Attracted to Technology

What is it about electronics that attracts children?  I understand the flashing lights and the electronic beeps, but a plain black remote control?  Buttons that don’t make any noise?

Jan 25 – I ended up choosing this photo to post for today.  I do like the overall composition, but it does have some problems.  The dark line at the top isn’t quite straight with the edge of the picture and it would look better if it was.  I might rotate it some in Photoshop to try to fix that.  My second issue is not as easy to fix…not with my current Photoshop skills anyway.   The little guy crawls all over the carpet and picks up everything in his path including this lovely tangle of hair.  I’ll need to start going over him with a lint brush before taking more photos on the floor.

Catching up Again…

I orginally set up this blog to keep on track with taking pictures everyday.  While I find I’m doing ok with that, I’m obviously not finding the time for the blog on a consistent basis.  Very sorry about that.  Here are a bunch of photos to catch me up with where I should be.

Jan 18 – Found…My husband rescued this handsome plant from storage at his office and made it his own.  Right now it’s hanging out in our living room while we locate a pretty new pot for it.

Jan 19 – An Old Friend…The bear was my husband’s as a child and is now receiving lots of love from our own children.  I was not very happy with many of my shots today and even this one is blurrier than I would like.

Jan 20 – Dinner on theStove….We had burgers this night.  I liked the shot because I was able to capture the smoke.  I was much less happy with the burgers.

Jan 21 – Depth…Working at capturing depth of feld in my photographs.  Worked pretty well in this case, but need to become more proficient with less obvious subjects.

Jan 22 – Solar Flare…Wonderful abstract image from a photograph I took of the inside of my child’s Halloween pumpkin basket.  I think it still needs a little something, but am very happy with how it looks so far.

Jan 23 – Afloat…Got time today to take an actual photo expedition.  Due to a short amount of time (and possible car trouble) I opted to go to the park near our house and captured several images.  This is of a lone leaf floating through the murky canal waters.  The entire day was overcast and the leaf was a happy bit of color.

Jan 24 – Pink Blossom…the last blooming blossom on a bush otherwise hit by the cold spell.  I was amazed at how delicate it still looked on film.  I’ve always wanted a garden and now feel compelled to start one this year as it will give me so many possibilities for photographs.  I would appreciate any suggestions of types of plants that are unique and would hold up to hot, hot weather.

Whew!  Basically caught up!  I still need to decide which photograph to post for the 25th….not too thrilled with what I took so not sure what you will get.  I will post it again before midnight and if I get really organized will maybe post today’s photo too.

Patterns

Jan 16 – Still in an abstract frame of mind.  I’m seeing the Patterns in the everyday objects around me.  This one is still a work in progress.  It reminds me of a spiraling galaxy.  I like the way it looks, but it needs something else.  I need distance from it and will come back again.

Jan 17 – Sunlight’s Flame…Many trees around the area have shed their leaves during winter and I love the stark design of their branches.    I cropped and puched up the color in this photo to add a little warmth to a rather cold week.

And if you have a moment, read “Patterns” a poem by Amy Lowell.  It was one of my speech pieces in high school and I quite like this little poem.

Reverberations

Jan 15 – Everything is rippling….everything I do affects something else and it seems to get away from me before I can catch the wave.  Today’s art is pieced together from two different photos of items around my home.  The dust trails were used to accentuate motion.  If you look at the bottom, I’ve finally decided upon my business logo. 

Forgot to mention – a few days ago I was thrilled to find out that my “Enjoying the Sunshine” design placed second in the Spoonflower contest!

Another Year Older…

Jan 14 – I am in the process of planning my son’s second birthday party.  I find it amazing that another year has passed, but equally strange that he’s only going to be two.  He’s so grown up!  This handsome steed – looking only a little the worse for wear thanks to some strategic crayon use by said son – was a gift he received on his first birthday.  That would be the party that was held outdoors…in February.  The weather in the South is usually warmer year round, but people actually had to leave the party to get jackets and come back.  This year will be indoors…people have already threatened to boycott otherwise.

As far as the photo…it has a lot that could be improved upon.  There is a lack of color in the photo which I don’t think works well in this case because there is also a lack of contrast.  The angle on the horse is also not well done.  It would have been better taken from below for the horse to appear tall and proud.  The neck stretching up rather than looking squashed as it does right now.

4-3-2-1: Time to Back Track

Carrying On..taking photos everyday…but doing much better with that some days than others.  I can’t believe I have let 4 days pass without posting my photos.  So here is the back track, 4 photos from 4 days all rolled into one.

