2/27 Outside Photography

Afternoon Walk on the Snowmobile Trails

2/27 Photograph The Season

Outside / Time of Year / Occasion

It was a good thing that there was an outside prompt today, since I needed the incentive to go for a walk. I should have gone cross country skiing, but as bright as the day was, it was still cold.  I did do some extra processing in Perfect Photo suite with this shot to highlight the colors. This is what the lighting originally looked like:

I started off with pictures around the house and this one with fence ended up as my flickr shot. I had tried a ground shot and didn't like it, but I liked this picture with 1/2 of the fence showing. Black and white just seemed to work for this shot. When the snow melts, it will be interesting to see if the fence will remain upright, this section is not very steady.

58/365 Winter Fence

Scenes around the yard

Once the bird seed is gone, there will be no more. Almost time to stop because of the bears.

That's our front walk in the top right. No ice on that main roof, it's all in the front yard. No damage to shrubs because they already have 2 feet of snow on top. 

Out on the pond

Obligatory Cat picture- Still not fighting. I think the big one just wants to keep me in his sight to remind me to feed them.

2/24 Jumping Up to Help?

Jumping Up to Help

2/24 Photograph Jump

Leap / Skip / Dance

When I read the prompt for today, I didn't know what I was going to do for a subject. Some people posted pictures of themselves jumping or their children. It wasn't a jumping day for me, just not feeling it. After finishing the knitted cowl the night before, I was ready to start another project. This yarn was bought as a large hank and needed to be rolled up to make socks. It's easier to do when you have another set of hands and I used the chair to hold onto the skein of yarn. Out of four cats, only one of them became intrigued by the moving yarn. When I got the camera, she even tossed the ball on the ground. 

55/365 Rat's Eye view on top of 2 feet of snow in the backyard

Obligatory cat photo- No fur flying, no fighting. Amazing.

2/13 Red on the Snow

Cardinal at the Bird Feeder

2/13 Photograph Pretty in Pink

Dressed Up / Cute / Good Looking

Not pink, but definitely good looking for today's CY365 photo. It's hard to get a picture of the cardinal since he is very skittish when he senses movement from inside the house. I got this photo from the stairs in my house since I had the interior door open to let the sun in. The camera and lens are kept on top of the old ice box by the stairs so I was able to take a couple of shots until it flew off. This photo is cropped in to show more detail. Then this afternoon while I was at the sink, I noticed the cardinal again in the trees. 

Today was one of the coldest days and I had already made plans to go cross Country skiing with A in Concord. The windchill made it below zero and when we first started, I wasn't sure if I could do it with my hands being so cold. Once I took off the gloves and just had my hands in the mittens, it was better. I skied only an hour and by the time I was finished, felt warmer.

Bub was coming for dinner after taking his GMATs and I cooked one of our prime ribs from our after-Christmas sale. 4 lbs barely made it for dinner, but with mashed potatoes, strignbeans and homemade gravy and bread, it was a delicious dinner. Plus, I was able to get Bub to pose for a low-light photo which should have been darker, but I liked the hair highlights. After looking at my February pictures, I really do need to work on getting more people shots. 

44/365 Looking at Snow photos on the iPad

Cross Country Skiing shots- Even with iPhone
hard to take pictures when it was so cold!

Obligatory Cat photo- Was going to use this for low light initially.

2/12 Photograph A Favorite

Daisy in a Bouquet

2/12 Photograph a Favorite

Cherished / Favored / Adored

Today, I finally hit the prompt with a recommended subject. I didn't even know that the suggestion for today was going to be a flower, because, who has flowers right now in the top 1/2 of the states? Fortunately for me, I had bought a cheap bouquet yesterday and it has certainly come in handy for today's photos. I picked daisy as a favorite flower only because it grows like a weed in my gardens and it reminds me of summer. After another gray day ending with snow, it was nice to have the flowers to photograph. The macro lens was used and instead of a tripod, I used a book and breadboard, it worked! I worked on the low light photography with the bouquet by putting it in the bathroom with the only light through the door and the effect is nice.

