2/22 Photo Goals

Photography Goals

2/22 Photograph Looking Forward

Goals / Progressing / Leading

The theme for this week is looking forward, not sure where it will go, however, today's instructions were to look back at the year and the photos that I have taken. In reviewing the photos, question what I want to accomplish and be proud of how much I have grown. There are so many technical photos in my year and I would like to get shots with better lighting and include more people. The quote popped up on my twitter feed today from Light Stalking and I thought it was appropriate to add it to today's photograph. 

The flickr challenge this week is going to be interesting, "Rat's Eye View" getting the camera down to ground level. This picture is of the snowboard and boots that my son was going to use last night until he changed his mind to skiing instead. Meanwhile, the snowboard and boots are still by the door.

Today, after a quick walk, I went back to watching Downton Abbey while my husband was off enjoying a wonderful morning of powder skiing. The show is addicting and I am glad that I started watching it while there are a few seasons available. 

53/365 Floor View of Snowboard and Boots

2/15 Clean up

 Helping with Cleanup - Depth of Field and Bokeh

2/15 Photograph Depth of Field

Focus / Rule of Thirds / Bokeh

We got out to clean up after Neptune left us another 10 inches of snow and I finally got a "people" picture for the picture of the day. The prompt was for creating depth of field with the subject in the third of the photo with bokeh in the background. Since this is the second year of doing this project, I feel that I am understanding more of the technical parts of the prompt. I got it all with the picture of my son in our driveway, using a large aperture along with space between him and the background.   His face is bit out of focus, but I love how it expresses the cold of the day. We had to time the pictures in between the gusts of wind which also made snowplowing a bit tricky at times. It was hard to figure out the best side to blow the snow. Considering how much snow we have, the driveway is still wide. 

The picture for the flickr 365 project is one that shows just how much snow we have and I like how my husband is in the background with the snow flying out of the snowblower. That is a fence on the left by the bird feeder, you just can't see it under the snow. 

46/365 Flickr - Cleaning up After Neptune

The bird feeder pictures on the left show the difference from yesterday to today. So much for the cone preventing the squirrels from reaching the feeders, but even they weren't out today. 

 The predictions for this storm made it sound like we would be stuck inside today with all their storm and blizzard warnings. For us, the snow stopped by about 11A and that's when we went out to clean up. Later on we went over to a friends' house to snow shoe on trails in their back yard and then enjoy chili. It's that whole embracing winter thing, at least in the woods, the wind was not as bad.  We had fun and only encountered one snowmobiler, my friend K's husband who was out with K who we did not see. Fun to get out of the house, and get exercise that did not involve moving snow. 

Snowshoe Fun

Clean up around the house and yes, that's a hat in the bottom right picture.

2/2 I Heart Blurred Background

 I Love Snow?

2/2 Photograph I Heart Blurred Backgrounds

Soften / Hazy / Indistinct

Nailed it today for the prompt. In between snowplowing the driveway twice before 2 PM, I took this wooden heart and put it on a bannister. Between the snow falling and the wide aperture, got a great, blurry background. Not a lot of color, but a great contrast for the day. Since there is a heart theme for the week, there will be more photos this week with the heart included.

33/ 365 Flickr 365 : Circles 2

For the circles picture today, I set up holiday m&m's on a white plate. Once again, wasn't sure where I would find circles outside, unless it would be all the knobs on the snowblower. I think today's snow was more than expected. I tried the snowblower early before going out snowshoeing to get the rubbish barrels up. Then I did the driveway and the street, got inside to a ringing phone. My son was calling to say that he was being let out of work at 2 PM. Of course I hadn't done that side of the driveway and when I went back out at 1 PM, there was another foot piled up at the end of the driveway. Got it all done and decided that the third time was going to happen after the snow finally ended! 

It was a beautiful morning for snowshoeing and as long as the dog stayed off our snowshoes, it was great exercise.

