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.

 

Melinda3 Comments

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.

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Day 53- Bodega

My husband and I are pretty sentimental about Bodega Bay.  We drove over there a lot when we were dating, when we were a young married couple, and when our kids were little.  After our kids grew up, we would take our dog, Murphy, and now we sometimes go over there with our grandchildren. Our routine when we were young was to walk the beach and then have clam chowder at The Tides (the original burned down, but a new and improved version is there now). Matt doesn’t remember much about Bodega, so we decided to take him there today.

Here is Matt checking out the restaurant

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After lunch we ended up driving over to Doran Beach- it was cold, as usual, but we bundled up and walked the beach. Here’s Matt and his dad.

A lady about my age was expertly flying this kite.  I had to change my autofocus area settings in order to capture it, because it was whipping around so fast (I tried all the modes, not sure what I ended up in- and it isn’t in perfect focus).

Today’s Flickr theme was sound. Here are a bunch of very LOUD squawking gulls.

Melinda3 Comments

Day 52- Textured Mum

I haven’t done any textured photos for awhile- and it’s Texture Tuesday over at Kim Klassen’s site! The theme is white this week, so I took yet another photo of my white mums and textured it with two layers of Kim’s Shine texture, one at 100% soft light blend mode, and another at 35% screen blend mode. Almost everything I learned about Photoshop I learned from Kim Klassen, so I love to be part of her Tuesday link-up.

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Day 51- Empty vs Full

Empty is the topic for today’s photo.

We’re celebrating Lonnie’s birthday tonight finally, because Matt is here! So here is an empty cupcake wrapper.

 

And here is a finished German Chocolate/Chocolate Chip cupcake, ready for tonight’s birthday dinner.

 

Melinda3 Comments

Day 50- My Hand

I am so grateful for my hands! I took them for granted until a few years ago when my almost lifelong carpal tunnel problems and more recent tendonitis began to impact the use of my hands. I had surgery on my right hand in December and plan on having my left taken care of in a few months. I have regained some feeling in the fingertips of my right hand and am now working on rebuilding some of the muscles.

Today’s theme is your own hand, a very appropriate topic for me. Here I am making cubes with my putty- good practice for developing a pincer grip (it’s harder than it looks).

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Day 48- Bored in the backyard . . .

Bored and uninspired today.

I took the camera with a zoom lens outside and took a few shots. Here’s a closeup of a gerbera daisy gone to seed-  with bonus bokeh.

and a plum blossum with some more bokeh. . .

and one of my backyard visitors to the spilled birdseed. He’s checking me out before descending to the deck.

 

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Day 47- Lean On Me

I spent a wonderful day with some of the Rapunzels today. I stopped by Nevin’s first to give her a refresher course with her camera and also to teach her how to use her external flash (we both got them for Christmas).  I also used the opportunity to photograph her with her kitties, Desi and Lucy.

We met Marie and Darlene for a delicious lunch and had fun laughing and talking as always. Since the topic for my Flickr group yesterday was lyrics and today it is lean, here is our interpretation of Lean on Me, an apt theme song for our group.

 

 

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Day 46- Time

Yesterday’s Flickr group theme was time.  Over sixty years have passed since this baby cup was new.

BTW, I did clean it a few months ago. I thought of cleaning it again for the photo, but decided my idea was to show the passing of time, so. . .

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Day 45- Who’s in charge here?

A few days ago, I bought a modest bird feeder.  I hung it temporarily on our deck, because I couldn’t reach the tree branch- and wondered to myself if the squirrels might be able to reach it.  Yesterday, I noticed there was a LOT of birdseed under the feeder- and a bunch of little birds (sorry, don’t know what kind. . .) and a dove were having a great time pecking around the flower pots getting their fill of birdseed. Today, when I came home, I found an empty feeder and THIS. . .

I took this photo through the glass door.  It was hard to get a good shot of him- but look at the “starburst” in his eye.  That is not photoshopped in- I guess it’s a reflection of the glass door.  It was noon, so the lighting was difficult.

And then, all of a sudden, I noticed THIS (the photo is out of focus, but will give you an idea of what I am dealing with):

Two more squirrels were frolicking on the deck, around and over the plants and railings having a wonderful time.  Their tummies were full, and they were feeling oh so frisky.

I took this last shot before I opened the door, scaring them (temporarily) away.

I am NOT refilling the feeder until it is hung in a better spot.

Melinda3 Comments

Day 43- The joy of seeing. . .

The chrysanthemums beckoned today. . .

One of the things I’ve learned about my Project 365 this year is that it is OKAY (even GOOD!) to photograph something I have photographed before. Every time it is in a slightly different light or I am seeing it in a new way.  The joy of SEEING!

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Day 42- Hearts

Hearts is the topic for today- aptly chosen, because today was our monthly Heart Math group. I looked around this morning for something heart-shaped and found these leaves from my pothos plant. I took a few photos before leaving for the day- and again when I returned and found that the changing light had added a new look to the leaves.

 

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Day 41- Sunset, Mums, and a Selfie

Sunset was beautiful last night.

This morning, I took these photos of some chrysantheMUMS- for the theme, starts with M (only a few days behind on that one. . .) . . .

 

and I also took this self portrait, yesterday’s challenge.  This is what I look like every morning when I look outside, wondering what in the world I will take a photo of today (except that I am usually in my jammies- and I already did a self portrait of me in jammies back in December).

 

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