My New Photography Project

I have been searching for a new blog and a new blog project - I hate the idea of walking away from this one so for now I'm keeping this one titled "My 365 days of Reality"

The photography project will be a little different. Instead of just random pictures every day - we (me and some friends) have decided to have themed days. Every person participating has created their own personalized themed days. If you decide to join please drop me a note and I will add you to my blog roll. I am removing some of the other older ones because I'd like to keep the list current. If one picture a day seems too much you could do a weekly.

My themes are as follows:

Monday - "Black & White"
Tuesday - "Architectural Element"
Wednesday - "Books/written word"
Thursday - "It's about me"
Friday - "Loved"
Saturday - "Anything goes"
Sunday - "Nature"


Need more inspiration or ideas? Look here:
7 Photography projects
Iffles
Winter Photography - Digital Photography Schoolhouse
5 Things to do when you are in a photography rut
Project 365
Photography Project themed ideas

There are so many, many more. Just do a search on google or flicker.

So here's to wishing you all a Very Prosperous and Happy New Year!
Lets see what the new year brings . . . Peace, Joy, Prosperity & Love


and as always I am open to ideas, comments and CC (constructive criticism).

Happy Happy

Snow . . . in you face

or better yet in my lens.



these two got into the snow action too

It's Buzz light year - in Black & White

So here begins (I feel like it begins but it's been ongoing) my journey with OCF. That is taking that big flash off of the camera and mounting it somewhere else, in this case on a tri-pod.



Isabella was playing with this ornament of hers and I loved the way it looked on that all white table. The colors are nice and vibrant but then I thought it would look even better in black and white.

Izzy

I cannot believe my "baby" is gonna be 18 next week. I just cannot get over that! He graduates this year.
He and I had a nice date lunch today and I just "happen" to take my camera with me. so on the way back we stopped at his old elementery school. Now that's way back. I took of few shots of him while it was snowing. Playing around with lighting. I loved the results. This is with my 50mm. Only wish I had my OCF with me at the time.

These are worth seeing in larger size (click on pictures) so you can see bokeh snow. I've never seen this.

Photography Goals or just goals in General

First of all Merry Christmas to all who celebrate. Have a safe and peaceful day to everyone.

I know a lot of you don't like setting "goals" for the New Year - I always have. Do I always keep them? No, but like a business plan it's a great navigation tool to guide you where you would "like" to go. Of coarse plans always change but "How will you know when you get there if you didn't have a plan?" And Like I always tell my kids, Time will pass whether you are working on your goals or not, so why not work on it?

I stumbled across this blog site today and I was inspired. Silber Studios
"Why set photography goals" is a must read for photographers they also have a ton of interviews from other photographers to learn from and inspire.

You may remember the book I made awhile ago. There sat this page, empty for a very long time. So after reading the Silber Studios post I decided to fill that page up and I did. Now I need to embellish more pages because I have a whole lot more writing to do.



these are the other pages that were in the book.

Christmas Cards

To say that I used to scrapbook would be an understatement. I have lots and lots of albums to prove that. However, two years ago when I picked up the Nikon, got a few lessons from David, joined a photographers forum and just got educated on photograhy my focus changed. Now most of my free time is spent on photography.
Sometimes I miss just playing with paper and inks. So I wanted to give my awesome co-workers an extra special Christmas card (Like I used to pre-photography) and I pulled out some supplies and whipped these up last night. I'm happy with them.
As with any of these post you can click on picture to view larger.

Sometimes you laugh - sometimes you cry

It's located in the art district in Boston Mass. The moody pop from CoffeeShop made the back appear like black velvet.

Thanks to the USO of Illinois

Thanks to the USO of Illinois and all of the volunteers who made this event possible.
The USO put together a very nice program for the families of soldiers. Isabella, her mom and I enjoyed the day at the beautiful Navy Pier (Chicago). There were so many great activities for Isabella to enjoy. We ran out of energy before we ran out of activities. They even fed us, twice. We had such a great day.