Snowshoeing in the morning and Snowfall amount this afternoon

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

1/30 Goal

Goal: Learn to Use External Flash

1/30 Photograph Commitment

Promise / Guarantee / Goal

The intent for today was to go skiing, but it was snowing with the temperature hovering around freezing which meant wet snow. Basically, my son and I were too lazy to go. Out of the whole family, we are more the golfers than the skiers. I used the time to review the manual again for my external flash after I had watched some how-to videos last night. At least I learned that I can use this flash as an external slave flash off the camera while using the on board flash. Now I really want to learn how to use the flash in the manual, AV and TV mode on the camera. I just have to find more videos to watch. I can use it in program or Auto, but would like to learn the trick to use it on the manual modes. 

30/365 #6 Abstract - Backyard Snow

There really wasn't a lot of snow, by the time we went out to clear the driveway, deck and walkways, we had about 3 - 4 inches.  At the time that I took the abstract photo, it was snowing heavily. The flakes were big and fluffy, so once again, I tried to get the elusive picture of a snow flake. I am not too sure about that goal. 

It was a good day for soup and I made the Slow Cooker Chicken Tortilla soup again. Love that soup and it's even better over avocado. I added more soups to my pinterest board along with a Buffalo Chicken pizza recipe that looks very easy to make. Looking around Pinterest can take awhile, but at least I found photography videos worth saving along with a bunch of recipes. 

Not much else going on around here. I ended up on the treadmill today catching up on Forever and running during the commercials. Always a treat to get off the treadmill with a bit of motion sickness. I would rather be outside walking. The snow blowing only gives me .75 miles for a walking distance. Tomorrow, I will have to get 6 miles in someway or another to get to my goal of 60 miles for the month!

1/24 Who and What

My Getting Ready for Walk in Woods

1/24 Photograph Who & What

Context / The Story / More

24/365 Snow on the Pond

 Back to snow overnight on Friday and after our 30 minutes of snow removal, we were off for a walk. I thought that the picture of the day told a story, not just a person sitting, but doing something. Once again, we are back to wearing the Yaktrax for the driveway along with walking in the woods. They make it safe on the layer of ice beneath the snow.

It wasn't too cold outside which was good since we are without our wood stove until hopefully Monday. There is no draft and we are getting it fixed. But after two weeks in Florida, I am drinking a lot of tea and wearing multiple layers to keep warm.

The End of the Month

Morning Coffee to Go

11/28 Give Thanks for Traditions

Custom / Habit / Culture

After another night without power, we woke up to this pretty scene as we headed out to Dunkins for our morning coffee. The phones needed to be charged and we wanted to see what was going on beyond our front yard. It was good to see a few utility crews from New Brunswick in our area, giving us hope that electricity would be on that day. As expected, Dunkins was very busy! There are years where we put up our tree right after Thanksgiving when our oldest is home and initially, we thought we put it up early again.  However, we decided to hold off on getting our Christmas tree because our youngest was heading back to his apartment for heat and internet! Just to watch football and get warm, we went to a restaurant to watch some of the Iowa football game because being home without football was boring for some in the family. 

Snow wasn't melting!

I did have a photo shoot of three young boys for a Christmas card photo where I took a bunch of shots, but I am not sure if any will be okay since the youngest wouldn't put on mittens and didn't like the cold. He will figure it out. 

Our power finally came on around 4 PM and we quickly got our dishes/pans cleaned from the day before. We were cautiously optimistic that the power would stay on and it did! Our biggest surprise was that we had cable by 9 PM. Even with cable on, my husband and I kept up our skippo playing with an audience.

Farm in the Winter

11/29 Give Thanks for An Early Start

Get Ahead / Kick off / Proactive

This prompt suggestion was all about early Christmas cooking, which wasn't going to happen for me. We had too many errands to do in the morning after our walk in the woods with friends. There was still cleaning to be done and work to be caught up on the computers. Our friends from Chicago stopped by since they are in town to visit family and it was a nice visit.

