100 Day Project 2021

Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Going For A Saturday Drive

I'm not much of a planner, I like to do things on the spur of the moment!  And, that's what I did Saturday. I threw my camera in my bag, well, not really threw it, I placed it lovingly in my bag, grabbed the car keys and went for a drive. No destination, just turned when I wanted to and followed my instinct. Instinct didn't fail me, it led me to several pretty places. This pretty little pond was on private property, so I just pulled to the side of the road and took a picture. A nice place with the house all tucked up in the woods and the pond. All it needs is a few ducks.

As I kept driving I noticed this field with jonquils blooming and a barb wire fence. Those three things combined drew me right in. I found a place to park the car and walked back up the road to take a few pictures. It's amazing how I see things differently now. A year ago I would have never noticed how long the limb is on that tree...

or the shadows of the wire on the fence post.


I also noticed two straight rows of Jonquils. I would guess this was once an old home place with the Jonquils planted on either side of the walk to the front door. The rest of the Jonquils were scattered about, but these were just perfect rows. I wonder how old the flowers are and what happened to the home.

After driving for a while down the country roads I found another small pond. Can you tell I like water! This one was in a small housing edition and had a fishing dock. The noon day sun was shining creating beautiful sun flares on the water.

I turned around, looked down, and this is was what was staring up at me. He is rather strange looking! Maybe this is were they get the expression "strange duck!!"

He's a Muscovy duck. Pretty friendly actually, although he does give you the eye and raise his Elvis hair.

He kept taking deep breathes, huffing up, opening his bill and.........nothing came out; no sound at all!  I've read that the drake has a low breathy call. It must be very low because I didn't hear a thing!!

He did a little swimming while I was there. Ducks always look so peaceful to me as they slowly glide across the water! It's like magic that they can stay afloat so easily!

Of course, I couldn't leave until I'd snapped a few macro shots of dried seed pods and some type of pollen pods, I think!

I was pleased with the places I found!  While I'm talking about places let me mention that Kat at Kat Eye Studio has a new class that will begin in April called "A Sense Of Place"  It sounds very intriguing, you should go check it out. I can't wait for another challenging class of hers!!

I saw this quote today and thought it rather fitting for this post.

"The camera is an instrument that teaches people how to see without a camera." ~ Dorthea Lange

I hope you find some place special today where you can relax and just breathe, even if it's only for a few moments!!

Monday, February 27, 2012

In My Brain


What’s Happening In My Brain
                                                                                      
         I’m wondering.
        I’m pondering.
    I’m focusing.
        I’m wandering.

    I’m thinking.
      I’m scheming.
  I’m solving.
       I’m dreaming.
   I’m looking.
 I’m seeing.
I’m living.
I’m being.

                                             ~ Greg Pincus               

Sunday, February 26, 2012

Scavenger Hunt Sunday - February 26


Scavenger Hunt Sunday has arrived again!
Our prompts this week were:
crossed, a glimpse, handwritten, bliss, gray

Crossed

 A Glimpse
This is just a little glimpse of our 1940 Ford Pickup.
My husband's favorite toy!!

Handwritten
I was looking through a photo album of my mother's and found this handwritten receipt.  This receipt is for the hospital bill when I was born!!  They had no insurance, this was all they were charged for a three day stay!!  The shoes are also mine. They were bronzed and attached to base that held a picture frame which at some point broke.

Bliss
water
sunshine
seedpod
bokeh
this is bliss to me!!

Gray
Every chance I get I take photos of crayons!!
I just love them!


See you next week!!

Friday, February 24, 2012

{in the picture} ~ February

In The Picture

I  must be honest...I almost quit. I decided this just wasn't for me!!  I'm shy, I'm not experienced enough with the camera to get the great images, I'm not feeling creative with this...so I almost quit. There is one thing about me, if I start something I try my best to finish it!  SO, I managed to take my first shot this month and then another and then another. I said I wanted to take 52 images of myself this year. What in the world was I thinking!!  Twelve would have been enough!!  I have survived another month and after reading Christy's blog today where we link our photos, I feel a little better. She says the first year she did this, it took her about five months to feel comfortable. I'll keep plugging along and see what happens.

Anyway, our prompt this month, which we can use or ignore, is having words in the the picture or added to the picture.

This first shot was taken at a local library that has some really good art exhibits that I love to go to. When someone saw this photo, they said I must have been brave. No, not brave at all!! The exhibit is held in a room off from the main flow of the library and I was the only one in there. I sat my camera on a bench and ran back and forth!!  I have to find time to get me one of those remote thingies!!! Now, I wonder if anyone was watching me on a hidden camera! You know there had to be one in there!!  I didn't add any words, I really forgot that part!  But, I was in the library and there are books full of words! Does that count? I also over processed it too much trying to get a little different look and my sweater looks kind of a weird color!! The artwork I'm looking at is a charcoal drawing with a cut red paper overlay by Tammy Harrington. Pretty intriguing and lots of intricut cutting!

Not very imaginative here. But, it snow and I love snow!!  I set my camera under the porch and took a few pictures. I was very disappointed though, it snowed really heavy for a grand total of about 30 minutes, then it sleeted, and then it rained and the snow melted! Bummer!! I was looking forward to some great snow pictures!!

It keep raining!!  This has been rainiest  winter I remember! This is where I stood on a wet soggy day!  Our land is so muddy I have to wear my rubber boots every time I go outside!!

I love music! I've played since I was child, many, many years ago!  I remember the piano lessons and the mean old teacher that slapped my hands when I didn't hold them correctly!! Truly she did, just ask my sister!!  Oh, but I'm glad my Mom kept insisting we practice and keep on taking lessons. Thankfully, we only had the mean teacher for a short while!!  I played the piano at church for many years and now I play for my enjoyment!  Playing the piano and music does sooth my soul!!

