Topic for today: BROWN
Subject for today: Brown wrapping paper
Lens for today: Macro 85mm
All accomplished sitting at my desk with not much effort.
Day 67- Good-bye
My Rapunzel group (minus two) met today to say good-bye to Nevin, who is moving to Southern California to be closer her daughter and family. We know she will be back to visit, but it was hard to say good-bye. Highlights of the day were delicious food, gifts, friendship, and tears and laughter. We’ll miss you, Nevin!
Photography note: this was taken with my speedlight, bounced behind me at about a 45 degree angle..
Day 66- Strung
Buttons is the topic today- and I know I’ve already photographed buttons for the blog. I thought my button necklace would be a good subject, but after 20 years of calling it that, I realized today that it isn’t really made of buttons- just flat beads. Funny what you notice with a macro lens. . .
But here it is anyway:
Day 65- Macro Attack
Just because it’s Monday, I walked around the yard with my 85mm looking for something small to shoot up close. I noticed our pink breath of heaven plants are blooming, so took a couple photos of their tiny flowers.
When I came in the house, I randomly took a photo of the head of my mother’s tiny doll from her childhood- and decided that her dreamy look (my daughter says nightmarish. . .) expression qualifies this as the photo of the day for my Flickr group’s Dream theme.
This was textured with Kim Klassen’s bent edges.
Day 64- Stacks- but which one?
Stacks is the topic for today.
My house is filled with photo ops- books, papers, laundry, boxes, dishes etc. etc. etc. I chose one of my more photogenic stacks- some little Japanese bowls, given to me by a student.
After I uploaded this, I decided to do a quick re-edit, to give it a matte look, really popular on the blogs and in clickin moms right now. I used an action I downloaded from the clickin moms’ forum. Every other time I have tried it, I have ended up going back to a quick, clean edit instead. This time I think I like it.
The photo below is the one with the matte edit. Which one do YOU like better?
Day 63- Classic
When my husband and I were planning to get married (over 40 years ago), our china pattern was probably our easiest decision. We both fell in love with a classic pattern that had recently been reissued. The pattern was 100 years old then- and that makes it over 140 years old now. It is certainly a classic (the theme for my Flickr group today)- especially paired with my grandmother’s silver, which would be about 100 years old now. Both images have Kim Klassen’s happy heart texture added.
Day 62- Down to Earth
Today’s topic is earth, wind, OR fire. I made things easy for myself- and took a shot of the ground outside.
And here’s a bonus photo from yesterday- my husband checking out my friend, Carol’s iPad, as her Amazon parrot, Bobo gazed lovingly in his direction. Lonnie paid no attention to her, but she was absolutely besotted!
BTW, I finally updated my “about” page for 2012, including a photo taken of me by Carol yesterday. You can check it out by clicking on about in the top right corner of this page.
Day 61- Flash, Friends, and Fun
My photo buddy, Carol, and I are having a fun day at her house- dining on a gourmet salad followed by a delicious Portuguese chicken soup and sharing photo tips. Carol is learning how to use my speedlight- and I had a Aha moment when she showed me that I don’t need to export photos from Aperture in order to upload to my blog (wish I had known this a year ago. . .).
Day 60- Oh
As is my habit, I check my email from bed with my phone when I wake up. If I forgot to check the Flickr topic the night before, I go to my contacts in my flickr app and look at the latest photo from my contact who lives in Australia to see what the topic is, since she usually has it posted first thing. Today it was called “Lit Up”- so I cleverly took this photo of my backup drive- and thought I was done for the day. I have a lot going on today- and want to have my blog and Flickr photo DONE!
However, in my not completely awake state, I didn’t realize that my Flickr friend’s photo (a nighttime lights on water scene) was TITLED “Lit Up”- the actual topic today is horizon. Oh.
Well- I could do that! So I stepped out on our front porch. The Bay Area finally had a decent bit of rain last night- and this is today’s view from the porch. Done!
Day 59- Leftover Lavender
Some of my lavender seemed to bloom forever this year, but for the last month or so I’ve been watching the blossoms turn brown. I’ve always liked dried flowers- here are a few I photographed today.
Today’s Flickr group topic was VERY BIG. When I volunteered at school today I snapped this very big teaching clock held by a very little student.
Day 58- Springing
I am loving the beautiful weather and am embracing the signs of spring all around us, while trying to ignore the voice in my head that says- We need rain! Here are some of the blossoms from trees in our garden.
Day 57- Well, it’s red. . .
Wow- I’m so uninspired today! The topic is red. I LOVE red- I have a red car, a red mixer, a red teapot, etc. etc. I ended up photographing a tomato- probably because I have cooking dinner on my mind. So- that’s it for today.
Day 56- Not Yet Iris
The topic today is art. It could be your photo as art, art supplies- anything art related. I am waiting to see if my photo buddy, Carol, posts a photo of her brother, Art.
But, seriously- art?
Although I stated yesterday’s blurry photo was art (in the loosest sense of the word. . .)- deliberately setting out to create a photo that would be considered “ART” was a little daunting to me today.
Then I remembered the advice I read to just look for light- so I did. I took seventeen macro photos outside in about ten minutes, and this one was the first I took. I don’t know if it is particularly arty, but it is almost abstract- and I love the light. FYI, it is the leaves of one of my irises, not yet blooming.
Day 55- It’s ART, people! :)
Don’t panic- these photos are supposed to be blurry!
I LOVED today’s assignment- deliberate blur abstract. I’ve played with this a bit before with intentional camera movement, my exploding Christmas tree, and photos where only a small slice of the image is in focus (some of my chrysanthemum shots from a week or so ago). But some of the people in the group are APPALLED! It’s funny! As photographers, much of our focus is on, well. . . FOCUS! Achieving sharp focus isn’t always easy- and to deliberately throw it away- oy vey!
But I like to explore the artistic as well as the technical side of photography- and creating a pleasing image that is out of focus is almost harder than an in focus one. I like the impressionistic feel of many deliberately blurry photos- and there are many beautiful ones out there (with much more creative subjects than my flowers). I want to try this some more when I have more time.
Oh- the top photo is of geraniums and the bottom is my chrysanthemums again.
Day 54- Looking down, sort of . . .
The topic today was something about a view from above. I tried to get a cool macro of some of my husband’s birthday ribbon from one of his presents, but could only seem to capture it from the side. I’m afraid it looks a little Christmassy. . .
So my view from above is of my husband (who works from home) on a coffee break. BTW, I used the speedlight on both photos today.
melinda anderson photography 