Getting Ready for The Holidays

11/30 Give Thanks for The Holiday Season

Decorations / Festivities / Celebration

Today while my husband was off skiing, I cleaned more of the house and then got out the Christmas decorations. These are from my mother-law's decorations and it's nice to have those memories. I would post more pictures of the decorated house, but I am going to save them for later on this month. It seems that most of the December prompts are going to be holiday related and since I am heading back to Florida soon, there won't be any there!  I got my shelves set up and our little trees are decorated. 

My husband came home from skiing and thought he was going to relax until he found out that I had other plans for him. He got to relax(?) later on at our friends where we had a mini potluck dinner during the game. 

Silhouette

My Brother's Silhouette

2/2 Photograph a Silhouette

Outline / Shape / Profile



Well this super bowl is a bust in the third quarter and now I have the time to write a blog post. Today's prompt for Captureyour365 was another easy one to do given where I was. My brother's ski condo has a large picture window overlooking the mountain providing plenty of back light. This took a couple of shots because I had to be careful of the background. The first photos had the lift building in the background and the subject had to be still due to the low camera speed. I like the final product.

The skiing was good today for those who enjoy skiing. I was just fine watching HGTV in the morning and then watching my Photoshop video lessons for the week.  The guys went out at 8 AM and skied until 1:30 PM, I don't know how they last that long without eating. But once they come in, they become human vacuums and nothing is safe. All the leftovers get eaten quickly whenever we are my brother's condo.

Tonight I worked on Photoshop editing and it helped to have my son next me when I got stuck. He knows Photoshop on Windows, but it is similar to what I am using and he knows what to look for when something does go wrong for me. This is a picture that I am going to submit for this week's assignment on editing/cloning.

Footprints

Mystery Trail of Tracks in Backyard

1/12 Photo Inspiration: Photograph Footprints

Trail/Track/Impresssions

It was a late night for me to get to bed as I fell asleep on the couch waiting for my youngest to get home from his late inventory job. My husband and I had driven home at 10 PM, so I knew that the driving was foggy or icy based on whether you in on a hill or in a valley and wanted to make sure he got home okay. When my son came home around 2 AM, he and is brother decided that it was a good time to grill burgers and that's when I saw this line of tracks from our ice to the woods. Not sure what made them, deer, raccoon or even the dog next door, but it was a line of tracks and fit the day's photo prompt. 

I wasn't sure how to take the shot and ended up with one above, but could have gone with this one taken from my kitchen window.

Taking pictures of snow is not easy as there are shadows and white problems. I am taking an on-line photo element class and hope to be able to edit those areas better.  Looking at what I have taken for pictures this month, I am already at 60% winter shots. That's a good reflection of my daily life in January!

Due to our driveway basically looking like this foot print, it was the treadmill for me today. 4 miles of walking with running during commercials, I am now 43 miles away from reaching my goal of 75 for the month. It's a doable goal if I keep it up at this pace. After the treadmill it was an hour of ice chipping of the driveway. There are no calorie calculators for ice chipping, but it's still better than sitting on the couch playing games. 

A Little Bit

                                                                                        A little bit cold again today, woke up to -14 and by the time we went out snow shoeing, it was 20 degrees. Downright balmy, and took a rest at the beach out back by the beaver pond.

No really, I was posing for the Captureyour365 shot of the day.

I thought first of using a shadow shot, but the the fanny pack makes me look huge and I didn't like the photo.



Just the iphone for a photo today, I didn't want to take the DSLR out in the woods with me since my husband and friend L were into "bush-whacking". We were walking through brush and I know that I am going to have a mark on my face tomorrow.
We got snowshoes today and wrestled with the back binding, but by the end of our hike, I think we have it figured out. What a beautiful walk we had and I am tempted to go out and cross country ski on the snow mobile trails tomorrow.

I did use the dslr at home, and the details and colors are great. This is the shot of the snowshoes that I took at home, but I like the idea of the pond in the background.