Jan 9 – We went over to my in-laws house and so I had a wealth of new things to photograph.  These lovely old brooches are part of a set pinned to an old sun hat hanging on the wall.  Taken with Manual focus!  which I think I have finally figured out on my digital camera.

Jan 10 – Pillows!  I have been getting little to no sleep this year as I try to transition my baby boy to sleeping in his own crib.  These pillows looked awfully inviting and truth be told I took few other pictures that day. 

Jan 11 – My Spoonflower fabric swatches arrived which made me do a happy dance!  The top three were just as I wanted them.  The orange swatch on the bottom was a bit more neon than I had wanted so I will be darkening that color a bit.  All of these are available on Spoonflower   The owls on the top was my recent contest entry.  Doubt I won (I think we find out Friday?), but I was honored to have it among the few designs posted at the top of where everyone went to vote.  I am anxious to play around with the colors although I do like it in their color palette.

Jan 12 – Trying to put into practice the photography lessons I have been reading.   This one is all about the lines and the light.  The vertical images line up with the edge of the photo for a lot more impact than it would have had at an angle.  A simple shot, but it makes me wonder what’s outside the window.  (Unfortunately, I know the actual answer is a small alley and a brick wall, but I can still wonder if I want to.)

Do you know what this is?

Jan 13 – I think one reason I like Macro photography is sentimental.  We had a subscription to some children’s magazine that had a monthly feature…macros of objects for you to guess what they were.  I loved doing that every month!  (If anyone has a guess at what the magazine was please let me know!)  So, here is my contribution. 

It’s my brand new hairbrush!  The bristles look a bit like shiny matches and the hair gives an odd briar patch effect at the bottom of the photograph.  (So I guess it’s not brand, brand new.)  Were you aware that since I have curly hair, I should actually not be using one of these?

Watching Over Us

Jan 8 Photo – I do believe there are angels watching over us…just not all are of the heavenly variety.  The people who care for us, look out for us, those we rely on are our daily angels.  I feel this way a lot as a mother looking over my two little ones.  I’m often asked how I balance it all - marriage, children, work and household – and the answer is because I must.  But more importantly, it is because I wouldn’t have it any other way.  I cherish my role caring for my family.

I established this blog to keep me on track with taking these daily photos.  Because of my responsibilities, I’m having trouble getting them promptly posted, but rest assured each of these was photographed on the date mentioned in the post.  I have not yet missed a day taking photos.

It is important to me to have a creative channel and I love to dabble in so many different mediums.  I am greatly enjoying improving my photography knowledge and of late I am also making time to sketch again which I loved to when I was younger.  I’ve often had difficulty with that because  I favor symmetry too much when drawing and the natural world is much more asymmetrical.  My recent improvements have come about because I am sketching in very low light as I am putting my children to bed.  I think by not being able to clearly see what I have produced it has somehow freed my hand to be more random in its movements.

I have been working on a toile design and hope to finish assembling my sketches together to enter in Spoonflower’s fabric design contest on Monday. I am actually also entered in this week’s contest – the challenge was to create a bird design using a specified color palette.  My entry is called “Enjoying the Sunshine” and features sweet little owls among flowers on a leafy vine.

I would appreciate it if you would vote for me here:

http://blog.spoonflower.com/2010/01/81-birds-of-a-color-vote-for-your-favorite-feathered-fabrics.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+SpoonflowerBlog+%28Spoonflower+blog%29

Half Eaten

So recently edible and so quickly decomposing.

Jan 7 – I’m always busy and January is streaming past.  Everything seems to go too quickly – like this banana….like this photo project of mine.  Still keeping it going, but I’m beginning to feel pretty stagnant with my picture taking opportunities.  I’m very thankful to have reached a weekend and hope will be able to get into the wild world and have a different choice of subjects.

I like the curves of the banana peel and the interesting way it was rotting.  I do wish my son had managed to bite off the banana itself at more of an angle…it would have looked better in the shot.  I need to consider things like that before taking the pictures.  Always plan your shot…but it’s so hard to notice everything…at least so far.  Definitely something to work on.

New Experiences

Jan 6 – I think you can tell he’s not quite sure new experiences are a good thing.  That or the experience of attending his first high school wrestling match was too much to process. (Actually was my first one as well.)

My first portrait I am posting this year.  I seem to be getting better at them.  I love taking black & white photos…somehow you can focus on the emotion more without the color distracting you…or me anyway.

Posting my photo from the 6th so late as I try to use all possible time each day trying to take pictures.  Then I make my choice in the wee hours and do a little tweaking if it calls for it.  Got very little sleep last night, so between a busy morning and work day this was my first opportunity.