Don't look too close

So I spend a good part of some days working at the keyboard of my computer--not unlike many in this day and age.  It only seemed fitting to take a picture of the place where I can often be found.  I tried many different shots.  This is the one that impressed me the most.  The close-up shot made me think twice about cleaning my keyboard more often.  It is this view that brought to my mind the many stories of where germs lie around.  Don't look too close at the things you touch everyday--you might find them more revealing than you suspect.....

Don't look too close

Tool Box

It took me many years to finally find the right tool box to organize my tools in a way that has worked best for me.  A friend of mine had one of his well used Snap-on tool box chest of drawers for sale in a garage sale.  I snapped it up, had him drop it off and have never looked back.  My tools have finally found a permanent home and I love it.

Tool Box

Game On....

It's game night and once again my wife trounces me in Scrabble.  I can count the times I have won this game on the fingers of one hand.  You think I would learn.  The only way I can beat her is when we play on iPad because the computer does not let you get away with nonexistent words.  It also makes it easy to test words before you play to see if they are accepted.  But when I am left on my own accord, I just don't stand a chance against her.  My ego can still take it though because she always feels so good when she wins.  And one lesson I learned a very long time ago......Happy Wife, Happy Life!

Game On.....

Colored Toes

Spring brings out many things.  This shot found spring time colors on this pair of feet.  In the Filterstorm App I converted the photo to black and white and then painted the color back in on the toe nails and the dress.  This beautiful daughter-in-law of mine always finds the brightest and prettiest colors and this day was no exception.

Colored Toes

Home cooked rolls...the leftovers

Nothing left of the family favorite homemade rolls.  A big family party, a kitchen full of dough, an overheated kitchen, and sacks full of the best rolls ever. When they are hot out of the oven and covered with almost more butter than the bread then topped with gobs of homemade strawberry jam.....oh my!  They all disappear quickly and the only thing left over after the party is the pile of pans that cooked them.

Home cooked rolls....the leftovers

Distortion

After processing this photo in the PhotoStudio app and using one of its False Mirror filters, I began to wonder to myself -- Did Pablo Picasso have False Mirror glasses?  What do you think?

Distortion

Meet the Muppet

My wife's niece decided to make a muppet for her boss's child.  So she did some research and put her creative skills to work with several patterns and ideas she found on the internet.  The result--see below.  What do you think?  A talented young lady I think....

Meet the Muppet

It Takes All Kinds

This Daisy photo processed in  the PhotoStudio and Instagram apps brings out an eerie, yet unique, vision of the marvelous blossom.  By playing with the many processing possibilities the photographer is offered an infinite variety of output options.  Isn't that just like life?  Life is full of an infinite variety of people, situations, perceptions and visions.  Heck, if we were all the same, life would indeed be very boring!

It Takes All Kinds

Promvitation

Okay, having 4 daughters I have watched over the years as the high school dance invitations have morphed into major productions.  I know it is not just our high school when the Wall Street Journal publishes an article about the wild Promvitations kids are doing.  Sometimes they are fun and sometimes just crazy.  Not only are the invitations creative, wild and sometimes over-the-top, but then the person invited has to prepare a fancy way to answer the invitation.

Today's post comes from a moderate close-up of the bouquet of flowers left on our front porch--along with many other items--as part of the Promvitation my last daughter received for her first Prom dance coming up in May.  The flowers were beautiful, the invitation was creative and appropriate.  It was not one of the over-the-top things many kids are doing.  By the way, having raised 4 daughters and having been married to my sweetheart for over 33 years I have learned a very important lesson.  It is pretty obvious but if you are still clueless, let me explain it to you.....females LOVE flowers!

Promvitation

Rain Drain

Spring is such a great time of year!  Everything turns green, the weather is marvelous--not too hot, not too cold.  People come out into their yards more.  It rains and rains some more.  After an unfortunate basement flood last year from a defective window well, we now have extended rain gutter drains to put all that water off the roof well away from the house.  Today's post is from a ground level, close-up view of one such drain.  I love the versatile iPhone 4S camera.  It does a pretty good job of focusing up close even without adding a supplemental lens.

Rain Drain

Coils

Today's post comes from the coiled air hose on my air compressor in the garage. The fact that the hose is a bright yellow color amidst all the dark and greasy stuff in the garage makes it stand out and just beg to have its picture taken. For today's post I finally relented....

Coils

From the files....

I still have quite a few older daily photos that have not been included in this blog yet.  I started posting my daily iPhone photos onto Instagram (please, Facebook, do not mess up Instagram!) when I began my daily creativity challenge.  I posted there for awhile before beginning this site.  Here are some of those early pictures.  My goal is to get them all here over time.

Let's play ball!

This one was taken in Arizona.  We passed a roadside stand selling fresh fruits and vegetables.  The guy had the back of his pickup truck full of Mexican oranges.  They were excellent oranges.  We bought several bags full.

