Project 365 -Week 2

Thank you to all of those who are reading and following this Hub. Your comments and messages were enjoyed and well received from the Project 365- week 1 Hub. It definitely keeps me motivated to stay on track to complete this project knowing that someone out there actually took the time to look and comment about what I am trying to do. For those who wish to join me on this journey, the company is welcomed. Please message me and let me know where you are posting so that I can bookmark and follow along.

Day 8 of 365

After taking a few rather mundane photos around the yard, I decided to hop in my car and drive up the road to catch a little bit of the sunset from the field by my house. I live in a rural area so the amount of traffic on my road tends to be very low. Until, that is, I have the perfect shot lined up with my tripod set in the middle of it. Thank you to my neighbors that they are very patient with me and let me get my sunset shot without running me over. After taking the shot that I was originally after I turned to get back in my vehicle. That is when I noticed on the eastern horizon that the moon was just starting to rise. If any of you have ever tried to take a photo of the moon you know that once it is up high in the sky and brightly lit- it can be next to impossible to get a good detail shot. So the tripod was once again set up in the middle of the road and I took a few photos while keeping an eye out for vehicles. Once it was all said and done, even though I like the sunset photo- it was the mundane photo of the dandelion that had gone to seed and the photo of the moon that I was having the most difficulty choosing between. My husband made the final choice- he hates the dandelions in the yard so the moon photo was the pick of the day. Lesson of the day was that even though you have a vision for a photo- do not forget to just look around. You never know what else is there that may even have more potential.

Day 9 of 365

Since day 8 was filled with the surprise of finding subjects that I did not intend to take photos of. I decided to try to duplicate this process. I had about an hour so I hopped in the vehicle to see where it may lead me. With no real direction in mind I decided to try some back roads. Driving around turning here and there, taking some roads that in the eleven years I had lived in my neighborhood, I am positive I have never traveled. I saw some neat things snapped a few photos and drove back home. As I was pulling in my driveway I noticed that my neighbors sunflowers in their garden were in full bloom a few quick pictures retreated to the house as a huge thunderstorm approached. Intending to be done for the day due to the weather, I went on to the back covered patio to download the photos from my camera. Just then the sky broke loose in a torrential downpour. The kids easy set pool was still up waiting for us to take it down for the fall and the rain was pounding on the surface of the water. The bubbles from the force of the rain drops were rather cool, so one more photo was snapped. Again this day was a case of unintentional subjects. I left the house with a plan to find something to shoot, which I did, but I ended up using the subject I found at home for this day's photo.

Day 10 of 365

Today was a rather dreary day and since it was a weekend I decided to go over to my Mom's house. She is an avid gardener and in the back of her property is her "Wimsy Garden". For those of you wondering what in the world that is... it is a wonderful space that she can put all of her things that are unusual or unique. The things that may not match anything else but she still likes- whatever happens to be her "wimsy". Hence the name of the garden. This space is filled with things like Gargoyles and Fairy Doors, there are statues of crabs and squirrels, small ponds with gravel bottoms and stepping stones to let you know you are on the right path, metal birds and windchimes, add a Winnie the Pooh and Piglet and you get the idea. It is a place where the only rule is- there are no rules. A great place to take some unique photos. Armed with my camera I took a stroll through the garden. Even though I had seen these items many, many times I was attempting to look at them differently. I had read a tip that said to take the cardboard roll from paper-towels and look through that with the other eye closed. That way you could try to get a different perspective - basically to see what your camera would see without a lot of things distracting the image. Not having a paper-towel roll I just used my hands to give myself "blinders" and then looked around. Getting lower to the ground showed the reflection on the pond, the blinders helped me see how the Fairy Door may look without all the background things overshadowing it. The experiment seemed to work to look for the normally overlooked photo opportunity and I was pleased with how several of the photos turned out.

Day 11 of 365

September 11th, 2001 was a tragic day in our nation's history. I watched the tower fall with my 14 day old baby son in my arms and preparing my 5 year old for afternoon kindergarten (she stayed home that day from school) In a small effort to try to reflect this memory in my 365 project I shot these photos using a confined space (the bottom shelf of a bookshelf) with a velvet backdrop. I am not sure there is a whole lot to say about this day, the memories of the events were in a lot of people's minds that day. From Facebook postings to the media it was a sad day.

Day 12 of 365

In an attempt to make this a family event and to get the kids involved I asked my oldest daughter to help. She is on her high school golf team and with the setting sun in the background I decided to try my hand at a silhouette. WIth only a few minutes of sun we hurried and grabbed as many photos as we could. This one was my favorite of the pictures taken. I have learned alot about how to and how not to do this. Live and learn I guess, we will start earlier have more time to take photos next time as well as try to keep the background less "cluttered". Oh well, this is one of the reasons I am doing this project- to learn from my mistakes.

Day 13 of 365

On day 13 my youngest children got off the bus and my son immediately found a toad. (he is such a boy... lol) Needing a photo still for the day, I grabbed the opportunity to get the youngest members of the family involved in the project. As my children wrangled the beast and kept him from hopping off, I grabbed a few photos. Being a very patient toad, it decided to sit still and let me get really close. Once we were done my son took him to a spot in the bushes so that it would be safe and not get stepped on by their Father when he got home from work. The kids were excited to see the photos that they helped with, so we went inside and uploaded them to the computer immediately. This closeup was the one that was decided on for day 13.

Day 14 of 365

Day 14 was one of those days... by the time I had a chance to breathe it was 10pm so once again I found myself scrambling to get my picture in for the day. I tried to do some cool lighting ideas that I had read about on the Internet- unfortunately I failed miserably.. lol. So in desperation I headed down to the basement determined to find something, ANYTHING that I could take a photo of. After about 30 photos (all of which I deleted) I decided that I needed to take a step back and really think out what I wanted out of my photo for that day. Having had such a terrible day at work and the stress of everyday life weighing in like a ton of bricks, I wanted my photo to show a simple and peaceful side of life. That is when I took the photo that I would ultimately use for the day. A simple shot of a simple subject- a single starfish in a net that I have hanging on my basement wall. The place I go to when the world is closing in- my "Happy Spot" in my house. The theme is patterned after my favorite place to visit and the place I one day hope to live and take photos, the Outer Banks, so when I am in this room it always lifts my spirits. The lesson I learned today- when all else fails, take a step back and simplify.

Well, that concludes this weeks journey in the Project 365. Hopefully you enjoyed the photos as well as the story behind them. I am working on next week's photos and am trying very hard to complete my mission. I hope you will join me in this endeavor and I look forward to seeing your photos. Remember to let me know where you post.

Until next time

"may you always have a seashell in your pocket and sand between your toes"