T-H-I-R-T-Y-days

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2010-08-30T21:17:00.000-04:00

Thirty Days of Churches by written and photographed by Julie Waldrop Ward | Make Your Own Book

Day 23

2009-01-23T21:53:00.003-05:00

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

2009-01-23T00:01:00.002-05:00

:(

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

2009-01-21T22:58:00.002-05:00

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

Day 20 - Infinity

2009-01-20T21:39:00.002-05:00

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

Day 19 - Horses

2009-01-19T22:29:00.002-05:00

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

2009-01-18T23:07:00.002-05:00

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

2009-01-17T22:09:00.003-05:00

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

2009-01-16T23:39:00.002-05:00

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

2009-01-15T21:14:00.003-05:00

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

2009-01-14T20:41:00.003-05:00

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

2009-01-13T23:16:00.002-05:00

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

2009-01-12T21:07:00.002-05:00

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

2009-01-11T19:46:00.002-05:00

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

2009-01-10T17:41:00.003-05:00

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

2009-01-09T23:59:00.001-05:00

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

2009-01-09T00:41:00.003-05:00

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!?

2009-01-08T21:07:00.002-05:00

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

2009-01-07T21:04:00.003-05:00

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

2009-01-06T21:57:00.002-05:00

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

2009-01-05T23:26:00.002-05:00

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

2009-01-04T04:02:00.002-05:00

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

2009-01-03T02:39:00.002-05:00

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

Day 2 - Another Nutcracker

2009-01-02T15:10:00.004-05:00

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

2009-01-01T22:22:00.003-05:00

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!

2009-01-01T22:20:00.001-05:00

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. :)

August 3rd - The Finals at Worth1000.com

2008-08-03T20:32:00.005-04:00

Visit www.worth1000.com and vote for all the finalists in the 30-day Photography Challenge! My final image will be posted here after voting is completed. :)

This was my entry - it came in 7th place. :)

Day 30 - McDonough Presbyterian Church

2008-07-30T18:28:00.002-04:00

This view is of the largest sanctuary, but there are several large buildings to this church. The courtyard seen just behind the front trees has an old bell in the center and education and recreation buildings surrounding it. The peachy yellow brick looks radiant in this beautiful sunshine. And the gorgeous blue sky cooperated nicely today! :)

Day 29 - Turner United Methodist Church

2008-07-29T16:51:00.003-04:00

I've been wanting to shoot this cute country church for a while, and today I got the opportunity while in the area for a real estate shoot. It is so quaint and old-world looking with its tree-lined drive, one-room style construction and beautiful cemetery to the side.

Day 28 bonus - Golf Course at Heron Bay Resort Community

2008-07-28T21:01:00.003-04:00

Here's a bonus I shot for a real estate listing in this master planned community. I'll add it to the map - but it's so new I bet there's nothing but trees and dirt. [Edit: strike that. The satellite image here must be newer than some of the other areas, because you can see the development at Google Maps!] I was bummed about the hazy sky. Nothing I did would make it turn a pretty clear blue. Did I mention it's HOT here!? :p

Day 28 - Faith Baptist Church

2008-07-28T17:59:00.003-04:00

You can almost feel the 100-degree heat and hot full sun just looking at this picture. I cloned out some ugly powerlines in the trees, but the color and contrast is true. :)

Day 27 - Flowing River Fellowship

2008-07-27T19:31:00.005-04:00

Finally a church that begs for a blue border (my favorite color :)). This small warehouse-type church building sits directly across from Flippen UMC from day 4. You can see a little of its reflection in the left set of windows. I desaturated the reds a lot because Georgia clay makes everything tinged a rust color, especially the pavement and base of exterior walls. I wanted the colors to be simple and crisp.

Here's a closeup of the entry. (The marquee says "FRF" with a stylized dove behind it, "An Oasis for the Thirsty")

Day 26 - CompassChurch.tv

2008-07-26T14:55:00.003-04:00

This is a church of a new generation. The actual name of the church is a URL. The symmetry of the building spoke to me and I focused on the graphic center of the entryway. An interesting side note - the sermon series advertised on the billboard is "God Loves Sex". If that doesn't draw people in, nothing will. :D

Day 25 - Wesley Chapel United Methodist

2008-07-25T15:36:00.003-04:00

Early again. :) Tried out some new (and free) plugins from this site. I used the contrast enhancement here along with a Photoshop shadows/highlight adjustment.

Day 24 - Liberty Hill Baptist Church

2008-07-24T18:55:00.004-04:00

I'm early today! Don't hold it against me. ;)

With such a patriotic name, I thought a red, white and blue frame was in order. I loved the welcoming entry on the main chapel of this church. The building stretches about 100 feet in both directions from this cropped view.

Day 23 - Tri City Seventh Day Adventists

2008-07-23T23:11:00.003-04:00

I love the sign on this little church! It looks so space-age and futuristic. From the street (it sits at the top of a pretty long hill) you can see the downtown lights in Atlanta at night. Converted to B&W, sharpened and blurred in Photoshop.

