Roads

I was going to put up one of the outtakes from the burst of color challenge that I really like, but I realized that the idea might make a great abstract! At least I have an idea now for that challenge. So, here is an outtake from roads. The shot was a bit busy, so I played with some filters to soften it up a little.

Year of the Dog

A day late for the start of the Chinese New Year... the year of the Dog. I was playing with this crystal for the blue challenge (hence the blue background), but didn't like any of the shots enough to enter them. I liked this shot though with the way the blue was reflected and all the reflections of the picture in the sides of the crystal, so it made its way to my PaD.

Moon

The only shots I took today were attempts for the upcoming challenges, but nothing new for the PaD. This is from a few weeks ago, only cropped and resized.

Snow Puffs

The downfall of working with 5 years olds as my job is catching all of their germs... so this is a shot from a few weeks ago. Taken by sticking the camera under a tree branch and hoping for the best.

Fur Coats

There are so many buildings around my area that have old signs on them from years past, and I often wonder what things were like back then. I pass this particular building every day on the way to work, and it has always looked completely deserted with it's borded up windows. A few months ago I noticed people working here, putting in brand new windows, but I have no idea what the plans are for the building. Yesterday as I was driving out of the mall that is behind it, I realized a little section of parking lot that had an open view of the back of the building and that the writing is in fact on all four sides. Cropped (to try to get rid of an extra roof at the bottom) and desaturated the color since it was so bright and didn't seem to match the old feeling of the building.

Neon Socks

I love those warm fuzzy socks, and have lots of them in all kinds of colors and patterns. I thought my bright rainbow socks would make a fun shot, but it didn't quite come out the way I'd envisioned it, so I started playing with filters in Photoshop. When I tried the 'neon glow' filter, this was what I got. My first thought was the 'Blue' challenge, but then I realized that the filter wasn't allowed. I kind of liked the results though, so here they are... neon socks for day 26.

Snowy Lake

It snowed on Monday and the snow was still hanging on the trees yesterday afternoon. I stopped at a little lake to catch the sunset, and was pretty happy with this shot. I think the best thing about this shot is how different it is from my attempt at the exact same thing a month ago. I hope it's not just a fluke and instead a sign that I'm actually getting better at this. I finally dug up the shot from December, so here it is...

Rainbows

I noticed the circle of rainbows in the sky, I couldn't zoom out far enough to get them both in the shot, so I had to turn the camera to fit them both in diagonally. I tried to get rid of the camera reflection in Photoshop... but it looked worse after I messed with it, so it's still there. Like most of my shots, it's nowhere near perfect, but there is something about this one that I like.

Perspective

I keep taking pictures of buildings intending to put them up, but they always look distorted. When I use the perspective tool in Photoshop, it seems there is always some element of the picture that ends up looking strange. I was finally happy with the way this one turned out (even though the lighting isn't perfect). Ahh, well... practice is good!

Furry Feline

So I managed to make it 21 days without a cat picture, but I finally broke down. Those who know me were probably taking bets on how long it would take. This is my cat, Mieko (though she's more often called "Fluffernutter" due to being both fluffy and nutty), and she's one of the least photogenic cats out there I think! She usually looks mad, sleepy, confused, silly, or her favorite... blurry. Even though this one is a bit dark, I like her expression.

To see her first appearance on the Internet you can go to infinitecat.com where she was cat #336.

End of the Storm

The weather has been very strange this winter. This storm rolled through which took the temperatures from 51 at 1pm, to 61 at 2pm, and down to 47 at 3pm (with winds of 38 mph). I saw the sun peeking out while it was raining and went to the window to watch for a rainbow. The blue sky started peeking through, so I shot a bunch of pictures to put together into a panorama. Strange weather, but it makes for an interesting picture.

Urchin

Picked up this sea urchin on a hike in California last spring. Somehow, it made it back to New York intact, along with 2 other urchin shells unbroken. The neatest thing about macro shots is finding details so small that you didn't know they existed, like the textures on the spines of the urchin. I think macros might be one of my favorite types of photography.

After the Rain

It was a cloudy, grey, dreary day filled with rain. The snow all turned into slush, and yards turned into little ponds. The rain ended and the blue sky was peeking out just before sunset. I liked the way the raindrops were lit up on the window when I got home from work yesterday. As I was shooting these pictures, it started raining again, so I checked the other direction and found a rainbow. It wasn't intense enough to get a picture of though since a big grey cloud came along and blocked the sun again right away. Getting home 5 minutes later, I would have missed this shot.

