106/365 Pie or Pile

Pie of Berries and Pile of Berries"

At the beginning of each month Katrina Kennedy of Capture Your 365 publishes the list of prompts for each day of the month.  Then, each day she sends an inspirational email with photo tips of tidbits of inspiration.  I had been looking forward to the "pie" prompt all month since we have our family baker at home with us.  When Katrina's email came this morning, she said that she had actually intended for the day's prompt to be pile, not pie.  Pie was actually a typo.  

I had pie on the brain so I decided to go ahead a photograph a pie.  I was afraid that if I told Brooke that the prompt wasn't really "pie" that she would then decide not to make me a pie.  That would be very sad!  When it came time to actually take the photo, I decided to add a pile of blackberries next to the berry pie.  Thus, I ended up with both a pie of berries and a pile of berries.

Later in the day, I decided to attempt the "pile" prompt.  I had fun with these colored hair bands.

"A Pile of Ponytail Bands"

105/365 Sprouts

"Dinner Sprouts"

I wish the sprouts that I had photographed today were sprouting plants in my garden.  Sadly, I have planted nothing.  I was feeling OK about that last week when we had temperatures in the upper 30's.  Today the high temperature was 90.  This is good garden weather.  I guess I will break down and buy some plants rather than starting from seeds.  I'm not sure when that is going to happen.

Since I had no sprouting plants, I had to take a different approach and cheat a little with Brussels sprouts.  Oh well . . .

I also took this photo of my blooming spathiphyllum.  This isn't a sprout but I think it's pretty.

104/365 Stairs

"Stairway to Heaven"

This is not "my" church; it is Oak Lawn United Methodist Church in Dallas, the church that kindly allows Resounding Harmony to rehearse in their sanctuary.  I like the red steps and the places where the paint and the concrete are worn.  I like the way the steps lead to the doors.  Even the lens flare is starting to grow on me.

This is a beautiful building.  When I saw the the prompt of "stairs" fell on a Sunday, I knew that I would have several possible sets of stairs to shoot at OLMC.  We went early for rehearsal this afternoon to allow time for picture taking.  I am still getting used to my new camera so having extra time was definitely a plus.

Though the above picture is my official POTD, I took several others that I liked.  Today was one of those days where it was hard to decide which photo was "the one."  

Here are the others.  Any thoughts?

I like this one because of all the lines and the somewhat odd symmetry.  But maybe that makes it too busy?? Hmm . . .

I like the fact that this one is at an angle and looks down on this strange little door that actually goes under the main stairway shown above.

I like the way the colors divide this one into horizontal thirds and the rail almost cuts the frame in half.  I wish that I hadn't chopped off the tops of the arches.

103/365 Feature

"Yes, It's Natural"

It's that time of the month again.  No, no THAT time, although I hate it almost as much.  Today was the day for April's self-portrait.  This month we were supposed to focus on a specific feature of ourselves.  I asked Weber what I should do.  His first suggestion was one for which the photos would have been inappropriate for a public blog.  The alternative was my hair.

When you have hair the color of mine it becomes a feature whether you like it or not.  It took me nearly fifty years to get to the point where I was OK with it.  If for no other reason, I'm pretty sure it gets us undeserved senior discounts at restaurants every now and then.  

Those of you who have known me for awhile know that I have always had short hair.  I have decided to give it a try a little longer.  That is another reason that it was appropriate as a defining feature this month.  To further illustrate that it is getting long, I didn't try to control it as the wind blew it around while trying to take this picture.

On a much happier note than self portraits, I got a new macro lens today.   I had fun shooting flowers this morning.  Little tiny colorful flowers that are actually weeds looked beautiful.  When I came in and looked at the photos on the computer, I noticed a weird line through about half of the photos.  I have had this problem a few times before but only when I was pointing the camera up at an angle. Fortunately,  I knew the issue wasn't with the new lens.  I think it may be the sensor. 

I have chosen the last two new lenses that I have gotten with the thought that some day I might get a new camera.  These lenses work on the camera that I have as well as the one to which I would likely upgrade.

With today's camera weirdness, I started thinking about what I would do if something like this happened while we were traveling this summer.  What if I couldn't take any photos while we were gone?  This was terrifying to think about!  Actually, just thinking about taking my camera and leaving it to be cleaned and have its sensor checked kind of freaked me out.  I couldn't be without my camera!  What would become of my picture of the day?

As often is the case, Weber had a simple solution: get the new camera now.  But, but, but, I just got a new lens, a lens that was not cheap.  And the new camera, if I upgrade, definitely won't be cheap.  Again he said, "Just get the new camera."  We stopped in the camera shop to ask about the problem that I am having with my camera and to ask how much it will cost to have it cleaned.  We told the guy we'd bring it in sometime this week.  And, I got a new camera.

I had to charge its battery so I haven't done much with it yet, But I did use it for today's picture.  I also took this picture of Erin.  I was not really trying to take a good picture of her; I just wanted to get the settings for my self portrait.  She is just so darn photogenic that she takes beautiful photos even when we're not trying for that.  

102/365 A Touch of Yellow

"Herbs"

I think today's prompt was intended to be a nod to spring with a touch of yellow coming from spring flowers.  None of our outdoor flowers are yellow and I used my indoor cut flowers for yesterday's prompt so I was kind of stuck today.  So here are some fresh herbs waiting to be minced and placed in the prep bowls.

Bonus Yellow Picture!

"A Pucker and a Smile"

Knowing that today's prompt was a touch of yellow, Weber brought these Lemonheads home for me.  I decided to have a little fun with them.

101/365 Overgrown

Sorry I forgot to post this yesterday!

"Flower Power"

Weber and Brooke went to Sam's Wednesday night while I was at choir.  They had what I thought was a short list, but Brooke seemed to add to the list on each aisle so they came home with quite a few items that they had not originally intended.  One of those items was a bouquet of flowers for me.  I love fresh flowers on the dining room table.  They don't have to be anything fancy, just colorful.  The bouquet was so big that all of the flowers did not fit into the vase we usually use for this purpose.  The auxiliary vase had to be called into service.

This was the only thing around here today that even comes close to being overgrown - unless you count the dog who is on a diet.  The dog's diet is one thing that necessitated the trip to Sam's.  He gets a can of green beans with his dinner every night.  Sam's sells them by the case.

100/365 One Hundred

"One Hundred Cents"

I remember when the girls were little and they celebrated the 100th day of school by taking one hundred items to school to share with their classmates.  One hundred pennies, paperclips, M&Ms, stickers, erasers, and so on.  When it came time for me to come up 100 somethings for my own project, I had to think hard.  

Today became a music theorist's idea for 100.

Yes, I know that the piano has 88 keys, not 100.  In equal temperament (modern tuning) the distance between two tones on the piano is measured in cents.  The octave consists of 1200 cents.  Each half step is 100 cents.  So here you have a half step on the piano keyboard.

It is hard to believe that I have taken and posted a photo every day for the first one hundred days of 2013. 100 photos in 100 days seemed like such a daunting task when I set out last summer to take one photo a day for one hundred days.  To my surprise, I did manage to accomplish that.  When I completed My Visual Cents  I did feel as sense of accomplishment.  I also felt a void in my daily routine when I no longer was committed to such an undertaking.

I discovered the Capture Your 365  website right before I had taken my last pictures over the summer.  During the fall I thought hard about whether or not I could really sustain such a commitment for an entire year.  Come January 1, 2013, I decided that I could do it.  For the past 100 days I have taken a picture based on the given prompt.  Hopefully I can keep it up for another 265!