Photochallenge Week 17: Composition - Leading Lines

 

I have a love/hate relationship this big Sycamore tree in my front yard. It's so tall and beautiful during the spring and summer. I love how all the branches lead up to the sky. This is the view from underneath looking up.

My hate relationship is the fact that come September every single leaf starts to come down, and there are a lot of leaves!! All fall and winter long my yard is a leaf graveyard. Raking is hopeless as for everyone you get up, three more fall in the next 20 minutes. My neighbors also love the fact that many of the leaves make it into their yards as well.

Regardless, it's still a great tree and I'm glad to have it.

 

 

Photochallenge.org Week 16: Nature & Wildlife - Water (Long Exposure)

 

You'd think in living in Florida I'd have a massive amount of water options to pick from, but living in "Lake"land, most of my local options are standing water and the beach is just a little too far away for me to manage a visit this week.

 

We do have a local garden nearby though, with beautiful landscaping. Within it is an area with a water feature of rocks into a lily pool. It's shaded, which made it easier to get a longer shutter time and not overexpose my picture - which is NOT to say that this week was easy. It was actually quite the opposite.

 

Here's my official submission:

 

 

Here's some other pictures I took of all the plants and flowers, and a shot of my special helper of the day :-)

 



Camerashy Week 16: Formless

 

"The fog comes on little cat feet" - Carl Sandburg

 

Fog is formless, filling in spaces around it.

I love the way fog changes the look of your surroundings. As a kid I loved the idea of the clouds coming down to earth in the morning.

 

As always I'm struggling with which picture to choose this week.

 

Here's the official submission:

 

Here's the two other photos I was choosing between. I like all three for different reasons.



 

Photochallenge.org Week 15: Container

I had a few container ideas for this week, but ended up liking this set up the best when looking over the photos. This is probably my husband's favorite container in the house, when it's not empty.

 

 

CameraShy Week 15: Classic

Classic - such a simple word, but so many different ways to represent it.

 

As usual, I have to start shooting to get some inspiration. While I was thinking of different "classic" things, I saw the shaker in my dining room and had my idea. What's more classic than a traditional martini? Of course, this one was shaken - not stirred, but don't tell James that I used vodka because I'm not much of a gin fan ;-)

CameraShy Challenge Week 14: Peephole

The first thing I wanted to photograph when I saw this week's theme was the doorknob from Alice in Wonderland. It's somewhere on the Disney property, I know, but I wasn't going to find it this week so I had to come up with some alternative options.

 

I ended up with two choices. The first is a picture of "our" cardinal through my dining room window. He and his lady eat at our feeder every day, but catching a picture outside is almost impossible. They are both so aware of my presence when I try to sneak out and get a good shot. I was able to snap this from inside as they ate one day this week. 

The second picture is the one I submitted. I was walking around the backyard looking for further inspiration when I noticed the hole in the top of Jordan's picnic table. Here's a pic of the whole table, just for perspective.

 

 

Looking through the hole in the middle, I saw the clover growing and had my shot. I had to take a few to get the positioning right, but I ended up liking this a little better than picture one. I think it just fit the theme a little nicer.

Photochallenge.org Week 14: Composition - Rule of Thirds

There's a few nature trails within about 30 minutes of where I live and when I get a chance, and it's not to hot, I love to go walk through them. This week after I picked up my son from school we went for a little hike. We caught some great pictures as always.

This little guy was having an afternoon snack and was great to stay for a few minutes so I could get a shot of him. I love butterflies and it's always a great treat to get one that will let you take it's picture.

Camerashy Week 13: Delicate

 

"Delicate"

So every time I thought I had a good idea for this weeks theme, someone else posted it first. I know my picture would be different, but I want to make sure I don't just copy another idea so I usually try to regroup and think of something else. I took a few pictures this week. Delicate glass figurines, delicate tender new leaves... In the end I chose a delicate spider web that I found on a hike in a nearby wild preserve.

Here's my official submission. I've posted the "rejects" below.

 

 

Photochallenge.org Week 13: Landscape - Vanishing Road

This was a fun challenge. It made me get out of the house and drive all over town. It's interesting what you end up seeing when you are looking more closely on the roads you drive every day.

