365 Day Photo Challenge - August 2012

Taking a picture a day, every day, for an entire year - are you up to it? The first 2 times I tried it I wasn't. My first attempt at completing a photo a day challenge ended after only 65 days. My second attempt was even more pathetic. I started on January 1, 2012 and only made it 5 days. So why do it again? For one thing, it's a really cool idea. For another, I got some really good pictures from my first try. Finally, I really want to complete this. So here goes my third (and maybe last) try. As for starting in the middle of the month, well, one day is as good as another, right?

Wow!!! After two looooong years I finally got to go back to Bishop for a day. It was a really quick trip and I didn't have time to take many pictures, but I saw this awesome 63 Dodge dart station wagon and luckily I had my camera with me. Besides the wagon, I love this shot because it exemplifies small town living - country dirt roads, a relaxed atmosphere, and all the stuff I can see in my mind when I look at it.. Taken with a Fuji X10.

I'm just a sucker for a station wagon... I can't afford to buy every wagon I like but taking pictures is free so I collect as many as I can:) Toyota made some really ugly wagons over the years, but a few of the Corolla wagons - like this one - were pretty good looking. I wouldn't mind having one of these in my driveway. This one was parked across the street from my parent's church on the Sunday the church celebrated it's 40th Anniversary as a congregation. It's the same church I went to as a kid and where I was confirmed. Sooooo many good memories in Bishop...

Last time I tried this project, I made a promise to myself not to post any "throw away" pictures - pictures taken only so I could say I posted a picture that day. This one comes dangerously close, but I did intend to take a picture of my model railroad, it's just that I intended to take it earlier in the day when the light was better and I'd have time to come up with a better composition. Oh well... This was taken with my Fuji X100, wide open at f/2 and I think about 1/8 second shutter. Given that, the focus is actually pretty good (I was focused on the end of the tank car. I think the yellow tinge is a combination of the poor artificial lighting and having the film emulation set to Velvia.

This was the sun coming up over Sparks this morning. Must be a pretty good sized fire - this would be about the 3rd or 4th this year. I couldn't smell smoke but the sky sure was hazy. I could look directly at the sun without sunglasses. Taken with a Canon ELPH-100.

I love taking pictures of sunrises and sunsets with my Droid - for these kinds of shots it's better than my more expensive cameras. The colors in this one aren't too hot - they were about 10 minutes before I took the picture, but by the time I got around all the houses, trees, street lights, etc. to a good vantage point most of the really intense color was already gone. Lesson: don't wait too late in the day to think about taking a picture. !0 minutes earlier and this would have been an awesome shot...

It's pretty rare to see a praying mantis in Reno, especially in late summer. So I was really surprised to see this little gal by the door to my MDF when I came to work today. Wish I could have gotten a closer pic, but every time I tried she'd move away. Taken with my Droid.

There are 3 things I never get tired of taking pictures of - sunrises, cars at night, and my garage (aka man cave). This isn't a great shot but it shows my favorite place in the house and some of my favorite things - some RC airplanes I inherited from my Grandpa, a Saturn V rocket kit waiting to be built, other model airplanes from when I was a kid, a small block Mopar, my reloading press, assorted tools... all the things that add fun to my life:)

A very important POtuS is visiting our campus next Tuesday, so naturally I "got" to spend all day today (Saturday) running temporary comm. lines. I already don't like the guy and I have to spend my whole Saturday working so he can give a speech basically saying people like me (conservative) are greedy and selfish. To add insult to injury, get to work on Monday and find out I won't even be allowed to listen to his speech, we have to park 4 times as far away as normal, and once we report to work we're confined to whatever building we report to. Thanks for NOTHING Mr. "president"...

Out for a bike ride with my wife and son. Love riding through this park by our house. Shot with my Droid.

I love taking pictures of sunrises, and we get some really beautiful ones over Sparks. I was treated to this when I got to work this morning. Taken with my ELPH-100 set on Super Vivid.

When my son comes home from school, his first task is to empty his backpack. After that he gets 15 minutes to have a snack and wind down, then he's supposed to go to his room and read a book for 20 minutes. Today I had to work late, so he had to do all this unsupervised. When I got home, sure enough he'd done what he was supposed to do - and fell asleep while reading. Must have been a long day at school:)

Well, actually it's Steel Reserve Time. Sometimes after work it's nice to relax with a cold and refreshing tomato beer and today was one of those days:)

I love experimenting with low light photos. I'm not trying to see if I can get a perfect shot at high ISO, I'm more into the artistic side of it - graininess, blurred motion, flaring around light sources, etc... My Droid and ELPH 100 are perfect for this because they don't have high-end sensors that try to be "too good" in low light. I got this shot of a striping crew by my house while I was out for a walk with my family.

I'm getting closer to actually building a model railroad, so I've started getting all the pieces together. One of my favorite building kits is the Quincy fuel oil dock. I got this one already built on eBay for around $12.00 (kits go for $40-50) so I was pretty happy.

Dashboard shot of my 64 Valiant station wagon. The lighting should be better, but I never get tired of taking pictures of my Valiant. Hope to have it running next year so I can have lots of good road trip pics...

I love living in Sparks - we seem to get way more than our fair share of beautiful morning skies. In fact I'd say our sunrises are better than our sunsets by far. Today was no exception - got up early to hit Starbucks before church and I was treated to this as I walked outside. Simply gorgeous...

My two sons getting ready for a bike ride. We have a really nice park near our house where we like to ride. The park backs up to a wetlands so there's always lots of wildlife to see. This was taken with my Fuji X10.

I love this kind of stuff. My 7-year old is getting independent and feeling his oats a bit, so he insists on making his own snack after school. This is pic also cool (to me at least) because until recently he hated having his picture taken - I'd have to beg, bribe, ambush, etc. to get pictures of him. Now he seems OK with it though. Wish I could get his mom to stop being so camera shy...

This year, for the first time we've had a working bike for every member of the family. It's been a struggle - I blew up 3 inner tubes trying to get my older son's bike into riding condition (hint - don't trust the pressure gauge on gas station air machines). Now they're all working, so we get to go for a ride almost every night. I've lost 8 lbs. since we started:) Here are the bikes waiting to be taken out.

OK, one more sunrise... sometimes I just can't resist:) Not as spectacular as some of the sunrises we get in Sparks but I think it's still prettyu awesome. It almost looks like a fire coming over the hill.

I like the way the sun reflects off the clouds and onto the mountain. This was taken from about the top of Sherwin Grade with the sun behind me, just before it set.