The calendar took all month but was only one of my September projects. I’ve also been working on the Shop 4 Jewelry, looking for a job, working on photos, spending way too much time online, and dreaming of play and travel. At the beginning of September I asked, where did the summer go? Somehow it doesn’t feel like I’ve gotten anything done since returning from my July vacation.
I picked up a project begun at least four years ago, setting up an online store for all the jewelry 4 sale. It’s a rather huge and daunting project and the previous ecommerce plugin was not very user friendly. Thank goodness WooCommerce automatically adapted to the old plugin’s data so I picked up where I left off and a lot of it is intuitive so far. Taking photos of product is a whole new arena.
About a year ago I bought a portable lightbox kit with cube and lights. The box opens and closes like one of those ornery windshield sun screens. Opened it is a 2 foot cube. Rather large for RV life. Yet I made a place in the house to set it up and began the struggle of shooting product. With a tripod and without, flash or no flash, both cameras, and even the phone. Any item in the “Shop 4 Jewelry” with a white backdrop is recent. Black is from the first attempt.
Plus, the jewelry item has to be polished before the photo as part of this process. Years of tarnish buildup has slowed me down. It’s not as easy as I thought it would be so I’ll keep plodding along on this project.
Looking for a job is another ongoing project. But I’m picky. Real picky. First of all, there are no jobs in Yarnell. Hell, there’s only a few businesses here. Couldn’t be more than two plus the Dollar Mall actually open seven days a week. I’m not interested in driving 30-60 minuets to Wickenburg or Prescott for some probably minimum-wage retail job. I’ve been applying for the Park Ranger jobs I’m interested in and qualified for. For winter season they are few and exceptionally competitive. Nothing yet.
Thanks Joann
Did get a few good sunset shows worth driving part-way down Yarnell Hill followed by weeks of typical Arizona blue skies.
I dreamed of a road trip to Flagstaff to shoot flowers with maybe a loop drive through Sunset Crater and Wupatki National Monuments. But no.
Yarnell is at the top of the hill
I started a Nepholography group on Facebook because I love to photograph clouds. Feel free to join. So that’s something else to add to September projects, and beyond.
I’ve had lots of time to label, process, and upload photos to several different sites including my own. Sold a print of the lightning at Grand Canyon last month, thank you to somebody in Colorado. Haven’t quite made a dollar off digital downloads on ShutterStock. This is a fun project and I keep track of what photos go where.
I’m barely two months behind labeling photos and having just started the last “vacation” makes me long to be on the road.
Yet another ongoing project is backing up data and photos at least twice on external drives. This lead me to bring the big PC from the 5th-wheel to the house (Have I mentioned how I live from three places right now, like an oversized house with outdoor hallways.) and attach it to the huge TV with an HDMI cord. Haven’t seen that PC in almost a year. Sure is cool to see photos on this 2×3 foot TV screen which must be pretty high resolution. Hey, I finally found a use for the TV.
I attended the Yarnell/Peeples Valley Country Fair, a fund raiser for Meals on Wheels, at the historic school house. Friends were drumming, painting, playing and trying to win the funny hat contest. I bought six tickets for $5 and ate a three-ticket hotdog and a three-ticket desert, the last piece of Jane’s delicious and award winning zucchini pie.
Ever since, I’ve been dreaming of a Dazzos Chicago Italian Beef Sandwich found in Wikieup a couple hours away. Would make a great day trip driving in a loop via Bagdad and Kirkland back home. Hasn’t happened, yet.
After weeks of blue skies, clouds come in, temperatures drop a bit, a light rain falls, petrichor. Fall really is on the way with the Autumn Equinox celebrated. More lovely sunsets.
Jim texted me one morning that he’s watching a bush covered with butterflies. At first I dismissed it. But then drove over to look. OH MY WOW! He wasn’t kidding about the six foot Desert Broom bush being almost literally covered with butterflies. At first thought to be Monarchs. Yet turns out the majority are Queens, just a little smaller than Monarchs and slightly different pattern. Others were attracted to the flowers like American Snout and Painted Lady butterflies, plus bees, tarantula wasps, flies and of course me. Some neighbors rode past on their bikes and returned with cameras. This went on for almost three days. Then the first of the rain preceding Hurricane Rosa thinned them out and we don’t know where they went. Queens don’t necessarily migrate to Mexico and are residents in Tucson.
Now I’m waiting for the calendars to arrive so I can get shipping them out. I probably drove you crazy last month asking for advice on the final calendar photo selections. I truly thank you. Now just put those orders in if you haven’t already.
On the first of September I asked myself, where did the summer go? Of course, being in Arizona it will still feel like summer for a while, and I’m just fine with that. I love, and could happily live with a perpetual, summer. And now it’s the first of October and I’m asking, where did September go. I really want to take a trip and see fall colors. I must need a new photography project for October.
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