Sun-kissed Arizona oranges

This is still one of my favorites so far.  I love this little Lego guy--Joe.  He still shows up in my daily photos from time to time.

I can see clearly now!

What rocks your world?

Spring time is here.  With it comes the inevitable yard and landscaping tasks that have been hibernating all winter long.  In my garage I have a pile of rocks that are beginning to wake up and sense that they soon will leave the protection of the garage and venture out into their new home in the yard.  If you look closely you may see the excitement beginning to build in some of subjects of today's photo...

What rocks your world?

What makes your world go round?

Round and round we go.  Ever stop to wonder how many times the wheels on your car go around during their life?  However, it is on the wheel that the tire meets the road.  In other words, this is where it all happens.

What makes your world go round?

One of mankind's greatest inventions--Indoor Plumbing!

When I think of the many great inventions throughout the history of the world, there is always one that ALWAYS makes it into my top ten list--Indoor Plumbing!  Of course there are dozens of reasons why and a cold, rainy, wet spring morning today is just one of them...

One of mankind's greatest inventions--Indoor Plumbing!

Computer Geek Man Cave

For all of you who really love sitting in front of the computer for hours on end...I am not talking about gamers.  I have a close family relative who is a master at doing search engine optimization (SEO) work.  In fact, he can take on a client and have that client not just show up on page one of the search engines but actually dominate the page one search results where traffic is found in the client's niche.  It never fails.  In fact, one particular client actually had all ten spots on page one of a high traffic Google search for a period.  See his business website here.  Anyway, walking into his office gave me a new vision of the Man Cave.....

Computer Geek Man Cave

Gentlemen, Start Your Grills!

Spring is here.  Summer is around the corner.  The grills around the country are coming out of hibernation.  Although we actually use our grill year-round, we do use it much more as the weather turns warm.  This picture came to me as I recently went out to start the grill for a hamburger dinner.  Enjoy this great time of year!

Gentlemen, Start Your Grills!

Good Morning Sunshine!

Breakfast time always includes my eggs.  I usually have scrambled eggs--4 egg whites and one whole egg cooked up on my cast iron frying pan in a layer of coconut oil.  However, scrambled eggs are not that photogenic.  So when I fried up a couple of eggs for a lunch snack a few days ago, I put together this little composition using one of the eggs, some bread, cheese, a wheat tortilla, some pepper corns and a tiny piece of zucchini peel.

Good Morning Sunshine!

The Door Stops Here!

If only our politicians would learn to step up and take command responsibility.  Remember the sign on Truman's desk?  It said "The Buck Stops Here".  This saying derives from the slang expression "pass the buck" which means passing the responsibility on to someone else.  Well, today there are many critical decisions that have to be made by the leaders of our country.  While we may not be able to control their ability to decide, we can take a stand in our own personal lives.  When faced with a decision do you pass the buck?  All this came to mind when I shot today's picture shown below....

The Door Stops Here!

Oh Ya!

Fresh, made from scratch, right out of the oven cookies....  It does not get much better than that!  Now the dilemma--how to pack them so they don't get crushed but can be taken on a bus ride to share with friends.  Hmmm....  Finally found a great solution in the Mrs. Fields cookies tin left over from a Christmas gift.  It does protect the cookies well.  Unfortunately it leads friends to believe that they are only Mrs. Fields cookies (pretty good, mind you) instead of fresh, made from scratch, homemade cookies.  One bite cures this problem.....

Oh Ya!

My cup runneth over...

Today's photo is a simple little artificial plant used as part of our living room decor.

My cup runneth over...

Blast from the past

In my process to post each daily iPhone photo I have taken since I began my personal creativity challenge to do so, I still have many that were posted on Instagram in the past but have not yet made it to this blog.  This post is to catch up and post a few of those pictures from the past.

For years growing up I used to have a recurring nightmare that I would forget the combination to my school locker.  Every time I see a Master combination lock I recall these dreams...

Remember the combination

The first Star Wars movie was released almost 25 years ago.  Unbelievable!  I still remember the night I saw the film.  I was working in Santa Barbara selling books for the summer.  We had rented a space in a lady's home and went to the movie one night.  Upon exiting the theater we looked across town to the mountain side and the entire horizon was on fire.  A major forest fire was blazing!  I looked at my roommate and we both said, "Isn't our house over there?"  It was.  We hurried home to see the fire coming over the hill above where we were staying.  We quickly packed our belongings and prepared to evacuate.  For half the night we sat on the curb watching as people evacuated from their homes above.  Many would stop by us and just be crying as they watched their multi-million dollar homes go up in fire and smoke.  Luckily, the fire finally stopped as they had evacuated homes to within only a block of our location.  It was a memorable night--Star Wars and then the forest fire.

Started almost 35 years ago.  Wow!

A sea shell from our collection we keep in the bathroom as part of the decor.

Down by the sea....

Fry Baby, Fry!