Recipe II

My entry for the dpc challenge, Recipes II, which was another 5th place finish! It was shot on a red background, but in order to keep the colors looking good, the background ended up being more purple. Back to regular PaD shots tomorrow! Thanks to everyone for all of your nice comments on my shots during the challenge and here in my PaD! :)

Burst of Color

Here is my shot from the Burst of Color challenge over at dpc. My scores are normally just a boring average, so it was an exciting week with the update button for this shot that came in 5th place! :) Combine that with a recipe shot which is also doing pretty well and I was beginning to wonder if the world was coming to an end!

But, no worries there, after tonight, I'm sitting with a group of horrible, uninspiring scores.

The difference? When I saw the topics for Burst of Color and Recipes, I had some idea or image in my head that I wanted to shoot and tried to put it out there for others to see. With the challenges going on now, I haven't been as inspired. From reading the forum about how poorly people feel their Best of 2005 shots are doing and from looking at what people felt was their very best shot, I think it shows that people get very attached to their shots. For some, their best shot has captured an emotional, personal favorite moment of the year... for others it was probably their best shot of capturing a wonderful expression... for others their best shot of some technical aspect they had been working on or struggling with. For me, the shot I entered was one that has made me smile for months now... I loved it the moment I saw it after opening up the pile of shots I'd taken that day. As I watch the score plummet though, I realize that I am the only person who shares that same emotion with the photo. So, where do you draw the line between shooting for yourself and shooting for your audience? I guess that's a question we all have our own answers to.

MLK Day

I knew this statue of Martin Luther King was around, and figured it would be an appropriate subject for todays PaD so I went out yesterday to get a shot. Well, it was freezing cold, so I ran up, took about 4 shots, and got back in the warm car. The other 3 were from the right side, and while they got more of the feel of the entire memorial area with the wall in the back, I liked this one best with the people following behind him. This one is straight from the camera except for resizing.

Blue Skies

The weather last week was warm (for January in NY), then last night it stared raining, sleeting and then snowing. The winds kicked up and the temps have been dropping. The good news is though, that the sun came out. Since I wanted to get a certain shot for tomorrows PaD, I figured today was the day to go. Well, the door on the house was frozen shut, as was the car door. Once I finally got the car heating up and got back out to start scraping off the snow and ice and saw this shot. I never realized that there were so many colorful houses on my street. Cropped slightly, brightness and contrast just slightly bumped (otherwise I lost the shadows on the roof to a blinding patch of whiteness). After about 45 minutes of driving around taking a few other shots, I came home and saw that the wind chill was -14. I disagree... it felt colder.

Central Park

It was a beautiful day yesterday so I went for a walk (hoping to get some candids). I took a picture of this little bridge, but it came out flat and overexposed. I still have no idea what I'm doing in Photoshop for the most part, so I just kept playing with this until it "popped" a little more. I think I added a new gradient adjustment layer with my own set of colors, but I really can't be sure. I really wish I had gotten the blue in the sky, but the original was terrible too, and I didn't know how to add it in. Oh well... 2 weeks done!

Full Moon

Yes, yes. There are many, many better shots of the moon out there. This was more of an experiment than anything, and I spent so much time trying to figure it out, that I figured it was worth posting. I don't have any fancy lenses, just my little point and shoot camera that I carry EVERYWHERE with me.
I had tried using binoculars before to get a better shot of the moon during an eclipse one time, but decided to try again to see how clear I could get it. I turned all of the settings up to get the best shot (7mp, fine quality), tried a few different settings (this is actually taken on the sports setting so it has a faster shutter speed), and then took a lot of pictures. The camera was on a tripod, and I had the binoculars set on a pile of stuff, but I still had to hold them. That combined with the fact that I don't have a remote and couldn't set the self timer, probably both made some of the blur from my own hands. It seemed that focusing the binoculars helped the camera focus automatically, even though that may not be apparent in the picture.
So it may not be the best moon picture, but it certainly seems fitting to post a full moon shot on Friday the 13th!

Self

Figured it was time to attempt a self portrait. Played with it in photoshop... I'm not happy with it, but I dislike being on that side of the camera. So, there it is.

Thank You

Needed some inspiration for a shot for today, so I went to this website that lists bizarre holidays and observances. It seems that January is a month for thank you's:
January 9-13 -- National Thank-Your-Customers Week
January 11-18 -- International Thank You Days
January 8-14 -- Universal Letter Writing Week
And coming up soon is National Handwriting Analysis Week from the 22nd to the 28th!

"Mine, mine mine..."

My apologies for a second picture of gulls... it's not like they're really spectactular looking or anything. But when I was looking back through the shots from the other day, I had one with exactly 3 birds in it, and here they are. It looked like one of those triptych shots, but without all the nifty frames. I'm trying to learn Photoshop, and so here is my first ever triptych. Incidentally, it's also my first attempt at using layers, unsharp mask (who would have guessed that you use unsharpen to sharpen!), fixed sizes of selections... so much to learn!!! I didn't know what to do with that wall, so I tried to offset it about the same amount in each third, but I don't really like it. Suggestions welcome!

Seagull

I stopped at a little riverside park yesterday, and met some very friendly people. One man came over and started throwing bread for the seagulls, so I started snapping pics as they were coming in closer. I was trying to get shots of them flying, with all the details in the feathers, but those shots didn't come out so great. This was probably the best shot I got. I have a p&s camera, so I had set it to "sports" figuring it would be the fastest shutter to keep them from blurring. I came home and many of the gulls that were facing the sun were overexposed with the white feathers. I probably should have stopped shooting for a second to think about other possible settings. Something to remember for next time.

Don't Ask For Suggestions

Ask a stupid question, and you get a stupid answer. So I decided to go out to take some pictures, and made the mistake of asking "What should I try to take a shot of while I'm out?"
"Mushrooms" was the answer.
Well, I thought I MIGHT be able to find a pizza shop with some mushrooms on a sign somewhere, but then I saw the big red chili pepper! That's better than any mushroom I could have found. So, there it is. It's not a mushroom, but I don't like mushrooms anyway!

Moving Sidewalks

I've had a digital camera for quite a while, and I've always enjoyed taking pictures. But it's only been recently that I actually started figuring out what makes a good shot and why. This one was taken a few months ago, and I actually walked into the building, went back out to get the camera because this just looked interesting. I had no clue why, it just did. I was going back through some old photos to see if I could find anything good for the Best of 2005 challenge, and while this isn't the shot I entered, it was nice to say "nice vanishing point and leading lines" when I opened it instead of simply "I like it." The downfall to learning more though, is being too picky about my own shots.

Finishing Touches

Being a teacher, I take a lot of shots of my kids at school all day. The snow the other day was great "snowman snow" and the kids have a blast rolling the biggest possible balls they can make. You can see a few of them in the background... they look almost like those big rolls of hay in the farmers fields. This little girl decided to actually turn one of them into a snowman, and I all had to do was lift the middle ball for her. She was so proud of her creation when she was done!

Passing the time

Spent a lot of time last night working on the color challenge, so I didn't get anything to post here. I had taken one shot on the way home of a car with some really strange bumper stickers that made me wonder about the owner of the car, and thought it might be an appropriate shot for Konador... I'm sure the person could have easily taken out that frog! But, trying to snap in a hurry at a stoplight with the headlights glaring made the shot less than appealing. So, that leaves me to post an old photo. This one was taken in the observation area of an airport as I was waiting for an arriving flight. There's just something about it that I like. So there it is... day 5 complete!

Cup of Tea?

More snow outside... I thought I had the perfect idea for a photo. Stopped to take some shots after work and wandered around in the slushy snow, only to end up with nothing sensational. So, I came home and made a cup of tea, which made everything seem better. I've started using loose leaf tea instead of tea bags, and this vanilla blend is perfect for a cozy night in. Yum!

Color

The sky has been gray and gloomy, the snow keeps falling. So.. I needed some color! The lines are wiggly, but I don't have a fancy camera where I can just use the zoom, so I have to rely on my moving car. It suits the day well, adding a splash of color to what will be a very white day.

Snowy Waterfall

Went out hiking yesterday on the snow covered ice (yikes!) but it was certainly pretty. I was a little disappointed when I got home and looked at the pictures. This seemed the best of the bunch, but it still seems so busy for such a calm and peaceful scene. Oh well... it still makes me smile!

Peeps!

I love that they have peeps for every holiday now and not just the Easter chicks. Here's a Christmas tree (before I eat them all!)