Day 134 – How we spent Mother’s Day

We got up bright and early and participated in Moms On the Run, a local organization that helps women with cancer to meet their living expenses while undergoing treatment. My co-worker, Rachel (a young mother of two boys), was diagnosed with breast cancer last December and is currently undergoing treatment. While our insurance is good, she is out for several months and at the time she was beginning treatment, her husband had been unemployed. For her, Moms on the Run was a just the help she needed at a very challenging time.

Rachel’s Pirates for the Cureibbean were out in force today.

All the pictures of the day can be found at my SmugMug Mother’s Day gallery (I’m sounding like Disperser!), but here are a few from the day.

This next shot was supposed to be a shot of the crowd. I held my camera up and thought I was shooting straight out. Instead I got these two women. I like the composition with just them and everyone else’s legs and feet.

We did the 5K walk through the neighborhood around Reno High and then through Idlewild Park along the Truckee River. It was a gorgeous day and a beautiful setting.

After the walk, we headed across the river to the Pneumatic Diner, a tiny restaurant that seats maybe 30 people at tiny tables and specializes in vegetarian and vegan fare. Surprisingly, it wasn’t as busy as it usually is on Sunday mornings.

Sweetie had a vegan pecan waffle and eggs.In the picture above you can see a person putting their own fixings on their waffle. Yep, that’s how they roll at Pneumatic. Daughter and I each had the Vegan Bubba with Slab (grilled tofu).

I think we may have found a new Mother’s Day tradition!

Day 98 – Shapes, Shadow and Light

Just playing around with the olive oil bottle.

I like how Maya’s shape is echoed by the edge of the sofa.

Day 24 – Wagon Wheel

Believe it or not, this is about a block away from where I work! I found some other intriguing stuff there too, so I’ll have to go back and shoot again. On side note, I started my lighting class tonight. It’s going to be a lot of work, but I am really looking forward to learning a lot.

Day 23 – Snow Flowers

We woke to some much-needed snow. Again, it didn’t last, but it was a much healthier dump (and much wetter) than the last storm that came through. I took these just as I was leaving for work this morning. We let our wild flowers just stay long after they’ve lost their petals. I see beauty in every phase of their brief lives.

Day 22 – Withered Vine

We have a grape-vine that crawls over the latticed roof of our deck. This portion of vine was hanging over the far corner of the deck and I took several shots, changing the exposure with each try. While the sky is completely blown out in this photograph, I actually like it best of all of because it shows light through the leaves and emphasizes the curves and shadows of the vine. It almost has a studio lighting quality to it.

Day 21 – Caucus Day

Nevada Democrats met all over the state today to caucus in our individual precincts. Just like in Iowa and other caucus states, the precinct caucuses are the first step in selecting our party’s presidential nominee (no contest this time), selecting delegates for the county convention, submitting planks for the party platform, and to rally the troops for the election to come. I shot a lot of pictures and really liked this one of my friend and how intently she’s listening. I started the day shooting with my flash but didn’t like how the photos were turning out, not to mention that it was distracting to the caucus goers, so I dispensed with the flash and bumped my ISO to 800. I don’t generally like to go that high due to the noise, but sometimes ya gotta do what ya gotta do. And the results were much better.

Day 20 – Broken Bird

I slipped out to the duck pond by NV Energy again today. Amidst all the geese, ducks and coots, this little guy caught my eye. Hopping along on one leg, he didn’t appear to feel the least bit sorry for himself, but he just broke my heart. I converted the shot to black and white. It seemed fitting.

Day 19 – Fire

I went out at about 1:30 with my camera and saw some smoke in the sky. Given the nature of the topography in Reno and the Truckee Meadows, it is often difficult to tell where a fire is located. However, this fire appeared to be fairly close because the smoke was moving quickly and starting to move into south Reno.

I took this picture because I liked the size and beauty of the tree. But those aren’t clouds in the background. It is smoke.

When I got back to work at 2pm there was a voice mail from my boss letting me that he had to leave as there was a brush fire in his area. I checked in with him a little while ago and they have just evacuated. Snow and rain were forecast for this afternoon but it is just now that we are starting to get some precipitation. A tiny bit. We really have no idea how many homes have been lost.

It is Reno’s second major fire in less than two months.