119/365-2 Buzz

"Sweet Music"

118/365-2 The Number Four

"Four Inches"

I had hoped that on our trip home from Delaware we would either depart or arrive at a gate with the number 4 in it or that our seats would be in a row with a 4.  No such luck.  

After I got myself squared away for school this week, I sought something for today's photo.  Fresh out of ideas and inspiration,  I was counting on the muse and the muse seemed to have already gone to sleep for the night.  With the plane trip still on my mind, I remembered the sock that I had started knitting as we took off from Philadelphia.  I wondered just how much I had knit on the cuff of that sock...

  Score! It was exactly four inches long!

By the time I took this shot, the muse had indeed gone to sleep.  That was OK because her work was done during the three and half hour flight home.

A few more flights like today and I have should have this sock done.  And, this is sock number TWO!

117/365-2 Square

"Welcome To The Party!"

My dad lives in the first town in the first state.  Needless to say, history abounds.  I love to walk through the old churchyards and read the markers on the graves.  I took several shots of interesting headstones today, but when all was said and done I liked this one best.  I think this is because the shallow DOF and bokeh make it look like there is confetti falling, like there is a big party going on.  

The prompt "square" has to do with the square crop of this image.

116/365-2 Thoughtful

"Thoughtful"

Today was a good day.  We slept until 9:00, making up from the three hours of sleep the night before. We had a leisurely breakfast and talked with my dad for awhile.  He had a friend coming over so we made a quick trip to the outlet mall and the grocery store.  After bringing the groceries home, we walked up to town and I did a little more shopping while Weber people watched from a bench outside.  He did get a caramel latte at the local coffee shop before we headed home to fix dinner.

Despite the cup of coffee, today was not really Weber's lucky day.  First he went bra shopping with me.  Then more clothes shopping.  I also needed him for today's photo prompt.  Today was portrait day, one of this year's monthly repeating prompts.  Once we got home from taking pictures, he ended up watching a baseball game on TV with my dad.  I don't think he has ever watched an entire sporting event in the 56 years of his life.  Of all the un-fun things he had to do today, modeling for me may have been the least objectionable for him.  Poor guy, but he has been a good sport all day.  He is the most thoughtful person I know, both inwardly and outwardly.

We went to the beach this evening to take the photos.  The prompt suggested that we do a black and white portrait, which I love.  Usually I shoot in color and then convert my photos to black and white. Today I actually shot in black and white.  This made a huge difference in the shots I took.  I was more aware of contrast and lines and textures, things that often are of a secondary concern when shooting in color.  I got several shots that I liked.

I was also hoping for a pretty sunset.  Though the sky was full of gorgeous blues and oranges, I didn't get any photos that truly did it justice.  This is my favorite and it was taken after the sun had set.

We also stumbled upon this on the beach.  I wish I knew the story that goes with it.

115/365-2 At Last

"40 Years In The Garden"

This photo is of a statue in my dad's garden, which was my grandparents' garden. I have been looking at it for over 40 years. I was really too tired to carefully think through the photograph, but I learned several things from this photo. 1. Check your camera settings. Somehow my camera was set on VIVID, thus the bizarre coloration. 2. Though we don't always know why, every shot we take is done so for a reason, often through the subconscious. As I looked at this on my iPad, I realized that the stance of this figure is where I want to be this weekend. 3. Though I was happy with this shot on a personal level, I wasn't sure photographically. I started playing around with iPad apps. I put a frame on this just for fun. Suddenly the photo become something completely different. This made me realize that I really need to have prints made, find mats and frames, and hang some of my photos.

114/365-2 April Showers

"Late April Shower"

This has been a __________ week.  I'm not even sure what word or words to put in that blank; and frankly, it is probably better that I don't try to figure it out.  I suspect it would not be pretty!

Obviously this entry is being posted a day late.  Let me explain why.  We are in Delaware again this weekend, having left Dallas early this morning.  When we got home from school yesterday we had to do the supply run for The Hoot And The Howl.  (Please leave me a loaf or two in the freezer!). Then we had to pack.  Somewhere in there we had homemade spinach pizza. For dinner.  And I dumped a whole bunch of photos off of my memory card.

Because our flight boarded ar5:50am, I decided that I would shower and wash my hair last night.  As I headed to the shower at 9:45, I remembered that I had not taken a photo.  It had been a beautifully sunny day; not a shower in sight.  And by this time it was a really dark night, not ideal for photography. I was clueless as to what to do.  I thought about skipping yesterday and "making up" the photo "later."  As I stood in the shower enjoying the warm water running down my back, I came to the realization that I would feel bad about skipping a day.  Let me clarify here that this is a self imposed guilt trip.  The CY365 community is quite understanding and supportive when life's circumstances get in the way of our daily photos.

So, this photo is a desperate attempt to not miss a day.

It is April and this was a shower, right?

After taking a shower and a photo and drying my hair, I headed to the computer to upload my photo, write a blog post and print our boarding passes.  My computer was not on board with me.  It had been temperamental earlier in the day; now it was 100% non-compliant.  Weber ran some diagnostics only to discover that it's hard drive had irreparable errors.  Translation:  my hard drive crashed.

At 10:45, Weber wiped the hard drive and started a reinstall from the time capsule back-up, an eighteen hour process according to my computer.  We finally went to bed at midnight so that we could get our full three hours of sleep before heading to the airport.

The good news in all this is that the process went more quickly than expected.  At 4am, when we left the house, my computer seemed to be up and running.  We did not have a chance to do much so whether or not all is well has yet to be determined.  The other unknown in whether or not the pictures that I dumped off of my camera card made it into the most recent backup.  I'll have to wait until I get home to see.

Except for beginning too early, today has been much better 

*I am posting this from my iPad using the Blogger app and I don't know how to enable comments.  I will try to figure that out!

113/365 Peaceful

"Peaceful Heart"

I had a pretty crappy day at school today.  Well, actually, it was really just a pretty crappy thirty minutes, but those thirty minutes clouded my perception of the whole day.  Funny how that happens.  It was redeemed, however, by my very last private student of the day who brought me these gorgeous orange flowers.  She knows that orange is my favorite color.  And I had the perfect vase for them.

I had to laugh at the "peaceful" prompt for the day.  Peaceful was not at all where my head or heart were when I got home from school this afternoon. The challenge of finding and taking a photo that was peaceful brought me be back to center, to a place where I was at least within reach of the possibility of finding a peaceful heart.  I tried to let go of the unpleasant part of my day and focus on all that was good.  Upon reflection, I realized that the positive moments throughout the day really did far outweigh the bad.

And, I have a question.

What does it mean at the end of a day like today when you go out for Chinese food and you get a fortune cookie with no fortune in it?

And one more question.

Should I be worried that Weber was in the pantry feeding the dogs and asked me if I needed my lunch packed for tomorrow?

I think I need to go to bed and wake up to a brand new day.