lot of traffic.  And also, I recently redesigned my own portfolio website.

Things are going well, so far!  Hope everyone has a happy St. Patty's Day tomorrow!

Gone to the DARK Side

Okay, first off, sorry for that very cheesy Star Wars reference. But it's true, I randomly decided to switch to the darkest design this blog has ever seen. Not to mention the ONLY one it's ever seen, since I haven't updated the design in over 5 years. That's also a reason I wanted to update, to add some more recent photos in the header up there. The old header had definitely run its course. And I actually love dark designs, so I figured it was time, since I've stayed in the light for this long. (Any and all feedback on the design is completely welcome, btw!)

Anyway, I also wanted to share something I put together yesterday, after being instantly inspired by an awesome quote I saw randomly on the web...

This actually spoke to me because I am ALWAYS finding that I compare myself to other photographers, who are far better than I am. And if I let it get to me too much, it really brings me down a bit. But I try not to dwell on that... in most cases, those photographers have much better equipment than I do also... instead of just having a point-and-shoot camera, and an old Sony from 2003 where the main feature is the Carl Zeiss lens. (Though I'm not saying it doesn't do an amazing job most of the time)

I'm going to remember this quote whenever I catch myself comparing to any photographer other than the one that I used to be. :)

Side note: Also, if you've noticed, the URL for this photoblog has changed, to reflect my portfolio website's URL (www.aprilbridges.com) so I apologize in advance for any confusion this may cause regarding the previous photos posted. I will be updating my copyright image shortly to reflect this change!