 

Here's the shot I submitted:

Here are two of my alternative shots that I didn't go with, but still like. I also found an awesome tree that was just begging to have it's picture taken.

Camerashy Week 12: Score

I was SO excited when I saw this weeks theme!! I had so much sports centered activity going on this week. It's Spring Break and I'm off almost the entire week so we are going to a Lighting hockey game, a spring training game between the Tigers and the Rays, and on Saturday Jordan has a baseball game. So much opportunity for a picture for this week.

 

I ended up using a picture of Jordan scoring a run at his little league game (proud Momma moment of course) but first, here are a few of my favorite "sport" shots of the week:

 

 

 

And my official submission for the week:

 

 

 

Photochallenge.org Week 12: Buds

I took a lot of pics this week. With spring ahead, we are rolling with buds down here in FL. Magnolia buds in the backyard, wildflower buds about, and then buds of the few plants we've decided to grow this year.

 

I ended up submitting a picture of our peach buds. We planted this small tree last year knowing it would take a while to mature but the way it's been growing this year has been amazing! Some of the fruit is already falling off so I'm sure it's not really ready yet to give me enough for a peach pie this year, but if we can get a few to taste I'll be so happy.

 

Here's a few pictures I considered:

 

Wild flowers (aka: Weeds) growing in my yard.

 



A tomato bud! Cannot wait to eat what this turns into!

 

And a Magnolia bud. These are all over our tree in the backyard, just ready to bloom. It's always a beautiful sight!

 



 

Camerashy Week 11: Unlucky

This one stumped me at first. I had a few ideas, but nothing good. Like some other participants I googled "unlucky" superstitions. There are some crazy ones out there!

Still mulling over my shot ideas I was in the backyard and got stung, again, by one of our lovely weeds. I believe it's some sort of stinging nettle. Our yard is covered with them this time of year. I am always the unlucky one that gets stung. Of course, I wear flip flops every day so that doesn't help.

Here's a close up of these dastardly nuisances. This is one growing on the fence line. It has gotten quite big.

 

 

Normally we get them mowed down before they are too tall,  but even then they can get you. Here's a bigger picture to see the entire thing.

Photochallenge.org Week 11: Still Life - Toy

So many ideas for this week!! Legos came to mind instantly, but I didn't really have time to build a scene so I opted not to go that route.

My first photo shoot was with Jordan's castle set. He helped me build it up and we took a few pictures. Overall, nothing impressive. It was fun, but I wasn't inspired so I moved on.

 

 

 

My next attempt was with dog toys. I had a few I liked, but again, I was not inspired. Now I just started taking pictures. Baby toys, Smurfs, anything lying around.

 

 

Then I saw ducky.... Inspiration!! First I thought about the bathtub but the lighting - yuck! So I went out to the pool. Good thing we set it up a few weeks ago :)

 

A little lonely right now, but it'll warm up soon enough and you won't be able to keep us out of the pool - unless it's raining - which happens a lot. It is Florida you know ;-)

Camerashy Week 10: Angle

I really struggled with the theme this week. All I saw were curves!! lol  There were so many good submissions for this week too, and I couldn't come up with anything all week long. All I kept thinking about was someone having an "angle" and I wanted to go take a picture of an attorney. :-)

Saturday morning though, as I was sitting on the couch enjoying my coffee I noticed how pretty my porch was, as the sun was rising and the light was coming through the trees. And there's my angle! The angle of the sun as it was going up.

 

 

I had to act quickly though, or I was going to miss it. Unfortunately I didn't take the time to wipe down the table so I had to crop the picture in close so you didn't see all the yucky cat hair. It's a little blown out since the sun was so bright and I could only block it out so much with the coffee cup.

Photochallenge.org Week 10: Depth of Field

I have been mulling this theme over in my mind since Sunday, coming no closer to a good idea. So I started taking pictures. I just started shooting different things around the house, inside and outside, to get some inspiration.

Then, success!! I got a great picture of my "cork" board. I love this thing. My sister bought the frame for me a few Christmases ago and then I filled it up. Yes, I filled it, with a little help from my husband.

 

Here's how it looks, hung on the wall.