The only problem was that I forgot my camera. Yes I did! I ended up buying a disposable camera. Interesting. These are from that disposable camera. My daughter will probably fire me as a photographer LOL

The huge glasses are for the I-Max theatre, Snowman versus Santa. Very cute, loved the 3-D.

The decorations were wonderful!




Lots and lots of jumping possibilities

Globes

Chicago in Red and other strange finds

While looking through my pictures I noticed a lot of Red in the city -
The green lady is a picture of a bill board. I'm not sure what they were advertising but I thought it was interesting.

Chicago doorways

I got this idea from Clueless in Boston (which by the way is my hometown - and this blog is making me really, really home sick). On wednesdays he post pictures of doorways somewhere in the city.
I'm still thinking about my new photo project - I haven't come up with anything yet. So meanwhile I'll just blog jump and borrow ideas. I'm open to suggestions. It has to be interesting and the subject matter should take me through the whole year.

Street performers - Chicago Illinois

I wonder if these street performers are holding on to their dreams?
They are so talented and their music is so pure. Hard to believe the sound that comes from their bare/basic instruments. They perform for hours at a time in frigid temperatures in the Windy City.

I tried a little street photography but I'm just starting out. I was a little reserved. Something I'll be working on.

5K Santa Shuffle - Chicago Illinois

David and I ran the Santa Shuffle in Chicago Illinois today. We ran around the beautiful Lincoln Park Zoo. It was so much fun!
I don't have the "usual" picture to post because we both ran so there was no one to take our picture, but there was an official "event Photographer" who had Nikon Equipment. He had Nikon D3s and a Nikon Lens I had never seen . . .Nikon 200mm F2! Wow!
So I'm sure I'll be buying an image from him and posting later.

Happy Thanksgiving and my 6 Mile run!

Hi Everyone!
Have a happy and safe Thanksgiving day. Celebrate with loved ones close by.

I ran my first 6 mile race today in Highland, Indiana. Now I'm going to go cook a little and eat a lot.

Thanks to my honey for standing out in the rain and cold to take these pictures. I also met a friend along the way - we kept pace together and good conversation. Made the run easier.

Just playing around with Textures

While cruising through flickr I came across this awesome artist. His style is completely different from what I've ever even attempted to do but his art is captivating and thought provoking.
He also gives away lots and lots of textures and brushes. Take a look at his stuff.
I did a quick play with 3 of his textures (used the same 3 in each picture)and I love the texture he titled Chaotic Soul. Just so much fun to play with.

Shadowhouse Creations

Just for fun

I changed my header following a couple of tutorials from CoffeeShop Blog.









This site is so much fun!

I added layers and layers of color and texture and I like the results.

361-365 and it's a wrap!

It's bitter sweet. It's the beauty of fall as summers blooms go dormant and nature prepares for the long winter days ahead.






































Our cousin (Hi Andie!) works for a non-for-profit organization called Ebenezer Medical Outreach, in West Virginia. She organized a Dancing with the Tri-State Stars. The Tri-States covers West Virginia, Ohio and Kentucky. Khalila, Dave & I had the honor of photographing the event. This was a big challenge for us as it was the first event of that type we have photographed. It was definitely a learning experience. The stadium was dark and the dancers were fast. This event was so entertaining and it was huge success.























Over the past year I have taken pictures of lots of mushrooms but these, found in Southern Ohio, are the weirdest and yuckiest looking I've come across yet.













The one I almost missed . . .
I was roaming my yard which has become somewhat of a jungle out there and I noticed this rose in what used to be my Rose Garden. It might be the only healthy bloom I've had all year long. I couldn't help but bring her in and enjoy what's left of her.
I used a grunge and textures. I like the effect.























and what a way to end the 365 day project . . . My pictures were featured in
"The Herald-Dispatch" of Huntington, West Virginia on Sunday, November 8, 2009.
4 pictures were featured.
WoooHooo