The first three weeks

I think I've finally found something I can stick with :)  The photo-a-week project is definitely more manageable that last years Project 365.  What I also like about this project is there are no rules as to how the photo can be taken; meaning you can use your cell phone camera, a point and shoot, dslr, etc.  The photo doesn't have to be edited or anything fancy, it just has to be your favorite shot from that week.

I've kept up with taking the photos so far, just not with posting them :)  Here are my photos from the first three weeks:

Taken with my iPhone using the Instagram app

I stood outside in the freezing cold for what seemed to be forever trying to catch this icicle dripping...I guess my patience paid off :)

The little guy on the left patiently waited for his turn to eat. He finally got tired of waiting lol.

If you like taking photos, you might enjoy participating in this project too!  You can join anytime (I just officially joined yesterday.  If you do decide to join in, let me know.  I would love to see your photos!

2010: A year in review

Happy New Year!!  I hope your year is already off to a great start :)  I know that I am posting my 'year in photos' post quite a bit later than everyone else who did them.  But, better late than never, right?  I've posted one of my favorite photos from each month in 2010.  Some of them were posted here previously, and some never made it to the blog.

January

my lion kitty

February

happy birthday to me

March

North Scituate Baptist Church

May

my first photo shoot

June

glowing mums

July

the reservoir at sunset

August

first family photo shoot

September

lighthouse at the beach during the hurricane over Labor Day weekend

October

autumn afternoon

November

Emeril and his sweet tooth

December

Christmas lights

I am thinking about participating in Project 52.  My attempt at taking a photo a day for project 365 last year fell flat, but I think I can handle posting one photo a week :)  You can check out Project 52 here if you'd like to participate.

Wordless Wednesday

The long drive home

November Rewind: Hummingbirds

We had a couple families of hummingbirds that took up residence in our backyard this summer.  There appeared to be several different breeds of them, one of which was pretty aggressive.  The little bird would sit up on a tree branch and guard the feeder, and as soon as another hummer would come to eat, it would fly down and dive-bomb the poor bird and chase it around the yard.  It was something to watch!

We did some research and learned that hummingbirds can be very territorial. One day while we were outside there were six or seven of them flying around the feeder and chasing each other away.  It was like a war zone! lol  We were able to capture it on video which you can view at the bottom of this post :)

Man, I gotta get out of this town...

NaBloPoMo: Day 13

Question: Post a photograph that means something to you and then tell us why you chose it. (It can be your photo or someone else's.)

L.A. at night by Ian Rheuter

I found this photo online last year and immediately loved it.  I have had a fascination with California since I was in my early teens and I have always sworn that I will make it there someday (even if it's only to visit).  There is just something about L.A./California that draws me to it.  It's not about the celebrities for me.  Maybe it's just the fact that it's SO different than where I live (R.I.).  I would love to see the pacific ocean sunsets, red rock canyons, the deserts...everything.  I just feel like there's nothing here for me in this tiny little state of mine.

Anyone else remember this 1990's song?

L.A. Song

Determination

This little woodpecker kept trying to get to the remaining piece of suet but just couldn't reach it.  When all else failed, he squeezed himself into the wire holder and sat on top of the suet eating his heart out.  That's determination.  It's something I wish I had more of.  I'm working on it ;)



If at first you don't succeed...

try

and try again

October favorites

I know I am a bit of a procrastinator, but this might be pushing it lol.  I had a really busy day and just got on the computer for the first time all day around 11:30 pm.  If I type much longer this post won't count for Tuesday!  So, here are a few of my favorite photos taken in October.

It's NaBloPoMo!

I am still around reading blogs, just haven't been in to writing at all lately.  I've had way too much going on and too much on my mind so I haven't been able to really focus in on any one thing for long.  But, I do miss blogging and posting the photos I take, so I thought today would be a good day to start again as it is the first day of  NaBloPoMo.  If you are not familiar with it already, NaBloPoMo stands for National Blog Posting Month.  The idea is to commit to writing a blog post once per day for the entire month of November.  I don't know if I will succeed, but I am certainly going to try :)

I have been organizing all of the photos on my computer for the last few days and I'm working on backing them all up on disk.  I have so many photos that I took over the summer that never made it onto this blog, so that is my goal for this month.  I plan on sharing them here over the next several weeks along with a little bit about what has been going on lately.  I wanted to start this month off with a photo, but I didn't get around to editing any today.  I'll have one up tomorrow for sure!  Promise :)

The Wedding

I bet you already know what I'm about to say, right?  This has been such a busy month so far. (surprise!)  It seems like every weekend since the wedding on May 29th has been busy and in between I have been editing photos and trying to build my website, plus all the normal day to day things I do.  But, I enjoy it so there are no complaints here :)

The wedding was nice and everything went smoothly for the most part.  I spent the entire day with Laura and her family.  I went to the salon with them to take some photos while they got their hair done and it seemed like once we got back to her house, time started going by at double speed.  Before I knew it the night was over and I was heading home.

Here are some photos from the day:












So far I've done family portraits, maternity photos, and of course the wedding.  In the coming months I will be doing baby portraits for a couple people and sometime this summer, more family photos.  It's a good feeling to know that things are moving right along and with every photo shoot, I'm that much closer to being a photographer :)

Rainy Days & Mondays

Project 365 - Day 6

I was tempted to start constructing an Ark today because I was sure a flood was a-comin' lol.  We had downpours all day and 50-60 mph winds and there several flood warnings in our area.  I took the photo above through our sliding glass door this afternoon.  Even though it looks like the color was changed to black and white, that is the actual color photo I took.  That is how gray it was today.  On to something brighter...

A few months ago I came across the photography website Stuck In Customs which features primarily HDR photos.  The webmaster, Trey Ratcliff, is a fantastic photographer and focuses on the HDR (High Dynamic Range) technique with most of his photos.  HDR is a post-processing technique that adds alot of contrast, depth, and dimension to a photo and makes the colors much more vibrant.  The colors in the finished product are still natural, but just more enhanced.  When I saw Trey's work I knew I had to learn more about this type of process and try it myself.

Below is a photo taken in September that I have posted here before.  It is straight out of the camera and has not been edited at all (other than resizing it).  I thought this would be a good photo to test this technique out on.  This is the before:

And this is after applying the HDR processing:

You can click on the photo above to enlarge it which will show a lot more detail.  This is my first attempt at this and I am pretty happy with the result.  I cannot wait to get out and take some more photos so I can try this again!