Day 23

Still no photo. I've been accompanying 12 hours today and it hurts just to think about picking up a camera. But for what it's worth, I had so much fun today. The director I'm playing for is the director of the Morehouse Glee Club and it has been a great learning experience for me. Good thing is that with playing all day long (and very repetitively, I might add) I'm not as nervous about the Haydn piece (Awake the Harp).

I'll have some time on Sunday to take some shots, but not before I catch up on all the overdue comments. Thanks to everyone!

Oh and cridley, about the whites, the way I do it besides trying to set my white balance correctly and lighting the scene, I also do a levels adjustment and use the highlights eyedropper and click on any area that should be pure white but is just a tad too dark. The good thing about using the eye dropper and a new layer for this is that you can click over and over to change it if needed.

Day 22 - fail

:(

I'm out of the contest, but I'll try to keep shooting. But probably not until Sunday. I'm about stressed to the maximum human limit right now. Besides everything that goes along with teaching, I spent all day preparing for a sub for my classes tomorrow and practicing piano. I'll be accompanying our District Honor Chorus' 11th & 12th grade chorus tomorrow and Saturday.

Here are just two of the six choral pieces I've been trying to get ready to play:
Awake the Harp (I S*U*C*K at counterpoint :( )
I Dream a World (really beautiful and fun to play but talk about challenge! The hemiola is sadistic in this thing!)
... did I mention I only received these a few days ago?
(The clips are not me playing... but hopefully I'll sound acceptable. Wish me luck!)

Day 21 - Tangerine

My son's teacher brought some tangerines and lemons back from her vacation home in Florida and shared them with us.

Day 20 - Infinity

My electric piano at an angle that seems to go on forever. :)

Day 19 - Horses

These are two of the horses in a carousel set that has six horses and a center "organ". When it's turned on, the horses spin, the lights blink and the organ plays music. The shutter was left open for about 2" to get the movement of the horses.

Day 18 - Keys

My classroom keys and name tag (which after only 5 months looks like it's been through a tornado, lol). I hang them around my rearview mirror so I won't forget them. I've only forgotten them once so far this year, and that's remarkable if you know me well! Shot through the back side door, lit with only the reading lights above the keys.

Day 17 - Broom

The broom on my back porch with a bit of "Dave Hill" type treatment. The shadows are from the baker's rack it's leaning against. Not sure I like it, but there you have it. ;)

Day 16 - Old Friend

This stuffed dog is an old friend from my childhood. His name is Henry (the patch you can see has his name embroidered on it). My grandmother gave me this small dog, and she had the life-sized dog at her home. It was probably about 3 ft. tall, but I remember it being huge. She gave my sister and me the small matching dogs to keep at our house and I still have mine. The button eyes are long gone.

Day 15 - Abstract

This is the base of another lamp in my house - the one in my living room. I thought this tight crop made an interesting abstract.



Golly geez. I had to edit this twice to spell "in" right and to correct the day from 16 to 15. I'm T!I!R!E!D! G'nite all :)

Day 14 - Tindra

You guys are the greatest - so encouraging! I really appreciate the feedback. I hate not having time to comment... but I'll catch up this weekend.

This is Tindra. She's our Siamese cat. Well, technically I guess she's still a kitten. She turns two this summer. Grottzork named her! Her name means "twinkle" in Swedish. :)

Day 13 - Hydrangeas

A vase of silk hydrangeas in my bedroom. Sorta cliche... but I'm kind of running out of ideas. Sorry I haven't made the blog circuit in a while - I'll try to catch up this weekend. Been a very busy week.

Day 12 - Iridescent

These ornaments are the ones I bought for the 2008 iridescent photo contest. They sit in this bowl now on my TV stand. The doily was made by my great grandmother.

Day 11 - Priorities

No matter how you invert it, the priorities remain the same. ;) This is a bag I got at Books-a-Million for renewing my customer card. It makes an interesting study in inverted colors. (The image on the right is the one that's inverted.)

Day 10 - Me

This is me sitting in my dining room. A rare self-portrait (I even put on makeup for this!) taken with my 50mm 1.4 lens. Sorry, no larger image for today.

Day 9 - Handle

We're trying out new handles for the kitchen cabinets. I think these are the ones I've settled on. Now I just need to find time to paint.

Day 8 Bonus - Guitar Hero

This was the shot I was going for, but wound up liking the shot of the shoe better. Since Zack (my son) liked it, I thought I'd put it here.

Day 8 - Say What!?

I was taking pictures of my son playing Guitar Hero (it was a rare moment for him to cooperate!) and was lying on the floor to try some interesting angles. I look over and see his tattered shoe and think, cool - a grunge shot. I didn't even notice the writing until I downloaded the pics to my computer. "Sexy Hubby" it says!? WTH I don't know whether to laugh or cringe... :/

Day 7 - Valance

Embarrassingly uncreative shot today... this is my breakfast room window. I made the valances (there's another window with the same valance). Maybe tomorrow will be better.

Day 6 - Nativity

This is a nativity scene/display that I haven't put up yet. I thought it was appropriate for today being Epiphany, although there are no wisemen in the display.

Day 5 - Lamp

This is the base of the lamp that sits on the left bedside table in my room. The right one doesn't match. I like it like that. :)

Day 4 - Frock

This little velveteen dress was mine when I was a toddler. My mother made it for me, and now it's a decoration in my bedroom. This is a close-up shot of the tapestry ribbon that encircles the bodice.

Day 3 - Angel

The tree is still up. Got a shot of the angel at the top just after midnight.

Day 2 - Another Nutcracker

This is the brother to day 1's nutcracker. These are the only big ones I have, but there are about ten or eleven others. I started buying one each year when my son was little. I'm supposed to be putting the decorations away, but it's more fun to take pictures of them! :)



The lighting is different because not only is it a different time of day, but this little guy is closer to both the window and the tree. My actual wall color and texture looks more like day 1. See?

Day 1 - Nutcracker

This is a 2 1/2 ft. tall nutcracker doll that stands on top of my tv stand. Shot with my new-ish Sigma 70-300mm lens from across the room about 20 ft. away. I like how it seems to be floating.

Click on the image for a larger image.

A New Year, A New Challenge!

The header for my blog has changed. No longer am I shooting churches. Since starting a full-time teaching job, I think I'll have better success at staying closer to home. Plus January is traditionally the time of year Georgia has snow storms pop up suddenly. As long as the internet holds out, I'll post little glimpses of my life here at home. :)