It really wasn't so bad now that I look back at this month's pictures! I even had two pictures that show my face! Albeit once is a side view and one is far away!!  :) 

Wednesday, February 22, 2012

Picture Inspiration

It's just unbelievable that one whole year has passed since I began a photo/prompt class with Big Picture Classes called Picture Inspiration!  I've taken this class with a group of wonderful photographers. According to Tracey, our inspirational leader, there was a total of 894 photographers and 9,069 photos posted. The inspiration from this group is just amazing and the friendships I found have been so special.

I'm celebrating that I DID IT!! 
Although many of the prompts were hard,
I persevered and did it!!


 I want to share just a few of the images I posted.
As you can see my favorites are of nature!


 52 weeks later, it is the end! 
I'm missing the weekly prompts.
I'm missing the inspiration.
I'm missing the encouraging comments.
I'm missing the special friends I've made.

But, on the bight side...
I belong to a flickr group with many of these lovely ladies!
We get prompts each week and we stay in touch!

Also, Picture Black And White will begin very shortly!
I  just read that registration for the class will begin March 8
and the actual class will begin May 3.
I'm so looking forward to another class with my friends.
If you like photography, you ought to join us!!
Just click the button below to check out all their classes.
There are so many different ones, not just photography.

Until then, I'll just keeping clicking away!!

 

Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Exploring With A Camera ~ Silhouettes

I remember in elementary school that we made silhouettes for our parents on Mother's Day and Father's Day. We sat with a lamp on one side and a piece of paper tapped to the wall on the other. The teacher would then draw around our shadow on the paper; we cut them out and make cards. It's a lot easier to make silhouettes with digital photography!!

I wasn't surprised at all to find that I take a lot of silhouette images. I love taking pictures of the sky and I always try to include a few trees or branches to give the image some depth. If the light is just right; I get a silhouette of the tree. I'm warning you now this is a heavy photo post!!

The gorgeous colors of a sunset create a beautiful background for silhouettes!

 The soft pinks and purples of a sunrise are just as gorgeous!

This is one of my favorite sunrise silhouettes. I like the layers in this photo; the sky, the tree line, a layer of fog, the tree line reflected in the water, and then the lake itself.

 Cloudy days make good silhouettes if you can catch the sun peeking around the clouds.

I discovered a persimmon tree near my home and loved the shapes of the fruit and the branches. This is the only shot that I contrasted just a little to get the fruit darker. The other images are straight out of the camera.

Silhouettes are all about shapes. They need to be clear enough so you can tell what they are without seeing any details. I thought these two old buzzards looked like they were talking to one another.

You can even get a silhouette on a foggy morning.

Even the smallest things create beautiful silhouettes. I took this from ground level looking up at the beautiful blue sky. The darker blue spots are blurred tree leaves.

Here are some examples of other silhouettes I've taken.   I was shooting for the water drop, didn't get close enough, but I did get a silhouette of the blades of the windmill.

The blue hour in the morning and in the evening is a wonderful time to get gorgeous silhouettes. According to Wikipedia the blue hour is "the period of twilight each morning and each evening where there is neither full daylight nor complete darkness." For more information about the blue hour check out The Blue Hour Site. You can even calculate when the blue hour is in your area.

I hope you've enjoyed these silhouettes. I've linked them to Exploring With A Camera at Kat Eye Studio. Her February exploration is about silhouettes. She has a wonderful post on capturing silhouettes you should check it out. Just click the button below.


I want to make a disclaimer here. Silhouette is a very hard word to spell. As luck would have it, my spell check is not working on this post!!  So, please, ignore any misspelled words!!

Sunday, February 19, 2012

Scavenger Hunt Sunday - February 19

Scavenger Hunt Sunday with Ashley Sisk was a little harder this week.   I had to do a lot of thinking in order to come up with something different. I challenged myself to try and think of unusual things.

The prompts were:
love, duplicated, trend or trending, paper, and plastic

Love
I used this shot for my Valentine greeting, so you may have seen it before.



Duplicated
How can the grandmother of twins think of anything else for this prompt!!  Two little boys who make you think you're seeing double! 



Trend or Trending
I'm not one to follow trends or even know what's trending!!  I do know that I keep seeing owls everywhere. My daughter gave me this cute bookmark.



Paper
I'm not a true stamp collector, but I do like stamps.



Plastic
 Hours of fun with little pieces of plastic!!

One of the things I really like about Scavenger Hunt Sunday is the freedom to interpret the prompts any way I want.  It keeps me thinking and keeps me creative.

Have a wonderful week!

Tuesday, February 14, 2012

Sunday, February 12, 2012

Scavenger Hunt Sunday - February 12

It's Scavenger Hunt Sunday with Ashley Sisk.
This was a fun week!
The prompts were:
facial features, shadow, spicy, gold, and fabric

 
Facial Features
I bought these little vehicles for my grandsons to 
play with just because I love their little faces! 
They just look so happy!!!

 
 Shadow
There's something about this photo that just draws me.
I like the combination of the shadows
and the letters A-R-T carved into the tree.
I think they're some one's initials that
just happens to spell "art."

 
Spicy
a little bit of oregano

 
Gold
Of course, the first gold thing I thought of was our wedding rings.
You can see the nicks and scratches on them.
They will be 40 years old this year!!

 
 Fabric
vintage silk fan


There's a possibility of snow here on Monday!!
I would love to see a little!!
If it happens I'll post some pictures.

Have a wonderful week!