Think I’ve haven’t got some new wares to introduce this holiday season? Think again!

Yes, I’ve got my plate over-full many areas this time ’round, but I have been finding a little time to sneak into the studio. Luckily, some things are just coming out in time to feed the shopping rush! Look out this week for some brand-spankin’-new beer steins over in my Etsy shop, like the sexy red mug, above.

I think around the holidays, many women face the question: What the heck kind of handmade gift can you really buy a man? Problem solved!

Ever heard of a shy tomato?  Maybe it’s just a tomato waiting for it’s moment in sun (or the sauce, as it may be).

Sort of like me right now…Looking around through the lens of my camera, enveloped in my own little world…

Well, this soap dish does. I don’t really know why I wrote that particular message on there – maybe tired of someone using my expensive bath products in the shower?

Either way, I rather like it. A soap dish for those of us who are righteous and grumpy in the morning…

My assignment last week was finding the geometric shapes in organic objects, for which I talked my way into a greenhouse where I used to work in college. Cacti and interesting patterns galore. I think this may be my favorite assignment so far – I loved getting up close and personal with the plants and making miniature landscapes out of a few leaves.

Many of the plants I photographed were the very same ones I pruned, carefully replanted and researched while I was conducting an inventory of the building in 2002. Many still had little labels in my own handwriting. It was fun to see which have grown and which are in bloom. A little like visiting old friends!

Yes, the lame pun title is well-deserved.

You see, since the weather turned cold my littlest cat has made the top of my radio her favorite place to curl up and sleep. Several times now, D. or I have heard mysterious voices from the living room in the night – only to find that she’s turned on the radio and set the dial to some weird channel in between classical music and religious talk shows (maybe that’s what cats like to listen to at 3 a.m.?)

This past Sunday, both D. and I got up extra early and left for our weekend shifts at work. Not too long after, D. got several frantic calls from our landlord, demanding to know what in the world were doing that was so loud, it was waking up all our neighbors.

Uh-oh.

D. caught a cab home as fast as he could and he said he could hear the noise from outside the building! Apparently she turned on the radio to complete white noise, then sat on the volume button until it reached 100 percent. You can imagine that all the cats were hiding when he came in, or there would have been hell to pay!

Now we have to unplug the radio every time we go out. Darn cat. Why can’t she be like the other one, and just make photocopies on the copy machine when she’s bored? Now, if only we could teach the third one to wash the dishes…..

Even D. has not escaped my prying lens. I captured a few shots as he was working on the wheel a couple weeks ago, and I think they look gorgeous in black and white. I love the smooth look of the clay against the rough textures of towel and brick wall.

I also loved working with the editing tools in photoshop to pull out the deep blacks and bump up highlights – it brings every photo into this magical graphic world, where everything looks a little more sharp and dramatic. I could easily spend all afternoon on this!

Some of the outdoor shots of the church came out better, since there was a lot more light to work with.

I loved how everything about this building seemed ancient and worn, like I was stepping back into another century. But it was a real piece of work to capture that on film (or in pixels, strictly speaking). I had to use the frame of my shots to edit out cars, phone wires and other signs of the modern world. I am all the more impressed by professional photographers – it’s amazing how difficult it is to capture what my imagination sees on the actual image.

But, as with all things, I’m sure practice will help.

This week, I took my camera down to an old local church building and talked them into unlocking the main sanctuary for me. It’s an amazing room but has been abandoned for decades. The walls are starting to crumble, the stained glass is punctured with holes and cobwebs hang off the carved wood pews. I felt like the explorer of some ancient ruins, sneaking around and trying to capture a shot of a beam of  light piercing the dust.

Unfortunately, it was very dark. So dark that most my photos are too blurry to show. But I guess it was a case-in-point lesson on shutter speeds, and now I know that I seriously have to start traveling with my tripod.

And what would a photography lesson be without a little black and white action?