I got caught up with the blog and for all four of you who read my blog, I apologize. It becomes hard when I am also knitting, somethings can't be multi-tasked. Maybe if I played less games? I can say that posting my photos keeps me busy and I am still learning functions on my camera and practice is so helpful to improve my skills.  Today, I woke up saying that I was going to get caught up and I did, plus, I made a loaf of bread. Planning an easy meal of chicken salad sandwiches and salad also gave me time to write. The problem is that I have to stay on task and get distracted by playing games, reading Facebook, watching tv or cleaning.

#43/365 Low light Flower Bouquet

Scenes around the feeder this afternoon (Another Distraction for me)

Obligatory Cat picture, Mini watching the birds.

1/31 1 Month

January started with a Walk and Ends with One

1/31 Photograph One Done

1 Month / Celebrate / Accomplishment

31/365 #7 Abstract- Winter Shadows

Cold today, so cold that the knitted cowl came out to be worn along with a longer jacket for our walk.  We walked on January 1st when there was no snow, now we have about a foot out in the woods. The walk was only a mile since it was so windy and it was good to get out moving even for that short time. And no, I did not make the 60 miles this month, 92% done with 4.5 miles that I was too lazy today to get on the treadmill. I did help with the wood which was the extent of exercise today. 

For the daily CY365 prompt, my husband took this picture.  I had a polarizer filter on because it was so bright out and it makes the colors pop. I like this photo of me, lots of color with an interesting background.  A month of two photos a day, not always easy to do, but I am thinking of the CY365 shot once I read the morning email. If I look at the prompt ahead, I usually get the prompt wrong by reading too much into it. But this year, I would like to branch out more from the prompt when the opportunity is there for other great photos. The flickr shot is something totally different for me most days and I like the weekly challenge as it is a good excuse to be more artistic versus a technical focus. Looking at the the month collage of each 365 project, there is definitely a difference in the subjects. 

Flickr Project 365 January

Captureyour365 January

This afternoon, I pulled out the knitting with the intent to work through the stash of yarn that I have. The first yarn that I am going to use is a mohair lightweight yarn in a pretty green that I had received in a swap. Looking through Ravelry, I found a hat and cowl pattern that look quick and easy. Plus, we can always use more dish rags for all the cotton yarn that I have. Too cold to be outside for long, and with a nice fire going, knitting will keep me off the computer while I work through the stash of yarn. 

This morning, the birds were taunting me! I was by the door getting some shots and when I left, the cardinals came. But they are so skittish, that the movement in the house makes them fly away. At least I know that they are coming to the feeder, so there is always another day. 

While the cats sleep by the window, they miss all this activity.

One of the colder days for a walk

1/29 Tied Scarves

Tied Scarves and a Cat Photobomb

1/29 Photograph Tethered

Bind / Tied / Restrained

I wasn't sure where I was going to go with this prompt until I got downstairs and saw my apron hanging from the night before. It didn't have to be rope, just something tied. I went from the apron

hanging to get the tie to a scarf around my neck to a group of scarves. I have a lot of scarves because when I travel, I forget to bring one with me and end up buying one. London, Germany and Chicago are represented along with a couple of hand made scarves.  I ended up picking the picture above because I liked the lighting and the cat was in focus.

For the abstract photo, we have huge icicles hanging from our porch that I could take close up shots. Up close, you can't really tell that it's ice and I added a filter to the photo in Perfect Photo Suite.

Original ice photo

Kind of a lazy day, I should have gone out for a walk but got a late start and went food shopping, talked to youngest son for about an hour and then it was time to make supper. Tonight we had spaghetti squash with chicken sausage that had feta cheese and spinach along with onions, peppers and tomato sauce. Topped it with cheddar and parmesan cheese and baked for about 20 minutes. It was a hit and it was gone.

29/365  Abstract # 5

Knots and Cat photo bombing

Obligatory Cat Photo

1/7 Solitude

Solitary Skater

1/7 Photograph Solitude

Seclusion / Peace & Quiet / Isolation

7/365 Cold Swings 1/7

Today, I stopped by the park where I thought could find good subjects for the solitude prompt. When the temperature is way below freezing, who would be at a park? I was happy to see a couple of skaters on the pond and I asked this young man if I could take a picture of him skating way from me. He was kind enough to skate away and I got the shot. The ice looked so good for skating  and if it wasn't so cold, I might have gone home to get my own skates.This is the pond where my oldest learned how to ice skate and where our dog knocked me on my butt the first year in our house. I may not be the best skier, but I never fall when skating! 

