Elephants? Then we must be in Tuscaloosa!
These elephant statues were outside the hotel where Gina and Michael and I stayed Friday night. Who knew elephants were indigenous to my birth state?
© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.
Pea in a pod
Today’s photo is of baby Henry (again). He’s fast becoming my favorite bambino to photograph because he’s such a happy baby. Stephanie stopped by yesterday and hauled in this carrier completely enclosed (where’s Henry?) and when she undid the top, here’s what I saw….baby Henry, snuggled in and smiling (as usual)!
© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.
The $500 free fish
HERE’S THE SCENARIO: My friend Gina’s beau-friend, Rob, was remodeling his house over a year ago. He had this then-5-year-old pleco (and he is already about a foot long—the fish, not Rob) in a 55-gallon tank in his kitchen. Apparently Spot did not figure into the remodeling scheme and since we already had goldfish (and knew a bit about the fish world), he asked us if we wanted the fish—tank and all. We enthusiastically said yes!
And so, renamed Spot for obvious reasons (don’t recall his original name), said fish made his bumpy journey the 4-5 miles from Rob’s house to ours in a huge tupperware container. We already had a 29-gallon tank housing three goldfish in my studio. After heading out the next day to the aquarium store to buy a black metal stand for the tank (Rob had a homemade pine 2×4 contraption that just didn’t fit into my studio decor, so we politely declined that accessory), we assembled the free 55-gallon tank on the stand and inserted free Spot into his free home with his free pump and accessories. (While out buying the metal stand, Michael upgraded the pump and impulsively bought decorative items and such at the store).
Later that evening, after Spot’s big move was completed, Michael sits down to dinner and casually says, “the tank is bowing.” I notice there is no panic on his face, so I begin to do the freaking-out for him. He says, “oh, don’t worry, I braced it with vice clamps!” Ugh…men! The strut across the center (depth-wise) of the tank was broken, so the tank appeared to bow a bit front to back. I could just imagine it exploding in the night and Spot fending for himself on the Berber carpet….and water, water, everywhere! Knowing I would lose sleep from that point on (not to mention how unsightly bright orange clamps look on the tank), I sent Michael out to buy a new 55-gallon tank. While en route, he pondered the size of the (rather large) goldfish we had in the 29-gallon tank and decided they needed a larger tank, too…and why don’t we just buy another 55-gallon tank to house them? It would be a nice balance side-by-side to Spot’s new home. Of course it would…so I put my stamp of approval on that idea (I know, let’s blame it on my star sign, Libra, the scales—we’re all about balance, you know). Of course, that necessitated another stand, pump, accessories, etc.
A few months later, declaring that Spot “must be awfully lonely,” Michael adds in a few new gourami friends (four separate trips required to purchase these friends due to the fact that they all kept wanting to go to “rainbow bridge”) …now you can see why we call Spot our “$500 free fish.” Many thanks, Rob. 
(I must confess, though, that Spot has been a model fish-pet. I really have no complaints—other than the fact that he wasn’t really free after all.)
SIDEBAR: Wikipedia claims they can grow up to two feet long. Egads, this fish is going to end up costing even more than $500, if that proves true! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plecostomus
Currier & Ives
This was shot the morning after the first snowfall of the year. I think we got about three inches total. I converted this photo to b&w (after all, snow lends itself to b&w easily).
I had to go into D.C. yesterday morning to photograph a client’s 50th Anniversary Luncheon and had the misfortune of having to drive through this stuff. Ambulances and police cars everywhere…had to pull over so many times that I completely got off my MapQuest directions and was almost running late. It took me from 9:30-11:45 to go from Alexandria to Gallaudet University in D.C. I think that’s less than 15 miles from here to there! And the event ran later so I got stuck in rush hour traffic returning. Yay for me! I’m sooooo grateful I’m self-employed and my commute is usually just four flights of steps down to my basement studio.
© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.
Something fishy
Okay….so today was very cold and very windy…and I had much design work to do…and it was the 11th hour and I still had not made one photo. Until now, that is.
© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.
Mother and child 12.02.2007
I photographed Stephanie, husband Tom, and baby Henry at her home yesterday as a congrats gift to the family. Henry was born September 25, 2007 and is very much doted on by his parents!
© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.
Beauty and grace
Taking up the challenge: Brian, my ex-boss and longtime friend and mentor, has challenged me to a photo-per-day for the month of December. I think I’ll carry it through past December, if I’m able to and don’t run out of inspiration (is that even possible?).
So, here is my first entry…I photographed a young dancer, Alexa, who was performing in The Nutcracker on Saturday evening. We’ll be profiling her in an issue of Hearing Loss Magazine in 2008. I’ll post more photographs from performance on my main blog, www.cindydyer.wordpress.com.
© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.
