Local photos from a long-distance grandma

I am a long-distance grandma. A long-distance grandma who likes to take pictures. Mostly pictures of of my long-distance grandsons.

Every once in a while, though, I'm reminded that I don't need to travel 812 miles to my grandsons' house to get photos that warm this grandma's heart. I don't even need to leave my house for that at all, as I have incredible photo ops right outside my windows, from morning til night.

I often start my day with sunrises that look like this...

End my day with sunsets like this...

And in between the sunrise and sunset are animals of a squirrelly sort galore. Just yesterday, in fact, I had the pleasure of photographing a mama brown squirrel taking a break from her ever-hungry babies — a mama who was none too pleased with my intrusion on her momentary peace.

When the months between visits with my grandsons stretch long and lonesome, I must remember to focus on what I have right here in my own back yard.

And in my east- and west-side yards, too.

Today's fill-in-the-blank:

This week I was reminded that __________.

Picture this: What the earliest bird gets

The earliest bird gets the biggest of worms — even if she's not quite sure how to get the darn thing home.

 

Today's question:

How much of an early bird are you?

What I learned this week: I shoot now, tweet later

Not long ago, I had a telephone conversation with a wise and wonderful entrepreneur with whom I hope to partner on some projects in the future. She asked me how I feel about my proficiency on a variety of social media platforms, one of them being Twitter.

Now, I feel like I'm pretty good with Twitter. No, not the best, but certainly not the worst either, considering I'm less than 20 followers away from crossing the 5,000-follower mark. I'm pretty good at Twitter parties, and I do a dandy job of connecting with and promoting brands and friends on Twitter, too. So I told her that.

"And what about live tweeting?" the wise entrepreneur asked.

First, let me explain to those who may not know what live tweeting is. It's sending out tweets on Twitter during an event, letting your followers know all about — via texts and often photos, too — the event you're attending or participating in or watching (yes, live tweeting is done during television shows, too). This is quite useful for brands and PR folks when hoping to generate interest and see a specific hashtag for their cause trend on Twitter.

So I told the entrepreneur I have indeed live tweeted but to a fairly minimal degree, explaining the live tweeting I did while at the Lifesavers Conference a few months ago.

"But you'll be live tweeting at BlogHer, right?" she asked. To which I enthusiastically responded, "Oh, yeah, definitely," because I had every intention of doing so.

Well guess what? I didn't do much live tweeting at BlogHer. To be honest, I'm not sure I did any. I meant to. But then I realized after each event, after each opportunity, that I completely let the opportunity to tweet live pass me by. I'd been too busy living and photographing the moments to live tweet said moments.

I should have been better at remembering to live tweet, considering the first event I attended — within an hour or so of me landing in Chicago — was filled with folks live tweeting the event. I'm willing to bet that's what at least a few of these GenFab friends of mine were doing at this captured moment:

Alas, it didn't lead to me tweeting. Just picture taking. Opportunity missed.

I took pictures during the Lean Cuisine luncheon I attended Friday. Did I tweet during the event like I probably should have? Nope. Opportunity missed — unlike these live tweeters who seized the moment and raised their smartphones with pride:

 

Friday night featured yet another missed opportunity. As the crowd of bloggers anxiously awaited Queen Latifah's arrival as emcee of the Voices of the Year ceremony, time ticked and ticked and ticked on. The Queen was late. Then later. Then later still.

As I looked around, I noticed nearly every single person in the crowded ballroom tapping away on their smartphones. I chuckled, nudged my buddy Ruth, and we agreed I should take some photos of all the lovely ladies bent over their phones. I didn't though, figuring that might be kind of rude. (Man, am I kicking myself for that missed opportunity, for what a great photo that would have been.)

It didn't dawn on me until later that what Ruth and I snickered about was mass live tweeting. All those bloggers tired of waiting for the show to get on the road were sharing and airing their grievances with their followers. Live. Were preparing to tweet details of the event to their followers. Live.

And all I considered doing was taking photos to share with my followers. Later.

Clearly, live tweeting isn't really on my radar. Does that make me less of a social media master? Probably. Which saddened me upon first realization because I like to be good at everything related to my job. In the end, though, I'm not. And to be honest, that's okay with me. Live photography fits me; live tweeting not so much.

That said, I could be pretty good at live tweets, though, if only I could take the nightly talk show approach and simply attach a disclosure to my post-event tweets. I'm thinking something along the lines of This Live Tweet Broadcast Previously Recorded.

There'd certainly be no lack of photos to go with those pre-recorded live tweets — especially considering I'm clearly, by nature, a shoot now, tweet later kind of blogger.

Which is just fine with me — and the most liberating thing I learned this week.

Farewell for the week! I look forward to seeing you Monday!

Today's question:

What did you learn this week?