27/365 Dislike

"Cookies Are A Sometimes Food"

It's not that I dislike cookies: it's quite the contrary.  What I dislike is that I like cookies so much and thus eat WAY too many.  

I could have photographed mushrooms today, but I dislike them so much I did not even want to take a picture of them.

26/365 Passion

Passion for Rehearsing"

It feels good to say that there are many things in life that I am truly passionate about.  However, when it came time to address "passion" photographically, I wasn't sure where to go with it.  I am passionate about teaching, about music, about knitting, and about photography.  I couldn't decide how to create an image of any of those things that would intentionally convey the same level of passion that I feel for them.

I had a church choir rehearsal this morning for a sung Evensong tomorrow night.  As I was getting ready to leave home, the thought crossed my mind that when it comes to music, our choir director is one of the most passionate people I know.  I'll take my camera with me and ask if he wouldn't mind if I snapped a few shots.  I'm still very uncomfortable with this kind of thing, but I did it and he graciously allowed me to take some pictures.  The problem was that I did not want to be a distraction to the rest of the choir by moving around and I didn't have the best vantage point from my designated spot so the shots I got were not really what I would have liked.  This shot is technically flawed, but I hope that it shows the passion that drove our rehearsal.

After rehearsal, we had lunch with the Denton gang and then headed home for an unstructured afternoon.  One of the things that I had hoped to get done was work on my assignments for an online photography class that I am taking.  It is a class that addresses both the technical and the more creative aspects of photography.  The current lesson is on half lighting.  It was challenging for me because I am not always as aware of lighting as I should be and I don't do portraits very well.  Fortunately, I had a willing and patient subject.  For a first attempt at this process, I am fairly happy with the result.

"My Better Half"

As a bonus, this shot fits the prompt of "passion" as well because I am pretty darn passionate about this guy!

25/365 Hands

"Write Hand"

"My Favorite Hand To Hold"

24/365 Cold

"One Down, One To Go"

I would be lying if I said that I did not struggle with today's picture.  A prompt of "cold" when it was 78 degrees, three degrees shy of an all-time record high in Dallas today, is tough.  The best I could do was a shot of the socks that I am working on.  The first one is done; hopefully number two will be done before our next cold streak.  Weber will be happy to have two warm feet.  He is still giving me a hard time about a pair of socks I started for him a year ago that has not yet become a complete pair.

23/365 Snuggle

"Just Trying to Help!"

I know that I am very lucky that Weber is so supportive of my crazy obsession commitment to take a picture every day.  I didn't realize that the dogs, too, were on that bandwagon.

Today is my longest day of the week - school until 4:30 (though I got out a little early since today was the first day of my MW classes) and then choir rehearsal tonight.  I knew that I was going to be hard-pressed to get any decent picture today, especially of anyone snuggling.  I thought about various possibilities on and off throughout the day, but came up empty handed.  I hoped that when I got home from choir I could find some person, dog, cat or some combination thereof cuddled up together; I would snap a picture and that would have to do.  

This definitely was not the picture I imagined.  It is,however, proof positive of the saying, "Life is what happens while you are busy making plans."  Rather than fight it,  I just laughed and clicked the shutter.

Seize the moment.

22/365 Frozen

"Frozen in Time"

Those in other parts of the world definitely had an advantage when it came to finding something frozen to photograph today.   Last Tuesday we had snow on the ground; today it is sixty-five degrees and there is nothing frozen outside.

Yesterday I discovered this snowman in our guest bath.  I missed him when I packed away the Christmas decorations a few weeks ago.  He represents a bit of Christmas frozen in time.

21/365 Equal

"Equality for All"

Today we celebrate the life and work of Martin Luther King, Jr. and the inauguration of Barack Obama to a second term as president of the United States.  Nearly forty years after King's great speech, it is sad that we are still striving for the same things for people in this country - equality and respect for ALL people.

It is certainly fitting that today's prompt was "equal."  I wanted to take a picture that had some meaning, not simply an image of two things that are equal.  I had no idea what that might be.  

Weber and I both had early doctor's appointments this morning.  I carried my camera along the way thinking that I might see something while I was out and about that would satisfy the day's prompt.  The only thing that I saw was the equal sign magnet that we have on the back of our car as a sign of our support for the right of same-sex couples to have all of the rights AND RESPONSIBILITIES as are provided to heterosexual married couples.  It is a symbol of the Human Rights Campaign.  Though the magnet has significant meaning, it is not particularly photogenic, if you know what I mean.  That did start a train of thought though.

As it got later and later in the day, I figured that I needed to go ahead and do something.  My day was plagued with a lack of creativity.  I finally decided that I would just take a picture of our wedding bands against a stark white background.  People could read into it whatever they wanted.  As I was getting ready to set up the shot, I had this feeling that I was selling out.  Yes, there should be equality in a marriage and two wedding bands might show that, but that is not the whole story that I wanted to tell.

Then came the spark.  I remembered the colorful bokeh Christmas lights that I shot way back in December.  I printed the image and used it as a backdrop for the rings because of its rainbow colors.  I was fairly happy with the result.

When it came time to post the image on the CY365 forum, I was a little reluctant.  Though everyone is very kind in their comments to one another, the issue of gay marriage is one that can be quite divisive.  I didn't want to be the one to introduce that into that venue.  I asked Weber what he thought.  Being that he is the one who ordered our sticker from the Human Rights Campaign, he told me to go ahead and post it.  I told myself that anyone who recognized the deeper implications probably would appreciate it and the others would just see it as pretty colors.

As of right now, I have received two comments on today's image.  

"Nice colors and composition." and "TES!"

I guess my instincts about the group were pretty good.