Nicci Photography

Reno, Sparks and Goodreads giveaway

It’s kind of fun what you can capture through a windshield. I was able to snap these shots on our trek to Reno on Saturday to retrieve one of the famous Nothing Bundt Cake’s for Mother’s Day. (Carrot cake, yum.)

As you can see, it was a chilly day.

So to warm you up I have this photo from Sparks, a sister city of Reno, taken on Mother’s Day.

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I thought the house looked so cozy and the colors were warm and cheerful. While dark threatening clouds are dramatic, these puffy white ones in a blue sky are comforting and pretty.

I hope you have a great week.

PS If you are in the US and a Goodreads member, I’m running a giveaway for a free print copy of Third Strike’s the Charm. To enter, go to my website: Nicci Carrera Events.

Nicci Photography

Statue of Los Altos

Happy Friday, my friends! I hope you have had a great week and that you have a wonderful weekend. California is getting rain and snow, AGAIN, which is wonderful.

Here is an image I worked up for you. Hope you like it.

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Nicci Photography, Uncategorized

Lake Tahoe

Sorry for the delay in my Friday post, and thank you for waiting. I knocked off early from writing today and went out to get these photos of Lake Tahoe. Enjoy!

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We’ll be driving home tomorrow. We are probably done skiing for the season. We are so happy to have had a winter with snow and are feeling good that we appreciated it by skiing a lot. I’m looking forward to getting back home. We have a few social things planned. I’ll be meeting friends to write at a cafe on Monday, then there’s a wonderful celebration on Saturday, my mother-in-laws 90th birthday. I am going to make two cakes, an angel food with strawberries (no whipped cream because she doesn’t like it) and a lemon bundt cake with powdered sugar sprinkled on top. I plan to use homegrown meyer lemons to make it.

What do you have planned?

Nicci Photography, Uncategorized

Some photos from before the storm

I meant to put up pictures today, but I forgot and spent the day writing. I hope you all had a productive week. I can report I’ve written my three chapters for the Harlequin call, now I just have to edit them. That’s a lot easier, so I’m happy about that. Of course then there is the matter of writing the rest of the book! It will happen.

I went out yesterday to ski and the storm is coming in, the one that was to drop zillions of gallons of rain. The snow must be wiped out. The parking lot was a river, and our roof, which I think is more used to snow, leaked. However, I’m not complaining. All that water is going into Lake Tahoe, the Truckee River, and the forests.

I didn’t take my camera with me and the clouds coming in were so beautiful I was desperate to take a photo, enough to use my phone camera. I have a phone that is a lemon when it comes to the phone hardware. It won’t focus properly but most of the bad part of the photo is on the right, so I cropped and clarified a bit and at least I can show you the clouds.

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Have a great weekend.

Nicci Photography

A wonderful sport for children

On Saturday, a friend invited me to her son’s final Nordic race of the season, at Auburn Ski Club near Boreal Ridge, which is a resort on the summit of Interstate 80. Kids from all over and from all levels of fitness were competing. Families of every origin were there to cheer them on. The front runners were so fast one actually lapped the other kids! The ones who finished last inspired me the most.

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Off to the races!

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Free as a bird…

Have a great week!

Nicci Photography, Writing craft, Writing Life

Some interesting angles from the forest

How was your week?

I’ve had my head down working on the new book for the Harlequin call. I have had some exercise as I’m trying to make that a priority again. I’ve written one chapter and exercised three times since Monday. Small steps.

It’s funny with category romance. People look at them and say, oh that’s easy to write. But any book that looks easy to write is only because the writer is very skilled! Harlequin has very clear branding in their different lines. Readers buy them for a consistent experience. Writing to the requirements is challenging. I think I understand the requirements, but there is a matter of coming back again and again to the examples and seeing if the concept I came up with will meet them. I hope it does, but of course I also have to write a book that reflects me. There’s really no point in being someone else! I do believe the book I’m writing does that, so it is win win. I’m gaining more experience by attempting a very exacting type of book, learning more about classic romance, and writing a book that reflects my background and values, my style, or “voice.” At the end of the project, I intend to have a good book, regardless of whether the editors at Harlequin want it.

