Just needing a little color  – digging into the archives from last August.  This was taken at Urban Oasis in Seattle – a neat little vacation rental that I’ve mentioned before, with an award winning garden – gorgeous!!

The other day I had some Chinese for lunch at work.  Some Kung Pao Chicken, medium spicey, to be exact.  Why I am talking about Kung Pao Chicken when I have a photo of ants here for illustration?  Very good question.  I dropped a piece of zuchinni that was covered with Kung Pao Chicken sauce under my desk.  I picked up the zuchinni and threw it in the trash, wiped up the spill, finished my lunch and then looked down at the floor.  Yep, covered in ants.  Living under my desk apparently.  Must have missed a spot.

While my co-worker went downtown to buy some ant traps and ant spray, I got my camera out, laid down on the floor and took some photos.  Some not very good photos.  My “busy as a bee” title from my last post could have been aptly applied here as “busy as an ant”.  The lighting under the desk wasn’t optimal – I had the aperture wide open and the ISO pretty high, but I still couldn’t get a very fast shutter speed.  I suppose I could have used my flash, but I don’t like flash.  This does, however, give you a sense of how quickly they were cleaning up what was left of the sauce.

An Epiphanie Bag, that is.  I pre-ordered it way back in December and it arrived about two weeks ago.  I wanted a stylish camera bag that would do double duty as a purse, as well, and the Epiphanie Bags certainly do that.  Maile Wilson is the creator of the Epiphanie Bags and she’s a photographer, so she knew exactly what the bag should include.  Right now she has three styles of bags – the Ginger, which is the one I have, the Lola, which is a fun red bag, and the Belle, which is a gorgeous turquoise.

The outside of the bag has superb construction and is made out of a water-resistant synthetic leather that is really hard to tell it is faux.  It has that really cool metal camera tag thingie.  It has four exterior pockets.  It has a very nicely padded shoulder strap, as well as two handles.  One little quibble is that I was kind of expecting the pocket on the back side of the bag to be the same as the front of the bag (there were no photos of the back of the bag on the website) and it instead was a small pocket, so I wasn’t able to fit all of my “purse” items in the bag. 

The inside of the bag  can be configured however you want with the velcro panels.  Originally I had my main camera, my backup and my spare lenses, but with my purse items in the bag, too, it was too heavy to be comfortable to carry around, so I took my backup camera out.  There are a couple of small things that I think could improve the bag.  An additional pocket on the inside would be really nice, feet on the bottom of the bag to help protect the bag from wear and tear, and a larger pocket on the back of the bag.  I also wish the top of the bag was a little wider than the bottom, to make it easier to get equipment in and out of the bag.

I must admit I wasn’t quite sure when I first got it whether I was going to truly like it, but after using it on a daily basis for two weeks, I can honestly say I’m happy I got it.  There are a couple of other new sites out there selling stylish women’s camera bags, with prices equivalent to or higher than the Epiphanie Bags, so do your research.  Then go buy an Epiphanie Bag!

[Edited to add]  I forgot one of the most important little facts.  Maile and Epiphanie Bags are giving away a fantastic prize – go to Epiphanie Bags and then click on her blog link to learn more about it – or alternatively, click on the link in Sue’s comment, below.  You’ll be glad you did!

I love my son, but he brought more stuff to my home tonight for me to store.  I don’t really have room for it, but to be honest, most of what he brought is actually his brother’s stuff.  Neither one of them have much room for storage.  This weekend I will be as busy as this bee cleaning out their old closets and reorganizing so I can get the pile out of my dining room and out of my glass studio.  Maybe I’ll start tonight…

Sorry for my lack of blog visits this past week.  I was busy doing two things…preparing my post for Vision and Verb, which is now up for your reading and viewing pleasure, and preparing for a bridal show yesterday – ordering new prints and a proof portfolio, as well as some rep cards that are really cool and about half the size in height as a standard business card – very popular with those in attendance.  Framing prints, ironing table coverings, working on a wedding contract and finalizing my price list.  It was a busy week.

I was a nervous wreck once I got to the bridal show.  I felt completely outclassed by the other photographers there, with their professional displays, massive amounts of photos, flush mount and layflat albums, as well as slideshow presentations.  It is really hard to be just starting out and promoting a business – I just don’t have all the samples to show.  The ones that stopped by my booth with whom I had an opportunity to talk didn’t seem to mind.  I didn’t book any weddings while at the show, but I still feel it was worthwhile to attend.  I took notes for the next show, so I can make some improvements.

It was also fun to people watch.  Right across from my booth was this DJ, pictured above, that was dressed in a red zoot suit and matching fedora.  We got to chat for a little bit and it seems he is quite the dancer, having appeared in a couple of movies, one with Cuba Gooding Jr.  He gives lessons, too – just wish he lived closer!  I wanted to take my camera out earlier and just take photos of all the different shoes that the ladies were wearing, from sneakers and flip flops to 5″ spike heels, but I wasn’t sure how the ladies would feel about it so I left the camera in my bag, which was fine.

Head on over to Vision and Verb to check out my post, which was inspired by a friend.  I didn’t want it to totally be about him, consequently I struggled for words while writing it.  It’s really a post about a word, one impossibly delicious word.  Well, I find it a delicious word.  I hope you find it worth the read.