Love comes in all colors....

Those are the words on a plaque that hangs in our house...right next to one that says, "We welcome strays..." and those two phrases have caused us to add to our family again...please welcome Willow.  She is a 6 year old Apricot Tortie Point Siamese that I found at our local animal shelter.  It took us a long time to open our hearts again after losing Sophie - or maybe we were just waiting for the right one to come along.  Willow was surrendered because her owner became too ill to care for her any longer.  She was only at the shelter for 2 weeks when I spotted her and she was scared and just really needed to get the heck out of there and into a good home - and there is no better home than with the Derings!  She adjusted to her sisters - and they adjusted to her - in record time.  After just 48 hours she was out of quarantine and had full run of the house.  She's been with us a little over a week and she's really coming out of her shell.  She is quite beautiful, don't you think?

In fact, she's so comfortable....

...that she's going places where she doesn't REALLY belong...

...sigh....but isn't she cute?  lol!!

When Kilgores collide....

This is what it looks like - a whole lot of Kilgore cheeks and blue eyes going on here - me and my brothers at the diner on a Sunday morning.  I don't often have the luxury of having them both in the same zip code at the same time, so when I do it's picture taking time.  Bill was here for the weekend visiting with Mom...love you guys!

January 20, 1984...(tissue alert! tissue alert!)

Dear Daddy,
I woke up this morning with a heavy heart, missing you - and this picture was in my minds eye. I couldn't settle down until I found it, tucked away in an album full of photographs and memories. What a happy day, the day that I graduated from Geneseo. Within seconds of this picture being snapped, you kissed the top of my head and said, "I'm proud of you Tree..." ( you always left the "sa" off the end of my name...I loved that!)...I never would have thought that you would slip quietly from my life 8 months later. I thought it was tough, being just 22 and losing you and your support and your guidance - what I know now is that 28 years later, it's no less tough...I miss you Dad, I really miss you. Every day. Watch over me from your Lay-z-Boy lounger in heaven; guide me, help me... please.
I love you,
Tree (sa!)

A little fun with some new toys that I got for my camera...

Brian got me a new flash for Christmas - Canon's 580EX II.....omg, I love it!  That,  along with a macro lens and some new remote radio triggers allowed me to take some pretty cool shots of water and "freezing" the droplets as they fell into a bowl with a moderate shutter speed.  I powered down 2 flashes with radiopoppers and set the camera on a tripod ISO 100 f/11and 1/250 sec and placed a third light under the bowl.  With a little trial and error, this is what I and my trusty assistant (Brian) we able to capture..pretty cool stuff!

POTW - week 53

week 53 - I thought a lot about this last image for the year and what it would be....it's been a heck of a year to say the least...too many hurts and disappointments and not enough happiness and laughter.  My resolution for 2012 and the point of this picture is to put happiness and celebrations first this year...starting with NYE 2011!  I have a lot to celebrate this year - and a lot to accomplish before some of those celebrations can happen, so I'm backing off from the photo-of the-week thing and concentrating my efforts on completing my doctorate.  There are a pile of books to my left as I type this that I just cannot ignore any longer - time to get'er done!  So that's where I will be for a while - dissertation hell....feed me coffee, tell me you love me occasionally and I'll come out to play....but the resolution for 2012 is to be Dr. Dering before the ball drops again :) 
Thanks for the comments and for being so supportive of this photographic journey of mine - it was great fun and I learned a lot....my photos got better as the year went by, don't you think?

POTW - week 52

week 52 - sometimes 'home' is where your friends are...this Christmas we got to spend time with our dear friends Rebecca and Keith. They and their families treated us to an amazing prime rib dinner, much booze, board games and a whole lot of laughter! It was a wonderful Christmas day!

POTW - week 51

week 51 - Just before Christmas I had the honor of photographing some cancer survivors at a support group holiday party.  Brian and I donated our time and talents to the group by taking portraits of cancer survivors and giving them a print of the final product.  This was, by far, one of my favorite shots of the evening.  I see courage in her smile and life in her eyes...