Day 22 - Peoples Baptist Church

2008-07-22T21:21:00.002-04:00

I wanted to do a triptych of this large church, but only got two images that looked compatible to me - so here's a diptych instead. Corrected lens distortion, cropped and levels adjustments in Photoshop.

Here's the third image I couldn't make fit - the color was too off, and it looked too out of place next to the others.

Day 21 - St. James the Apostle Catholic Church

2008-07-21T22:44:00.003-04:00

Night is a great time I'm finding to shoot these really large, busy churches. This is another by-hand HDR with just two exposures. Since the name is in large letters on the front of the church, I thought it would be redundant to put the name in the frame. So here's St. James Catholic - our one and only Catholic church that I know of in Henry County. :)

Day 20 - Jodeco Baptist Church

2008-07-20T22:58:00.004-04:00

Whew - just made it! I crashed today - slept nearly all afternoon. It was dark when I got up, and I was soooo tempted to pull the plug. But I didn't! (I'm giving myself a huge pat on the back here, lol!) So here's another night shot I didn't think would turn out at all. But I really like it now. This is Jodeco Baptist Church. It's a big modern building that really shines at night. Jodeco Methodist from day 2 is less than 1/4 mile up the road.

At the end of this challenge, I'll have to plot these on a Google Map so you guys can see just how close all these churches are. I don't think any of them are more than 10 miles away from each other.

And here's one I got ready just to have something to post. I shot it the same day I did my first night shot and the lobby of my church. It's my son, sitting on one of the sofas at our church trying to hide from the camera. We had just colored his hair bright red. He looks really cool, but you can barely tell because he refuses to be photographed. :P

Day 19 - Community Bible Church

2008-07-19T23:24:00.004-04:00

Sunset shot, with a little gaussian blur set to multiply and then masked to show mostly the left side and edges. Sky was enhanced a little with some overlay color just to keep it from looking too washed out.

CBC is the church I grew up in for both church and school, although not at this building. I'd say it classifies as a mega church - this shot doesn't even include the education building, youth building, gym, chapel, atrium, school and sports fields. They even have a coffee shop in the lobby.

To answer Buff's question from yesterday's pic, I have only shot Christian places of worship not out of any prejudice but because there are no other religions prominently represented in my immediate area. It's different in the city (Atlanta) where ecumenical ideals are much more accepted and practiced.

Day 18 - Shiloh Baptist Church

2008-07-18T16:41:00.003-04:00

This is the new sanctuary for Shiloh Baptist Church. The older chapel sits to the right of this building and is still used. It's a very large church that sits directly across the street from two very large churches in the downtown McDonough area. In fact, one of the churches across the street was the gothic style Baptist church from day 11. I've been inside this sanctuary twice for town hall meetings with our state representative. Very pretty and huge!

Day 17 - Pinecrest Baptist Church

2008-07-17T22:03:00.003-04:00

This is my by-hand attempt at HDR with a combination of masking three different exposures and then applying a highlight/shadow adjustment on the flattened result. Noise reduction and some sharpening with Neat Image. No color adjustments, though - the sun was blood red behind the roofline. I love how it came out!

(And yes, this is another mega church. It's as big as the 16-plex theater it sits next to. :) )

Day 16 - Southside Christian Fellowship

2008-07-16T22:35:00.003-04:00

Yay - the bug is gone, aside from a little tummy rumbling. Still, Wednesday night isn't the best night for a mega church shot. I waited around until almost 10pm and the two I wanted to try for still had tons of people coming and going. So this little (well, medium sized) church was empty and had lots of pretty lights surrounding it.

Thanks for the well wishes and allowing me to stray slightly from the theme yesterday! I am planning to do something with this collection - either with each individual church or a community organization like the chamber. I can't afford to print them right away but I will be doing something to share them. Thanks for all the great and encouraging comments in that regard! :)

Day 15 - Lutheran Hymnbooks

2008-07-15T17:55:00.003-04:00

I'm breaking the mold a little today... count this as my day 31 bonus if I wind up making the rest of the month. A pukey stomach virus has me incapacitated today, and there's no way I can drive to a church tonight.

But I tried to stay with the theme somewhat. These are Lutheran hymnals that belonged to my grandmother. Not fancy - I used my Olympus 550UZ for convenience and speed. But they're precious keepsakes. :)

Day 14 - Eagle's Landing First Baptist Church

2008-07-14T22:07:00.003-04:00

(and Eagle's Landing Christian Academy, a.k.a. ELCA)

I had to pano this one, or all you'd see is a thin horizontal line in between sky and pavement. I was standing about 100 feet from the front doors of the building and stitched 7 shots together to get this image. After stitching, I put a curves adjustment on the pavement to make it darker (I like asphalt to be black).

If you click on this image, it links to a version that is 1000px wide. If you click on the thumbnail below it, you get the 4700px+ wide version!