A LITTLE BIT 1/4 - My winter beach shot

Close your eyes, feel the sun, listen to the waves, smell the sunscreen, now wake up and face the cold reality of January in New England!

Photography and my First World Problem

I am enjoying the idea of labeling First World Problems, in my daily life. They are problems that only people in privileged, technologically advanced societies have, in comparison to real problems like food, shelter and safety. This website has more information: Know your Meme.

This was my First World Problem of the week, I was going in to work on the evening shift and had to bring my mini van in for new snow tires and then get home in time for the delivery of a new wash machine. ( There goes the mortgage payment that we didn't have to pay b/c of refinancing this month...)But  what I really wanted to do, was to go out and take pictures of the ice that was forming on the trees overnight as we are in the midst of melting. Which is kind of weird for us to have a mud season in November. After all of my early morning errands, I did get a couple of pictures. They may not have been what I wanted, but it's all good. Because, I do have a roof over my head, a job and my health, plus a great family. No real problems here this week.

My goal for this winter? To get a better close-up shot of our resident cardinal.

And the Snow, Snow, Snow kept tumbling down

"Aren't you afraid of him falling?" My mother asked me, when I told her that my husband was spending another Saturday afternoon shoveling the roof.

"Heck no! If he falls, he's going to land in 4 - 6 feet of snow"

It's the story of the week in NH, the weight of snow on roofs and the fact that we are so close to breaking the record.

According to WMUR: Currently we are at 109.7" of snowfall in Concord. That has us in 2nd place for highest snowfall in a winter season since 1900 and only the third time we've reached 100" since 1900!

ALL TIME records: We are now in 6th place for Concord.

1) 1873-74 122.0"

2) 1872-73 115.0"

3) 1995-96 113.2"

4) 1886-87* 111.0"

5) 1887-88* 111.0"

6) 2007-08 109.7"

That's a lot of snow without many days of melting. It just keeps piling up as you can see from the photo show.

Paulie- If I could ship some to you, I would!!

www.flickr.com jennymcb's Snow 2008 NH photoset

Thursday Thirteen #41, 13 Winter Musings

In the middle of a wonderful winter season full of one storm after another, here are 13 winter musings.

1. Shoveling the roof- bet that's one activity that at least 42 of the states never have to worry about.

2. Boots- You know you live in a winter wonderland when you own more than one pair of boots.

3. Hats- At work we show off the hats that we have been knitting.

4. Bureaus- Doesn't everyone keep one in your closet for all the hats, gloves, mittens and scarves?

5. Snow days- It's that glorious time when you live for the moment and enjoy having no school. When I taught, I swear that teachers were more excited about the possibility of no school more than the kids. Even they would forget that those days need to be made up.

6. Slush puppy- No, not a food, but it's what you call a teenager who jumps in the snow after being in the hot tub.

7. We only call it cold when our nose hairs freeze when we go outside, not a minute before.

8. By the time our kids become teenagers, the arguing about dressing to stay warm has ended and a hooded sweatshirt is now the new winter coat.

9. When I was a kid, I never imagined that I would own snow pants as an adult! After 27 years, I think I have given up on downhill skiing and have gone back to cross country skiing, but of course it's now called Nordic.( my new skis are Fischer skis called Desire, I have no idea what desire has to do with skiing, but they sure are pretty!)

10. A stop sign becomes a challenge, b/c you can stop but can't see over the snow banks to see traffic and you must creep up to the road to check it out.

11. It's not just snow approaching anymore, the television news stations out do themselves in storm hyperbole: Storm of the Century, Stormwatch, Stormforce...

12. Because of the Blizzard of 78, we now rush to the grocery store for milk and bread, we're like Pavlov's dogs...just can't explain the need. Even if we have milk and bread, we still must go.

13. It's definitely winter when our idea of spectator sports involves standing outside in freezing temperatures to watch our kids compete.

Well my hat is done and I have some crocheting to do for Shelly's Share a Square project, I will be out and about reading blogs this week. Enjoy the snow!
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