Photography

Tuesday’s Tell-All (I’m Just Not that Good at Being Smart)

/ Janna Hill / Leave a comment

I tend to lag in technology, often years behind the rest of the civilized world. I never claimed to be tech-savvy or even civilized, okay?

Truth is I only got a “smart phone” this year for lack of choices. I went kicking and screaming into the “smart” realm with no intention of using it for more than basics.

After a few months [eight really] I installed the Facebook app. Apparently you need a second app for Messenger so I hit the okay/install that too button.

Alright. Welcome to the year 2017.

So there I was creeping Facebook on my desktop, minding my own business while the app did its thing and suddenly I am bombarded with alarms. The phone started chiming erratically,  messages were rolling in with GIFs and crazy stickers and emoji’s. At the same time my cousin is texting me, asking if I just sent her something.

No! Oh hell, this demon possessed phone has a mind of its own!

To make a long [list of deleting apps] story short… My daughter explained the particularly bothersome app; how Messenger notifies your Facebook contacts with a suggestion to wave/interact.

Oh.

Well I waved bye to most of the apps and went back to using the phone as a paperweight.

Yeah.

I understand now why people are glued to their devices. Bless their hearts, I’m just not that good at being smart.

 

 

Tuesday’s Tell-All (My Life is a Bad Reality Show)

/ Janna Hill / 1 Comment

In May I introduced the newest member of our family, Pretty Kitty Puddin Jam.

In July I talked about Pretty Kitty Puddin Jam wanting to be a star and the attitude that ensued.

Now I have to tell you…

Hold on, this has been a hard thing for me to understand…

[sigh]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pretty Kitty is…

Pretty Kitty Puddin Jam (aka PKPJ) is….

Oh hell Jam is a Jim!

I know! I am so naïve… so unsophisticated!

I was also a bit distraught when I found out.

I tried to normalize the situation by calling him Jim but he refused to answer.  By this point I was so flustered I threatened to have him castrated… emasculated… de-dinglized.

He snubbed the threat and mewed, Pretty Kitty Puddin Jaaam.

“No!” I argued, “You are a tom – a Jim! Girls do not have tally-whackers!”

PKPJ then he purred two words that clarified everything –

Caitlyn. Jenner.

[Blubbering sigh]

I conceded to let him keep his male genitalia but no more news rags or television AND no more pretty bows!

 

 

No Such Thing As Ghosts

/ Janna Hill / Leave a comment

Ernest Hemingway’s study in Key West, Florida.

Note the portrait in the background. Sorry, I don’t know who the artist is but I thought it meshed well with the poem No Such Thing as Ghosts. I snapped this photo last February after a long ride through the keys with Ernie. 😉

No Such Thing As Ghosts completes chapter 17 in Unjustified Favor (Clan Destiny Book III)  after an ordeal forces Lawrence Jeffcoat to rethink his beliefs.

… ghosts were manifestations of irrational fears and folklore. Ghouls, phantoms, spirits – those were make-believe stories invented for campfires and fiction.

HEMINGWAY'S STUDY OVER POOLHOUSE (1024x650)
Hemingways ghost in portrait

Embedded images leave their trace

Like fossil shells have marked their place

Many share this tiny space

Though each in their own time

 

The essence of an empty room

The hint of a gardenia’s bloom

A peek in to the sixth sense loom

All treasures of the mind

 

Shadows catch the outer eye

Wind railed whispers cross the sky

Nothing ever really dies

They simply pass beyond

—

 

Tuesday’s Tell All (Personality Shots)

/ Janna Hill / Leave a comment

I told you last week that we were going [back] to the beach or maybe I implied it with a photo. I do tend to live my life in snaps and captions, that’s just how I roll. Yep – I am a rolling stone. Never mind the moss clinging to my body that just means I roll a little slow. Don’t snicker; remember The Tortoise and the Hare? The Tortoise and the Hare, baby!

On these occasions I try to lay the camera down and enjoy the moment… let my hair down … and sometimes my guard.

It is not always easy or even do-able but I did it; I relinquished the anal rigidity and chillaxed and guess what? I found out I am not the only one who can take a picture or take control.

The camera caught us tired and sunburned after a day at the beach; fresh out of the shower, pouting, pondering, laughing and maybe crying; discussing or just waking up. Some would say we were caught at our worst. I would like to believe we were at our finest; vulnerable and real and in natural form.

D call’s this collection Personality Shots. Thanks D.

What a clan!

These are only a fraction of the photos taken and a small portion of my tribe.

Sorry, the characters of the Clan Destiny series couldn’t join us, this was a G rated adventure.

Once Upon a Dead Gull (TBT)

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Throw back Thursday.

Rated G for gross

dead gull (4) (1024x682)

The gruesome photograph that inspired the title [and the book cover] for Once Upon a Dead Gull.  That was 3 1/2 years ago and [amazingly] this cover hasn’t changed.

A peculiar short story anthology, I admit, but it was written for the horror genre.
Even more peculiar is that none of these stories are about a dead gull.
The poor seagull’s parting gift to mankind…  to me, was simply to inspire a title I had been struggling with.