Day 13 - His Freedom Reigns Christian Church

2008-07-13T22:46:00.004-04:00

Well, rain all day provided the prime opportunity for a night shot since it didn't stop 'til late afternoon. This imposing brick church sits on one of the corners of the McDonough town square, just north of the gothic style Baptist church from day 11. The court house sits just to the right of this building, across the street. You can see the side and part of its clock tower in this straight out of the camera bonus.

Aside from a little levels adjustment to increase contrast, the only other change was a desaturation leaving a tiny bit of color (a trick I picked up in Popular Photography once - leave a slight bit of color in a B&W conversion for a subtle wow factor).

Day 12 - Timberridge Presbyterian Church

2008-07-12T21:58:00.003-04:00

I wanted to get a night shot tonight, but I settled for dusk instead. I was really tired and wanted to get home. It stays light here until about 9:30pm. I'll try another nighttime shot later in the week when I'll be out that late on purpose. :)

This church is out in the country/rural part of my county, surrounded by forest on one side and miles of cow pastures on the others. Pretty big for a country church, huh? I'll start the mega churches on Monday. I know several of them would be good for nighttime just because there's always dozens of cars in the parking lot no matter the day or time of day.

Day 11 - First Baptist McDonough

2008-07-11T20:07:00.003-04:00

We don't have as many old churches as some areas, especially not Europe. But this gothic-style church is located in the oldest part of town, so this is as historic as it gets. I love the arches on the walkway (I'm sure there's a proper name for that part of the church... cloisters?) and the roofline that looks like a castle turret (?).

Day 10 - Mt. Carmel UMC & BONUS!

2008-07-10T23:30:00.004-04:00

Night shot of Mt. Carmel United Methodist Church. The billboard out front said "Seasons Change. God Doesn't." :)

I was at my church tonight (Trinity Family Worship Center) when it was raining and I feared I wouldn't be able to get an exterior, so I shot this picture of the lobby interior. After the program, the rain had stopped so I did a night shot of a church down the road and saved this for a bonus. :)

Day 9 - Eagle's Landing Church of God

2008-07-09T18:27:00.004-04:00

This view is deceiving. Eagle's Landing Church of God is a huge church. This is just the main entrance to the large sanctuary. See? :)

Day 8 - Stockbridge First UMC

2008-07-08T18:41:00.004-04:00

A semi-mega church, this modern building recently replaced the much older chapel that sat on the same spot. Stockbridge First UMC is directly across from Stockbridge Presbyterian which was featured on day 1.

I should have done this all along, but starting today I'll make my smaller pictures here link to a larger file. Hope you enjoy!

Day 7 - Stockbridge First Baptist Church

2008-07-07T21:36:00.004-04:00

This is a vertical panorama of 5 different photos. I couldn't get far enough away to get the whole church in the shot because of a 5-lane busy road, power lines, street signs, etc. So I took 5 or 6 hand held shots and manually stitched them together. It wasn't that difficult - wasn't my first time doing this. But it took a while. Sorry I'm so late today!

Day 6 - Central Baptist Church

2008-07-06T20:55:00.003-04:00

It rained all afternoon. Luckily the sun came out just as it was going down. This little church had the cutest mailbox shaped like a church. In order to get the big church in the shot I had to shoot from the back of the mailbox.

Day 5 - Open Door Chapel

2008-07-05T17:08:00.004-04:00

This little chapel is tucked away under a thick, dense bunch of pine trees. I've driven by it hundreds of times but never stopped to look closely til now. It looks like the perfect spot for a wedding. :)

Day 4 - BONUS! Noah's Ark Baptist Church

2008-07-04T21:03:00.005-04:00

This little church is on Noah's Ark Road, so it's not just coincidence that the church has a doubly Biblical name. It's been there nearly a century and is still going strong.

I wanted to experiment in post-processing to make the photo look aged. Let me know what you think. :)

Here's the original if you want to compare.

And here's an alternate version without the extreme DOF. Some of you mentioned it looked like a toy with the extreme focus. Thanks for all the feedback!

Day 4 - Flippen UMC

2008-07-04T14:02:00.005-04:00

Happy 4th of July! This little country church actually has a larger newer sanctuary behind it. I like the symmetry and traditional face of the older chapel.

And here's a bonus shot with a patriotic frame since it's American Independence Day!

Day 3 - Eagle's Landing Christian Church

2008-07-03T20:45:00.006-04:00

This is a brand new church less than half a mile from my house... thus the field of red Georgia clay in the foreground which I tried to minimize. The sun was almost gone behind the trees to the left, casting a pretty yellow glow on the trees on the right.

Day 2 - Jodeco UMC

2008-07-02T15:22:00.003-04:00

This is just one of the 12 or so churches on this 5-mile long road. Jodeco is a made-up word, even though it sounds native American. The developer of this area took the first two letters from the words "Jonesboro Development Company" and named the road "Jodeco Road".

Day 1 - Stockbridge Presbyterian

2008-07-01T20:26:00.001-04:00

July will be the T-H-I-R-T-Y days of churches in/near my hometown.