balloon.

dinner is -soon- served. blue dahlia hummus awaiting pick up. on m'way out m'green door, i grab camera 'just in case'. since when did i become a 'just in case i need this camera sometime in the next ten minutes kinda gal?' i don't know. i honestly use to despise photos. (ask one of best friends, kelly. i spent years dodging her and her snap happy photo finger each time she'd coo, "ooooh. picture time girrrrls.") cringe. this probably runs much deeper psychologically than i care to go or anyone cares to hear. but, maybe not. i just never appreciated posed pictures... they called back to childhood portraits in which we were all captured with tear-stained cheeks, obviously ironed khakis for brother and carefully coordinated Laura Ashley for girls... there we sat... uncomfortable... very few qualities of the end image resembling our actual personalities. or so we hoped.

to negate this experience. perhaps this is why i've found a new medium through the lens. (well, that and it's much cheaper and cleaner than the tubes of oil paint i'd casually blow through). as all outlets, it's a way to express perspective. the way i see things. not necessarily to show other people. but to show me. to save my own view in that moment.... to draw back on for inspiration.

i've fallen in love with my camera and in love with my subjects. i see the world differently because of this new outlet. no, seriously. i have. try it. carry a camera. discover what you've passed a million times over and may have never noticed.

i digress. often.

with one of my most favorite dinners in tow.... BD hummus. heading home. i pass a hot air balloon just east of I35, near 15th st. i stop. and shoot. what you can't see in this photo is the character in the basket... dressed as thomas jefferson. this is what i saw: