{Photo-A-Day} Challenge Day 24

The topic for Tuesday was 'Me'.

I didn't have to take a self-portrait -- I could have used a shot of something that 'defines' me at this point in my life but I surprisingly went with option (1). Like most people I think, I generally loathe photographs of myself, so this one was tough for me. I wound up taking like 50 shots - but in the end settled on the first one. Here it is.

I actually liked this one enough that I switched my blogger profile pic! {I think the reason I like it is that I'm hiding behind the camera - lol!}

{Photo-A-Day} Day 23

The word for July 7 was FRESH. I was a bit late taking my photo (in fact I didn't take it until this morning), but here it is nonetheless. Unfortunately I couldn't photograph local produce because it's not quite ready here yet, but I thought these looked nice. I took the shot on macro mode, but manually adjusted the ISO to 1600 since it wasn't very bright in my kitchen this morning. I didn't use a flash, but still managed to capture some nice reflected light.

{Photo-A-Day} Days 17 thru 21

Wow, I am totally behind in posting these (and I got a bit behind this last few days taking pics too). I'm all caught up now though and ready for the week ahead. Anyhow, here is the recap. Day 17 -- The word of the day is SOFT. I shot tons of different things for this one, and finally settled on this. These are baby blankets that were crocheted for my kids when they were babies, and they are sooooo soft. They love them even today to snuggle up with every once in a while. Day 18 -- The word of the day is HAPPY. Coming up with the subject was easy (my kids), but getting a decent shot of the two of them, not so simple. This is the best one. Day 19 (lucky for me was a free day) -- and I say lucky, because like I said, I was getting a bit behind with my photos. Here is my son on his new bike. Day 20 (July 5) - another free day. I just loved this shot of my daughter peeking through the back of the hay wagon. Last but not least....Day 21 (July 6) - yet another free day. Since we all can't be happy all of the time, I've chosen this shot, also of my daughter, for today. She fell, and I just happened to have camera in hand to capture this expression. {and I promise, I only took this one shot before making sure that she was okay :) which she was.....of course, it just looks much worse.}

{Photo-A-Day} Day 16

The word for Day 16 (yesterday) was LOVE. But.....I just couldn't resist switching things up a bit. You see, Day 15 was July 1 which is of course Canada Day and I thought it prudent to try to capture some of the Canada Day festivites on film. It just so happens that in the June issue of Creating Keepsakes magazine, there is an awesome article about shooting fireworks. It is excpetionally easy to understand, and I followed it to the letter (even taking my tripod to the park). Suffice it to say, that I was NOT disappointed with the results. While it's true, it took me a few tries to get it right, I had never played with the Bulb Exposure setting on my camera before, and it was surprisingly easy. Here is my best shot (in my opinion anyway). I think you can really 'see' the movement.

So because I changed things up a bit to fit this photo into my challenge, I will photograph LOVE on Friday. The gals in the group have posted some really neat shots with that theme already so I'll really have to put my thinking cap on to come up with a good one. Wish me luck.

If you'd like to see more of my firework photos, I've uploaded them to my gallery at Flickr. Check them out!

{Photo-A-Day} Catch up Day 15 and a RAK

The word for Day 15 was ROUND. I missed taking my photo on the actual day, but I took this one yesterday instead. It's a really weird onion (at least I think it's weird since I'm not a gardener) that grows at my in-laws farm. I'm fairly certain it's not a green onion as I suspect the bulb part of those plants grows 'in' the ground, and I'm almost positive that it's not a cooking onion -- so while I can't identify it, I thought the shape was really fabulous.

Our focus this week is on lighting, and I think I got some really neat high and low light in this one too -- from the shadowed area near the bottom centre of the onion clump, to the shiny area on the outstretched 'limb'. {I am having waaay too much fun!}

BONUS: If you can identify this onion for me -- leave me a comment here and you'll get a RAK from me in the mail.

{Photo-A-Day} Day 14

Sunday was a FREE day, and it couldn't have come at a better time. Meet Lilly.

She is my our kitty, and she's 3 months old. She arrived at our home today. The kids are really excited since this is the first real pet that they have had. They have dogs at their grandparents (they each have one), but they are not really 'pets' by my definition. The dogs are 100% outside, and my father-in-law raises and trains them to hunt. With Lilly part of our family now, the kids will get to experience what it's like to take care of a pet full time.

I tried several times to take her picture, and didn't really just how tricky that would prove to be. Every time I got the camera down to her level, she would get so close to the lens that I couldn't focus. I guess she was just curious.

{Photo-A-Day} Day 13

The 28th was Day 13, and the word was WHITE. I really really struggled with this one. Not that there's not a lot of white things to photograph, just to compose a white photograph that wasn't bland or boring was more difficult that I thought. So I took lots! The first one (the white stuffed dog) is the one I chose to upload to the ACB Photo-A-Day Challenge group on Flickr. I chose it because I loved all the textures! This is my daughter's favourite Webkins -- and her name, believe it or not is ORANGE. I will just never understand the mind of a 6-year-old. Here are a few more attempts at shooting white.

{Photo-A-Day} Day 12

Today's word is COMFORT.

And there was a lot of possibilities for this......but for me it was easy to choose. 'Home'. For me, home is comfort, no matter where I go, or how much fun I have when I'm away, it's always nice to be home.

This is a simple view of my front door.

{Photo-A-Day} Day 11

Today's word was BRIGHT.

I have to admit that I struggled with this one a bit, because not much in my house is bright, I'm a more muted hue kind of person. I thought about heading outside to the garden but decided that I've done that a couple of times already this week so wanted to try something different. Just when I was about to give up (and head outside), I spied the kids' container of play dough. I started fiddling with and arranging the containers and bingo -- this photo was born.

There were a couple of others that I liked too, and I had a hard time choosing. I liked them all for different reasons. The first one (above) I liked because it was so random -- just a big, unorganized pile of colour. The only thing I didn't like was the top right corner, and the fact that you could see the table. It is just a reminder though that I must pay closer attention to what is at the very edge of the frame.

These two were my other favourites.

I have to say, I am having way more fun with this photo-a-day challenge than I would have ever imagined. I am learning sooooo much. I always knew that if I was to improve my photography and learn more about my camera, that I would need to practice - and this challenge has made me make time to do just that.

{Photo-A-Day} Day 10

Today's word is CHILL How do I keep cool? A nice cold glass of 'anything', so long as it's on ice. Pretty self explanatory I think.

{Photo-A-Day} Day 9 & Day 7 (Catch Up)

Yesterday's word (Day 9) was GREEN. Now there are lots of ways to interpret this one.....the colour, the environment, emotion = envy, and even maybe sickness(?). I had lots of ideas, but admittedly took what I believe was the easy way out. I shot for colour. I knew that because summer is here, finding something green definately wouldn't be hard and I headed outside. It was a beautiful day and decided that it was a great opportunity to try out some more of the manual settings on my camera. I started in my back garden -- took a few shots of this and that but wasn't satisfied so moved out front. There isn't a great deal there, but there is a nice rose bush that was just calling out to me. Since I was focused on the green, I opted to shoot the buds rather than the flowers themselves, something I probably wouldn't normally do. Here is my best shot.

I really liked the little pop of colour in the corners and the depth of field. You can see a lot of detail in the buds which are quite interesting and quite frankly I never gave them much thought before. I took this photo with no flash, the camera set on Aperture priority, and I manually adjusted the white balance for daylight.

While I liked this shot immensely, I was having way to much fun so carried on. I ventured into my neighbour's garden (who has a much nicer garden than I, I will add) and stumbled upon this pair of birds. I think they are Doves, but I could be wrong. They are obviously young, and didn't seem to be afraid of me really so I took the opportunity to snap a few pictures of them. I even tried to take a few with the camera set to FULL manual. I was pleasantly surprised with the results too, this is the best shot.

Although I took this yesterday when I was shooting 'GREEN', I'll log it as my Day 7 photo which was a free day (no topic assigned) which I missed. I am really really proud of this one given that I went full manual settings - the first time that full manual has given me a great result. Does that mean I'm learning, or was I just lucky? I guess I'll just have to wait and see.

{Photo-A-Day} Day 8

Today's word was HOPE. We could photograph things that give us hope, someone we have hopes for, someone we hope great thing for etc. Me though, I took a slightly different approach and ended up photographing a symbol of hope (well it's a symbol at least for me anyway). A rainbow. When I read the discussion board this morning and saw today's word, many things crossed my mind, but I admit that the first thing I pictured was a rainbow. Having said that, I quickly moved on to other thoughts because I figured, what are the odds? So I snapped a few photos over the course of the day and was planning on uploading this evening when I stepped out for a few minutes. And this is what I saw. Now I know that it's not the greatest image in a photographic sense, and I admit that I took it on auto with my point and shoot (I didn't want to mess around and miss the shot entirely), but for me it's a keeper. I have never seen a double rainbow, and I don't think I have ever seen a rainbow in it's full arch. It was incredible! I took a ton of shots and have loaded the better ones to my photostream at Flickr if you want to check them out. Honestly, it was breathtaking.

{Photo-A-Day} Day 6

Today's word is Summer. And oh, when I heard this I immediately thought bare feet, popsicles, & water play. But......what I ended up shooting wasn't even close to any of these. Here it is. I call it "Preparing For First Flight".

As to how it came to be....the opportunity presented itself for me to take this photo, so I took it. I guess we sometimes just have to go with the flow. You see, this young bird left the nest for the first time today. I know this because the nest is on my back deck and we've been watching and waiting for this to happen.

It was around suppertime that he ventured out. He sat there for quite a while, getting slowly closer and closer to the edge of the deck. He finally did fly (or try to) but unfortunately I missed the take off shot. He didn't get far though since he basically landed on the grass below (about a foot down). I watched him for quite some time hopping through the grass and then attempting to fly to the top of the fence. The whole time he just looked up and squaked whenever he saw another bird. It was almost as if he was calling for help. It was kinda sad really. He's gone now -- so I assume that he managed to figure it out - or at least I hope so.

Of all the shots I took of him, I liked this one the best because he was off centre and it seemed to me to emphasize that the world was such a big place compared to him. He had so far to go and so much to learn.

Tomorrow's topic is a freebie (that is I can shoot whatever strikes me), but maybe I'll try for a more 'Summer-like' shot instead.

Enjoy your weekend!

{Photo-A-Day} Day 5

The word for today is "SIMPLE". I checked the group board last night before bed, and when I saw it, I thought wow! how am I going to handle that. There seems to be very little in this life that is truly simple these days. But this morning, when I went to my office (those of you that know me know that it is not really an office at all but a corner of my kitchen -- LOL!) I found this note from my 6-year-old daughter. Right away I thought is that cool or what? How simple. & Voila! Another lightbulb moment. So not only is the note simple, and the composition of the photograph simple, but when I thought about it I realized that one of the simplest things in life (and one that is often overlooked) is a pen and paper. We are so reliant on technology with computers, email, electronic organizers, cell phones and such. I know I'm defiantely guilty of not putting pen to paper often enough. I can't remember the last time I actually sat down to write a letter!

What do you think of when you hear the word 'simple'? Post of photo on your blog, or in a gallery and send me a link back so I can check it out.

{Photo-A-Day} Challenge (Catch-Up) DAY 3

The word for Day 3 (which I missed) was "Smooth". Now nothing in this picture is particularly smooth (it is quite lumpy in fact), but it's my interpretation of Smooth nonetheless. I was sitting at my sister's last night and for whatever reason spent a great deal of time watching her fish. I found myself thinking how strange it was that things that are so rough (if you were to actually touch them) can move so smoothly and fluidly through the water. Then the lightbulb went on.....I had found my SMOOTH picture without even looking for it.

The composition is definately not perfect, and if I was to photoshop it, I would crop out the tubes on the right hand side -- but of course, for this challenge, cropping is not permitted. The one thing I did learn though is that I need to be more conscious of what is at the very edge of my frame. As soon as I reviewed it I saw it right away and tried to get a similar shot - without the tubes. Unfortunately the big fish just wouldn't cooperate and come back to centre stage.

So for the purpose of the challenge I'm happy with it, but just for fun - here's a cropped version because I just couldn't help myself. Smiles!

{Photo-A-Day} Challenge

In my quest to improve my photography skills and get to know my camera a bit better, I have joined a group on Flickr, the ACB Photo-A-Day Challenge. I'm a bit behind as they began the challenge on Monday, but I'm going to try to catch up. The idea behind the challenge is that there is a 'word' posted to the group each day and we need to take a picture that somehow pertains to that word. We can interpret the word any way that we want. It is meant only as a launching point so that we're not wandering around aimlessly, camera in hand looking for a photo op. Photoshopping of pics is not permitted since the whole idea behind the challenge is to learn to take better pictures -- and each week there is focus on a specific type of photography (e.g. macro) or a specific skill (e.g. composition). The focus for this week is COMPOSITION. Today is Day 4 and today's word is GO! Here's my photo.

The weather (and my morning coffee) were the first things that came to me when I read the word *GO*. Since the weather plays such a heavy hand in how the day is going to play out it seemed fitting to me. (and of course I can't GO anywhere without my morning java).

I shot this with my camera on manual (aperture priority) mode with no flash (something I admit I don't do very often), and I went for a fairly tight shot with the weather being 'in focus' -- although I'm not sure that I achieved my vision 100%. As you can see from the forecast it's cloudy today and I think that had it been brighter I might have gotten something a little better. I am lucky enough to have a skylight in my kitchen and on bright sunny mornings it just seems so cheery.

All in all it was a neat experience, and I'm looking forward to not only catching up on the days that I missed, but I'm also definately anxious to see what the word is for tomorrow. I think this could be addicting.