Hey, I found some more interesting angles from that forest outing. Enjoy! And happy weekend.

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Nicci Photography

Big Basin State Park

The planning of the new book is going well. But what you really want to see are the shots from Big Basin State Park where I went on a shoot with my photography friends Anne Sandler and Marlene from Sacramento.

The first thing we learned was the Santa Cruz Mountains have their own weather. It was sunny in Silicon Valley, but it looked like this at a look out near the park.

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The photo shoot was a wonderful experience. I never felt any pressure, just support and a shared sense of awe and adventure. Plus we shared things. Anne was brilliant at finding fungi.

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I discovered faces…do you see them?

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To me this looked like a sea otter sticking out its tongue.

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Redwood faces

We all enjoyed the gorgeous polished redwood burls, and my friends opened my eyes to textures.

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Then of course there was the attempt to capture the majesty of the trees.

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That’s all for today. Have a wonderful week!

Nicci Photography

Christmas where I am

Today I did something I found I really like to do and that is to go shooting with a friend. Anne from Slow Shutter Speed was in town and we scheduled to go out together. It was raining, something about which we Californians do not complain. I figured it would be best to shoot indoors! We could have done a museum, but it’s Christmas. What better time to take photos in a hotel lobby? So we headed to the San Jose Fairmont hotel. We were not disappointed. They did a wonderful job for their guests.

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I was quite enthralled with the ice skaters. Here are two shots.

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And a video showing the skaters in action.

Anne taught me how to do an abstract photo.

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That’s the Christmas tree with an abstract effect.

Another mission was to get something for the final holiday themed Monochrome Madness on Leanne Cole’s blog. Here is what I’ll be sending in.

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I’d forgotten about Christmas in the Park, a massive display put on in San Jose. Local businesses donate and decorate all the trees, and some make elaborate settings. Here are some of those.

There are two or three days of shopping left for Christmas. I used the whole weekend, and I’ll need to do a bit more after Christmas for a late celebration with some family, but it’s done. I think. Tomorrow I’ll wrap and see if I need to buy more. It’s crazy, but I enjoyed it. I had fun with other shoppers and chatted with them a bit. The best part about today was seeing parents with children showing them the wonders of Christmas, especially the very young ones at the Fairmont. I took a picture for one couple with their two little ones, in front of one of the trees. Yes, it’s a commercial effort, but people are behind it too, and I know there is a lot of pride behind the work as well as joy in knowing the delight that children will have.

Have a good week. I hope you get some time off!

 

Nicci Photography, Skiing

9 shopping days and huge sale

Happy Monday. Nine shopping days remain before Christmas. I have a long way to go. I haven’t even done our cards yet. Fortunately, I did get on top of things in time to mail gifts to my Australian family, and the presents arrived there today.

As for the holiday cards, I’ve pulled together some photos, but there is a tiny problem. I was so into photography this year but I didn’t take pictures of my husband and I on our travels, and that’s what we always put on our cards. This is going to take some work to find some selfies or else I’ll have to use Photoshop.

Speaking of photos, my mother-in-law just gave me a good hint. She wants photos of her grandson’s wedding. I’m going to create a photo book for her from Snapfish. I love those, and I think she will, too.

Oh wow, I just signed into Snapfish and books are on sale for 67% off! Today is the last day. So I have to hurry and do this post so you have time to snag the deal. The coupon code is 999BOOK.

There is a lot of snow in the Sierras. I skied yesterday and today, and let me tell you, it felt really good to get out of my writing chair and move! I didn’t take any photos, but I will tomorrow. It is supposed to be sunny, which will make for pretty photos.

I wanted to share these two images with you. One is a view of the Sierras from Nevada, and the other is from a butterfly collection on permanent display in the Truckee Recreation Center. It’s an awesome collection, although it is sad to me that the butterflies have to die to be collected. It’s not something I would choose to do, yet I admired the tenacity of the collector. She worked on it for about 30 years starting in the late 1800s. I should have written down her name. I’ll get it on the next visit.

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