a fresh start

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Welcome 2011

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Mass Transit


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Public bathroom drain


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"What was that?"


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Baked with Love


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Wintry Epiphany

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Snow on boot


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"I wrinkle my nose in your general direction"

Total Eclipse of the Moon

sometime between about 2am and 3am on Dec 21, 2010 I stood outside in this:

(brrr......)

to get some pictures of the eclipse. I have not mastered the tripod, let alone the manual settings, but I did do a bit of reading online about suggested settings and such, and gave it a go. Here are five of the better pictures, showing a fair progression:

(it was cloudy, and the worst was when I first went outside. After this I also did better at waiting for the clouds to move to take pictures)

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lunar eclipse

(I chose this as pic of the day because, if you click on it and enlarge it, you'll see it's the clearest shot, showing the face of the moon best)






Unfortunately because the tripod and I aren't yet friends, the camera would move, and then I'd have to readjust, and so the angle on the moon isn't always the same, and I'd have to change settings again, etc. Still, I'm glad I gave it a go. It's a learning experience, and how often does one get to (attempt to) photograph a full lunar eclipse?

Advent

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Advent routine:
candles and book

SNOW!

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Clearing off the car


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through the window

I loved these shots I took of the May Queen throwing snowballs at the window. I picked this one as my favorite, because it's so clear of her face, but these were too fun not to show you as well:




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Snowman



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Snow capped

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Christmas Chandelier, Detroit Opera House


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Just Dance


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Turning her world Upside Down

many weeks ago

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First flakes


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a candle in the wind(ow)


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A bard in the pinetree


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NOT Christmas lights
(a speeding ticket. merry christmas to me)


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bathing beauty
(she was singing to herself in the tub, and I took some pictures with my phone, if I had gotten out the camera she would have known what I was doing! i pictures don't at all capture how much she was just enjoying the bath. alas)

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an angel gets her wings

I'm trying to catch up with editing and posting. Hopefully I'll get up a months worth of pictures in the upcoming days. whew.

not last week, but the week before

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Dusting

(ha... I'm posting this so much later, after we've had a much larger dropping of snow, that I can only laugh at this old photo. that's what I get for being slow at the editing and posting)

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Waiting for Santa?

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Country Church

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Puzzling

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Things are looking up

Pinecone

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Pinecone

Not for jumping

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Leaf pile

113-117

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Tag

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Midnight showing


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I see you
Self Portrait #5
(more fun at the library)


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Bird Bath


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After dinner

Web

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Glistening web

Berries

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Berries

eh

I tried to take some photos of Thanksgiving decorations, but the results were uninspiring. Still, it's all I did that day, so here you go:

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Fake abundance


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Last leaves standing
or
through the briars

100+ What are we learning?

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Young Buck

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Pumpkin Graveyard

I didn't sign up for this project365 because I thought I took great pictures and wanted to show them off. When I signed up for this project, I wanted to use it, like Sue, to improve my photography skills. So... how am I doing?

-Using my DSLR more. I'm getting better at taking the good camera with me when I'm going someplace I know I'll be taking pictures. It also pretty much lives on the my kitchen counter, so it's the camera I grab to take a photo around the house. I'm always amazed how the better camera improves even the average photo. A prime example of this is back when I took the pictures of my brother in laws ashes at the bottom of a jar. I began with my tiny point and shoot, then grabbed the DSLR. The difference in the pictures was great.

-Using more of the functions on my DSLR. I'm pretty much failing at this. There have been several times when I WISHED I knew how to do something, and several things I've planned to look up how to do, but I haven't done a single one yet. I did get out the manual. Months ago. I haven't actually used it, though. I want to do that. I also want to dig out the tripod.

-Taking more pictures that aren't of people. I am FAR more likely to grab the camera and take a picture of something that strikes me as pretty (a sunrise) or interesting (a dead mouse) or fun (the May Queen jumping). I've also tried to take more pictures of non humans that tell a story. I do, however, still fall into the trap of mostly taking pictures of my kid and pretty things in nature that strike my fancy.
***As I scan back through my pictures, though, I find that pictures of people are rarely the photos I post (even though I take a lot of them), and are really not among the top pictures. And since one of things I wanted to do was have better pictures of the people in my life, maybe I need to focus MORE on pictures of people. Hmm....

-I'd like to play more with setting up shots. Most of my pictures are spontaneous things I take when the mood strikes. Maybe if I paid more attention to the prompts I would do this.

-I don't take many urban pictures, or pictures of everyday things inside. They don't tend to strike me as photo worthy. However, I have seen some really cool shots of everyday items by others participating in the project and hope to do more of that, if for no other reason than to stretch my muscles. Mostly, to stretch my eye. How can I make this inanimate thing interesting in a photo?

-I am learning that perspective changes a photo A LOT. I play around with the angle from which I'm shooting. I've also played around a bit with the manual focus, particularly when taking closeup shots, and like how that can change the quality of the photo.

What about you? What are you learning... both about photography and yourself... though this project?