Happy Holidays Everyone!

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all my friends out there, in cyber-space, at Etsy and GCU. 

In 2012 may all your wishes come true!

Cathy  12 / 20 / 11

Why Did I Wear Blue Today?

Normally, what color I wear to the Detroit Zoo wouldn't matter. But today it seemed important to a large blue butterfly. The blue only shows when they land with their wings open, which is very rare.

I was sitting in the butterfly house ( which is in what was once the old bird house), with my husband between trying to get some images of the hundreds of butterflies flitting around us.

When a huge blue butterfly started to flit from my husband to me. He or she finally settled on my hand and proceeded to check me out with his/ her proboscis. (tongue). I sat there for about 15 to 20 minutes while the butterfly checked me out. It didn't hurt, but when the legs moved I felt the barbs.

Cathy @ Celtic Cat Photos 

Michigan Cotton AKA Snow!

Winter is my favorite time to take photographs. Especially after a snowstorm, the next day the sun is perfect. Since cotton doesn't grow in Michigan, I thought this is the closest we will get to it.

From My House to Yours ~ Happy New Year to All, have a safe and prosperous New Year.


Hopefully, this year I will be able to keep my blog up to date!

Cathy 12/ 28 / 2011

Come Visit Me At Grant Park

All those in South-Eastern Michigan, come visit me at Grant Park this weekend, Hahn St. & Van Dyke in Utica Michigan

Last week was the kick off for Celtic Cat summer shows. Here in Michigan we are looking forward to a great summer.

Photo Card Contest

It was a slow day in my studio, started out learning more about adding text to an image and ended up with content. I have never understood content and I am not sure if learned anything
about it I can use in the future.

So I made up about a dozen ideas for cards. Kept 6 with my winter image and one for V-Day which I will use next year.

Here is the contest part, rather than add all 6 cards to my blog I posted them on Flickr. Please go to my Flickr Photostream and see which one you like the best. Post the one you like the best here on my blog, everyone who posts will be added to virtual hat and in two weeks the winner will be notified and I will send them one of the cards. I have not seen these cards printed yet so I don't have a favorite yet.

Sorry! My Bad! Pick the letter on one of the top 6 images, that you think would make the best card on my Flickr page.

Cathy 2/ 15 / 10

My Computer Is Back!

After 5 and a half days I think my computer is back to stay! Up until Saturday it was spending more time at the Apple store than in my home. Friday afternoon they decided to reinstall Snow-Leopard and I agreed to do the transfer of my files using a firewire. Saturday when I got to the store I was informed that my computer had a problem and I was given a new one to take home.

New, in a sealed box. This one is quiet.

The only problem, I have I never set up a computer from scratch. So it has taken me a while to get all my music over, reinstall Elements 8, Lightroom, iWork, and the driver for my printer. I still have to find my bookmarks and set up the scanner.

The above photograph of Scotland looks a lot bluer on screen than it really is due to the lighting! See photographs just below.

I am happy to be back online, on my computer.

Cathy 1 / 21/ 10

Notes From The Road

Adobe and Apple no longer support Tiger - so I can't upgrade to Elements #8- I don't feel my system is that old, but they do. I haven't had any major problems with Tiger OS 10.4.11. I am not planning to buy a new computer anytime soon, since I don't feel I need one. So I am working with Lightroom 1.0 and will upgrade to 2.1 soon.

Here are a few photos I did in Lightroom from a recent road trip!

Detroit Born and Breed

Come take a walk down memory lane with me!

I live in the suburbs, but I grew up in Detroit, 25th Street, and later Martindale Street off of Grand River. If you know the inner city these streets mean something to you. The reason I was thinking about growing up in Detroit is because I decided I wanted to get some photographs of the Eastern Market area. I haven't been there in over thirty years. I was hoping to find the building that housed a Halloween party my father took me to years ago. If you can call it a building, since it has no sides.

Detroit has changed! The old train station is falling apart and most likely has a date with a wreaking ball. The last wall of Tiger Stadium was torn down this summer. Once beautiful Scott Fountain is a mess, rusting and falling apart. So I half expected the Eastern Market to
be gone too.

To my surprise it was still there. Bigger then I remembered it. I had to look for the original building, I found it. It is the first black & white photo above. DH took the different sign photos. During the week it is pretty quiet at Eastern Market, but during the weekend it is a bustling area selling in-season fruits, vegetables, and flowers.

Cathy 10/23/09

Deroit International Auto Show

This morning I went to the Detroit Auto Show, I haven't been there in years. There is far more bling now, and more cars. Of course it is larger, there are more car companies. I went with DH, he won tickets to the show and a chance to test drive a hybrid car.

Riding with him in the Ford hybrid was very interesting. There is no noise, you don't know if the car is on or not. It was fun going around the test track. It was also a trip being let in ahead of the crowd to try out the car.

Going from our house to Cobo Hall was a simple matter, however Map Quest had us turning here, getting off onto another expressway, turning and turning, and turning again. We puzzled over the directions, then decided to follow the signs to the Auto Show. I grew up in Detroit, but had to figure out once downtown how to find a parking lot.

Cobo Hall was crowded, but with the 11% unenployment in Michigan I am sure the crowds were down.