I then went over to the playground section to photograph the very quiet play area. The learning part of the prompt was converting the pictures to black and white which I like for snow pictures as it takes care of any white balance problems with the snow. The edits were done in Lightroom 5.

The prompt for today should have been icy cold as that is how I felt. But that cold still didn't prevent me from filling my car with $2.14/gal gasoline! The woman filling up in front of me, had no gloves on and I don't know how she managed. 

It was nice to get home, start a fire and warm up a serving of soup. Yesterday, I took out the hambone from Christmas and made a delicious soup (without beans!). The Smoked Ham, Barley and Vegetable soup recipe came from Epicurious and I would make it again! The calories for it was higher than I would have liked, but the soup was filling!

Woodpecker chilling at suet feeder.

Whites Park

Obligatory Cat picture- Even they were cold today. 

1/5 Ensemble

Ensemble of Glass Bottle In the Afternoon Light

1/5 Photograph Ensemble

Altogether / En Masse / Group

Thought for sure that I was going to have an off prompt photo for CY365 today because of the beautiful, icy trees outside until I took this picture. I was at an appointment this afternoon and these bottles just caught my eye with the afternoon light coming through them.  This is the original picture taken with my iPhone. I cropped it up to just have the bottles in the picture and did minimal processing lightroom. I think this year, I may have more pictures from the iPhone since it always handy, plus, it takes great pictures. 

Today, I put all the Christmas decorations away and I have to admit that I am now an artificial tree convert. It was simple, clean and no worries about the cats in the water. I also organized the ornaments and brought down 4 boxes of stuff to my basement where there were 4 more boxes of Christmas things that we didn't even use. Every time I brought something downstairs, I brought another thing up to the rubbish barrel. Nothing holiday related yet, but next year I am going to have three empty boxes for the boys to go through their grandparent's ornaments to pick what they would like to keep. I have enough already. 

5/365 Icy Bokeh 1/5 

I used a icy shot for the flicker 365 today. Our yard and driveway is just one big frozen mess. It was pretty in the sunlight, but nothing was melting, just glistening in the sun. To get to the rubbish barrels this afternoon, I had to put on the yak trax to safely make it down and back. I did get a bit scared when the wind picked up and I could hear the branches moving. After our ice storm in Thanksgiving, the broken branches are more of a concern because not everything came down when they broke, still some just hanging on other branches.

My poor lilac bush still hasn't recovered from November's storm and the ice today isn't helping.

The garden today had some interesting ice formations.

Alternative parking now occurring since we have lost a space until this tree melts.

Obligatory cat picture of the week- The two boys were cuddling last night...

12/30 Cozy Indulgences

Winter Afternoon Cozy Indulgences

1/30 Photograph Cozy Indulgences

Allowance / Treating / Favor

1st shot- Crooked and blown out flames.

I went out walking at 9 AM and it was so freaking, cold. My neighbor and her dog weren't out, so R and did the long loop. Multiple layers were worn, except I should have had long johns on since my thighs ended up being the coldest part after the walk. I set up the pictures for the prompt early because I had the fire going the minute I came home from the walk. It is a set up picture since I haven't started the book yet, but am looking forward to this weekend when I will have a lot of time to read. ( Thank you KR!) The tea was hot though and some of those chocolate kisses were eaten, not many though! ( 1 Chocolate kiss = 22 calories)

My first shot did not include my feet and I had to play with the settings to get the flames just right.

The light of the flames can get blown out and I wanted the flames to be identifiable. Of course I had an annoying cat get in my way a couple of times until he eventually laid down away from my shot.

Another day of two walks to help me get to my goal of 60 miles walked for the month of January. My friend L thinks I should have more intensity to my workouts, so we ran up a hill in the woods in the afternoon. On the list of activities that I did yesterday, that wouldn't be at the top!

One more day for 2014 Capturing My 365! In the meantime, I am still playing with the texture photos that I have seen recommended for the iphone/ipad. This is a photo that I posted on Instagram yesterday, yes, too much time in Florida, I am cold here!