IT'S DONE WITH MIRRORS

The trickiest rooms to photograph are the ones with lots of mirrors. No matter where you put the camera or the light stands, they show. And beware of people walking by!

In Nikki’s living room, Dan had to wrap one stand in white to make it blend in with the wall that was reflecting into a mirror.

Needless to say, instead of being wrapped, I opted to stand somewhere else while Dan snapped the real film that would appear in the book.

Shooting the whole downstairs in one day was quite a feat. Nikki, Dan and I really had to move quickly.

Nikki’s mom, Carol, helped make things run smoothly. No matter what needed doing, she was on it--but her favorite job was holding her newest grandchild, Bode.

Fabulous Fifi stopped by and we all took a quick lunch break.

On the five-minute drive to the restaurant I snapped a photo of a pelican. I also took a photo of a group of birds on a rock terrace, but Fifi told me they were plastic.

Will fake pelicans be the next plastic flamingos?

The Fish House provided more than just a brief sit down, sandwiches and photo prop shrimp to go.

It was a scenic photo op!

After lunch, we snapped six more gorgeous views of Nikki and Jeff’s house for the book, then packed and headed for the Tampa airport.

We were making good time as we headed over the Howard Frankland bridge (a several mile long span notorious for accidents and traffic back ups) when traffic suddenly stalled.

The problem, we learned from a radio, was a garbage truck on fire. All of its trash was dumped onto the roadway.

During the hour and a half traffic jam, while I fretted about missing my flight, a guy from the pick up truck in front of us used the time more productively. He took out his fishing pole and caught a good-sized catfish!

Because more than 400 other passengers missed their flights, too, I couldn't get on any DC bound plane until the next morning.

Fabulous Fifi once again offered to come rescue me but there was no way I was going to ask her to deal with a 20-mile traffic back up.

Plus, if I spent the night in Sarasota, I would have to get across that bridge again in the morning!

So, while Dan ran to catch his flight, I found myself buying dinner and a book to take back to a gloomy airport hotel room. I could hear planes taking off all night long and didn’t get much sleep.

At 7:45 on Wednesday morning I discovered I was on standby along with 36 other passengers. I managed to get on the flight, endured two hours sitting with two giggling squirming pre-teen girls, spent nearly an hour trying to get out of the airport (with no baggage to pick up!), drove home and went to sleep.

And, you thought I had a glamorous job!

*** BLOG DU JOUR ***
Since you’ve listened to me whine, here’s a little treat – a photo of my favorite rose ‘Moonstone’. Although it came labeled as such, I’ve never seen another photo of this hybrid look exactly like these! Now, that you’ve seen my Moonstone and are in a gardening mood, go to Bliss. Yolanda lives in the Netherlands, loves cats and the color pink.