Day 72- Cool, man . . .

My father was cool. Or at least he was cool at one time- long before I was born.

In the 1920’s, he played in a jazz band in New Orleans and Hollywood. What could be cooler than that? He was a self taught musician who never learned to read music and paid his way through dental school at USC by playing at Hollywood parties. He continued to play music all his life, and, when our family moved to Chico,  he joined the Shrine specifically so that he could join their dance band.

He played both clarinet and sax, and I chose to photograph his clarinet for today’s topic, which is COOL.

I tried to take a photo of the whole clarinet, but didn’t like the results. So, AS USUAL, I got out my macro lens and took closeup shots. When you look at the first image, you might be able to tell it’s indeed a clarinet.

The second image is more abstract, and probably impossible to identify as a clarinet- but maybe that’s what makes it COOL. . .

Photographic note: When I use this lens I get football shaped bokeh on the edges. I know there is an explanation.

 

Melinda4 Comments

Day 71- A Chore

Today’s topic is CHORE- and the first chore that came to mind is doing dishes.  For most of my life, doing dishes was my least favorite chore- and it is probably the one I do most often.  I realized a few years ago that I really don’t mind doing dishes at all now and kind of enjoy it.  I don’t, however, particularly like emptying the dishwasher, but, since it takes less than five minutes a day to do, I really can’t complain.

Here is a photo of my dish drying rack with a Blue Ridge plate (a parting gift from Nevin!) drying in it.

Photography info: I just checked my settings.  I used a 35mm lens at f/3.2, 1/50, ISO 320 (I probably should have used a faster shutter speed. . .).

Melinda1 Comment

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:

Melinda2 Comments

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.

Melinda3 Comments

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?

Melinda2 Comments

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.

Melinda2 Comments

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!

Melinda2 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.

Melinda1 Comment

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. . .

Melinda1 Comment

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.

 

Melinda1 Comment

Day 27- Everyday Stuff (and breaking rules!)

Breaking a rule- here is a photo I snapped of Lonnie hard at work at the computer last night, not today.  I am trying to capture more everyday moments in practice for seeing the grandbabies at some point in the future (I am missing them so much!).  And nothing could be more everyday than my husband hard at work.  I love the lighting from the computer monitor.

Straightening up, laundry, packing for Kansas- not much time for photography today, alas! I went with the topic, repetition, and spotted the repetition of the spices while I was cleaning the kitchen counter.

Melinda1 Comment

Day 20- Synchronicity

Last night Lonnie and I went out for our traditional cold cure, hot and sour soup, at our local Chinese restaurant.  This morning I saw that the Flickr group daily challenge topic is Oriental. I didn’t have to think too hard for this one- and, by the way, I don’t have a cold!

f/2, 1/400, ISO 640, 35mm

This photo was edited with Lightroom 4 Beta, which I downloaded as a comparison to Aperture 3.  I edited this photo in both programs as a comparison- and the two versions came out about the same. I am somewhat familiar with the interface, because it is so similar to Camera Raw in Photoshop, and I find it somewhat clunky for me to work with at this point.  The sliders seem less sensitive somehow, and I haven’t figured out how to click off adjustments like in Aperture and Photoshop- or to be able to see the master image for that matter.  I am impressed with the sharpening and watermarking capabilities- and like the adjustment brush and presets too. I am interested in Lightroom mainly for its touted noise reduction- and plan on using it with some of my noisier images.  The beta version is active until March 31, so I have until then to decide if I want to make the switch someday.

Melinda2 Comments