For years I hated this stainless steel frying pan.  It was difficult to use.  Food always stuck to the bottom and it was almost impossible to clean.  Then one day I made a new discovery.  I did some research on the proper way to cook with a stainless steel frying pan.  Wow!  I just did not know what I was doing.  Now I enjoy this pan (along with my cast iron frying pan which is not nearly as photogenic) the most.  Secret?  I had to learn to properly preheat the pan which closes the pores in the steel and then use the right amount of oil.  When doing it right the food hardly ever sticks and it is a breeze to clean.

Fry Baby, Fry!

Surprise!

We recently through a surprise birthday party for our daughter.  As we cleaned up the decorations I noticed several pieces of confetti that could be arranged for a simple photo containing a message relating to the event.  These pieces were laid out on a table cloth for the photo which was then cropped, had a vignette added and the color temperature was changed (all in the Filterstorm app) and border #176 from the PhotoStudio app was added for the final product.  Enjoy!  Find your surprise in life today....

Surprise!

He is Risen! Happy Easter!

He is risen!  He is risen!

Tell it out with joyful voice.

He has burst His three days' prison;

Let the whole wide earth rejoice.

Death is conquered; man is free.

Christ has won the victory.

Happy Easter!

He is Risen!  Happy Easter!

Attitude!

You all know someone that fits this description, right?  At times, maybe even you.....?

Attitude!

Caged

So you get a new indoor dog kennel for your new puppy. Of course it takes some adjustment by the dog to like the thing since it is obvious, even to the dog, that upon entering the cage it gets locked in for extended periods. Of course the dog is not going to like it at first.

On the other hand, it quickly becomes a play toy novelty for the neighborhood kids, the nephews and the grandkids. They all have to check it out and try it out.

Caged

First Dip

This is the last in a series of three photos of my freshly opened Skippy jar.  Every peanut butter lover lives for this very moment!  Am I right?

First Dip

Ahhhh! Peanut butter hot tub.

Next in the series of the Skippy virgin peanut butter jar.

Ahhhh!  Peanut butter hot tub.

How to:
This one was easy.  I just opened a new jar of Skippy, placed Joe in the middle of the virgin surface, placed the jar on my white kitchen countertop under the incandescent kitchen lights.  There was not enough light into Joe's face so I turned on a Surefire flashlight and pointed the beam to light up his face.  The picture was snapped.  I started in the Filterstorm app by cropping to a square, adding a little saturation and sharpening.  Then in the PhotoStudio app I added the vignette and my frame (I add the same frame to every picture I post.  It is number 176 in the PhotoStudio app list of photo effects.).

I am catching up slowly

Here are a few more of the photos from my past daily posts to Instagram (I am slowly catching up by bringing every photo from my daily iPhoto challenge to this blog).

Arizona provides some beautiful desert landscaping.  In the right light it becomes even more appealing.

Desert flower

Schnepf Farms in San Tan Valley, Arizona offers hundreds of acres of local farm produce, farm animal displays, park like areas for the family, a few rides for the kids, great food and fun activities for all.  It is worth stopping by for a visit and some local crops.  One of their colorful signs caught my camera's attention during our visit:

Pig face at Schnepf Farms

Old things tend to stand out from the ordinary.  This old and rusted produce scale hanging among several just like it from the same time period just shouted out for some attention.

Weights and Measures

A few more of the previously created posts

I am old enough to remember my parents filling up their gas tank when gas was $0.25 per gallon.  Today things are little different which gave rise to this photo reflecting reality:

Let's go fill the gas tank

An early March trip to Paris, Idaho made for some fantastic snowmobiling over a couple of days.  The powder was 2-3 feet deep, the crowds were nonexistent and the riding was superb!  Makes me happy to have a friend with high performance snowmobile sleds.  His were not the kind my parents could even handle.  One of our stops found us at the Ice Cave where this photo was captured:

Snow cornice at The Ice Cave, Paris, ID

In contrast, just a week apart we had been in Phoenix, Arizona--land of the Saguaro cactus monsters that stand so majestically against the sky.

Reach for the sky...

Cowabunga!

Today's post is the first in a series around the Skippy Peanut Butter jar.  Don't you just love opening a new jar of peanut butter and seeing the fresh, undisturbed swirls of peanut butter spread?  Once the peanut butter is touched it is never the same again.  The virgin surface just begs to be scooped, touched and played with before any knife digs in to take a serving.  Joe (the Lego guy for you newcomers) thinks the same way.  Here he goes on his dive into that beautiful, untouched, fragrant peanut butter surface....

Cowabunga!

Life is short. Eat desert first.

The title of today's post sums it all up.

Life is short.  East desert first.

Celebrate! Life is good!

What do you have to celebrate today? Surely there are innumerable aspects of even our daily existence that we can celebrate. Pondering on these helps me realize that indeed, life is good! Can you find something today to celebrate?

Celebrate!  Life is good!