I keep falling behind!  I never feel like my day is busy but when it comes time to crawl into bed I wonder where  the time disappeared to.  My picture for day 28 ended up being something totally unexpected.  I had a few ideas in mind when I left work that day but the picture I ended with was really a happy accident of circumstance.  I was waiting in the drive through line at Wendy’s when I noticed the lights on the outside wall.  I really liked how the light illuminated the cover and created a deep contrast between the bricks and the mortar.

The day 29 picture was once again the result of me having to take my car in to the garage to get the same sensor fixed.  Luckily they have been doing all the work for free since the initial investment never corrected the issue.  The time the car was being worked on allowed me to walk around exploring with my camera.  There were snow clouds approaching and the sun was trying its best to fend them off.

The day was shaping up to be a wash out for taking pictures, but about an hour before my work day was over the sky cleared and the sun was shining brightly.  I didn’t stay any longer at work than I needed to and ran out with my camera to capture the light.  I knew exactly what I wanted to photograph…  the water tower at the Central New York Psychiatric Center.  There is a road about a mile from the tower that offers a nice view through a clearing in the woods.  I drove straight there and parked the car.

I hadn’t counted on the zoom of the camera not quite being strong enough to bring the water tower closer to me but I still liked the effect of the sun’s light on the tower.  A few clouds in the sky would have improved the picture but beggars can’t be choosers.  To reduce the impact of the bright blue sky I decided to include the silhouette of the tree which was about half the distance to the water tower.  I think it works.  At least I know a great spot for the future when I get a stronger camera and lens.

The sun and the moon were in a great battle of showing off.  The setting sun in the west with a brilliant orange hue to the sky and the rising moon in the east with a nice magenta color to the sky.  I raced in the car to get closer to home which gets me out of the valley and in a better position to see both views.  I didn’t quite make it for the moon but the even after the sun set it helped produce this image.

I liked the tree silhouette (again!) and the contrails in the sky behind the tree.  Over the next couple of days I’ll have to try and get to my vantage point early enough to setup for the battle.  I just have to get the clouds to take the evening off again.

I wasn’t positive about posting day 26’s picture.  I actually didn’t get it posted until a day later.  I processed and uploaded the picture to my album but just didn’t feel it was worth a post.  That was until I woke this morning to find I had a comment on the picture in my album.  That totally changed how I was feeling.  It definitely broke me out of the funk I was feeling yesterday.  

The unexpected sometimes is what you were looking for.  I had to work from home (for various reasons) and was able to fit in a little camera work throughout the day.  My original plan was to use a picture of one of our ornaments on the tree.  I had a few to pick from but nothing was standing out as the obvious choice.

Sitting in the big comfy chair in the living I noticed the lamp across the room from me with its slightly ornate neck and the shadow it created on the wall.  I snapped off a few pictures testing various exposure settings.  The big reason the lamp turned into my picture for the project has just as much to do with what I learned in processing the picture.  I have taken many pictures at higher ISO settings in low lighting inside but never managed to remove the induced noise especially within the lighter colors.  It all came together when I was working on this picture…  now I have another tool in my bag of tricks.

Toward the end of the day I was trying different angles and compositions on various decorations around the room when one of the pictures had a portion of two candle holders with some great effects from the flash.  I quickly moved a few decorations out of my way to create this picture.

I still had those ornament pictures I had taken throughout the day.  This one just brought our tree together in one image…  Disney, homemade and yearly ornaments for the kids.  Plus who can argue with ‘red ornaments on a green Christmas tree…’?

Well, my plan to be more thoughtful about my picture selection fell through for today.  Hopefully I can make it work going forward, but I’m not going to worry about.  The pictures tend to jump out at me anyway…

Ho Ho Ho!  I’m still in the Christmas spirit which probably explains why I stayed with a Christmas theme for day 24.  Or maybe it had something to do with running home after work to hang the outside lights before the bad weather kicked in.  Normally I don’t get everything prepared ahead of time to do the work without freezing my finger tips off.  We had sun and 50 degrees so I wanted to make sure I could enjoy the hanging of the lights ritual.

We also decided I wasn’t going to hang the mish mash variety of lights that made the house look like it was on some bad drugs or couldn’t make up it’s mind.  I picked up some new cool white LED lights at the store over the weekend which should bring our house into the modern age.  Once I was finished I couldn’t resist getting the camera out and snapping a few pictures.  Of course, they were not the typical ‘here is my house decorated for Christmas’ pictures, they were up close, macro, short depth of focus pictures, but I liked them.

The weather forecast isn’t very promising for today, which is going to force me to be a little creative for my next picture.  Hhhmmm, going to have to do some thinking on this one…

Tis’ the season!  I had put the Christmas tree up the previous night and our plan was to hang all the decorations after a day of shopping.  The shopping was a success (when isn’t, really?) and a couple of hours after we returned home the tree was complete.  Luckily for me I managed to play with the camera before we got started.  I had seen some nice pictures online of holiday lights all bokeh’d out and wanted to give it a try.

I don’t think it turned out so bad, but it was not as easy to achieve as you would think.  You really have to work to get an auto-focusing, point & shoot camera to stay out of focus on a subject.  I ended up focusing on the carpet, not letting up on the shutter switch and turning the camera toward the tree.  More than one attempt was unsuccessful.  I’ll have to try this picture again next year when hopefully I’ll have an upgraded camera.

If I can get this posted before midnight then I am not too late.  Well, maybe just a day late but no more!  I was out exploring in the yard seeing what jumped out at me for my day 22 picture when I noticed the horse (Sonata) next door staring at me.  I swear she knew I had a camera and didn’t move until I took her picture.  It didn’t turn out that bad so I decided to make it my project picture for the day.  Trying to expand beyond my normal pictures.

I also managed to spend enough time outside to make way way into the golden hour.  The only downside is the clouds just were not going to cooperate.  I ventured across the road to the field my neighbor allowed the state to turn into a migratory sanctuary.  They built three small ponds which are frequently used by the geese and ducks as they travel.  I haven’t process those pictures yet as I feel I have done that scene before but I did keep them for future use.

The picture below was taken back in my yard using one of the fence posts to help focus the camera.  I didn’t want the sky in sharp focus because there was a picture picture with the color rather than the texture of the clouds.

I couldn’t resist this picture.  Something about trying to grab a small focused area on the clothesline while still keeping enough of the remaining picture with enough focus not to be lost in the background.  Next spring I’m going to have to tray this one again with some clothes hanging to see how that looks.

I was also out in the morning getting pictures with the light snow that fell the night before.  They both involve the fence since it was the only thing in the yard with any of the snow remaining.  One is some ice hanging under the top rail which had great detail within it and a cool view of the yard.  The second was the melting snow which was crystallizing on the rail and had great texture.

I’m actually looking forward to this winter.  I can see lots of play time for me outside with the camera.  Just hoping there isn’t too much snow or I’ll be spending my time with the shovel instead!

I know, I have been very negligent in posting my project pictures.  My everyday activities keep getting in the way.  You’re right, that is not a good excuse but it is the best I can come up with at the moment.  This will act as a catch-me-up post and then I will work at being more diligent in writing up my experience.  I let it slip and I rode a long way down the hill before I stopped.  Where did I leave off…

Day 16 – Take my son back to college day

We didn’t get started on the 2.5 hour trip back to college as early as I had hoped but it worked out for the best.  We returned to Potsdam, NY in time for lunch and he ended up taking me to a little Mexican restaurant in town.  It was a great burrito, actually more than I could eat and we now have another place to return whenever we are in town.

The trip home was overcast with a slight rain coming and going but I did manage to get in a few stops at places I have been trying to visit.  As I got close to home my route takes me along the Black River Canal, a northern expansion to the New York State Canal system, running between Rome and Carthage, NY.  This picture is one of the old locks along that canal.

Day 17 – Bad weather, what picture can I get day

The weather did not allow for any excursion during lunch today and by the time I got home my outside options were disappearing quickly.  My daughter had ‘borrowed’ this night light from her Grandma and I decided to sit down in the hall with it to see what could be done.  The static picture of the shade was cool with the included scene and colors it created on the wall but I wanted to be able to show the movement.  The top down picture worked but then the profile really sold it for me.  My only trouble was deciding which to use for my project picture.  Creating the picture below allowed me to learn some more about my software as well as hopefully tell a story.

Day 18 – Keep looking inside day

Mother Nature just didn’t want me to be outside again.  Or maybe I just didn’t want to take on the adventure, either way I turned inside again once I was home from work.  I’m a big Disney fan (if you couldn’t already tell) and I wanted to try to use these Jim Shore figures for my project picture.  At first I tried to create a panorama of all of them on the shelf but it just wasn’t working out.  The vivid colors were going to work for me no matter what I did so I decided to go for the chorus line picture with a shallow depth of focus.  It works for me and it keeps the rest of the room out of the picture, which my wife appreciates.

Day 19 – Inspiration from another 365 project

Today I had a thought for a picture which was inspired by Simon Kitcher.  He recently re-started his own 365 project and has been photographing glass sculptures.  His wonderful pictures pushed me in a different direction which turned out fairly well.  I played with a light and mosaic candle topper to produce the picture below.  The smaller squares which are more in focus are on the backside of the topper as seen through the front.  I really liked the colors and glimpses of light that the mosaic tiles provided.

Day 20 – Not done with mosaic candle topper day

I didn’t even try to go outside today.  The candle topper was calling me back.  This time I lit a small tea candle and placed it inside the topper.  The candle’s light provided a different look to the patterns and colors from the previous days picture.  Of the numerous pictures I took with the candle this one with all the crackling within the glass was my favorite.  The diffusion of the flame within the different squares was what I was looking for when I thought of creating this picture.

Day 21 – Finally a worthy sunrise day

Some days you just walk into it…  As I was getting ready to leave for work I noticed the sunrise and the colors it was producing in the sky.  Combine that with a light frost and my camera was calling.  I had about 10 minutes before I had to leave which had me racing around my yard to capture all the images that kept shouting at me.  For this one a put the camera on the walk and shot up through the frosted grass.  The out of focus trees with only the sky colors to provide a background is what prompted me to pick this picture for today.

Whew!  I’m all caught up.  Not as painful as I thought it would be.  My memory isn’t the greatest but returning to these pictures to write this post brought me back to each day without a problem.  I guess my wife is right, I only remember those things that interest me.

Time to go find day 22’s picture.  It’s out there, I’m really curious as to when it will jump out at me…