5. Bird’s Eye View

This past weekend Tiny and Lola attended a charity event at the Longboat Key Club in Sarasota Florida. One afternoon, while relaxing with a glass of wine, she and Lola had a birds eye view of a lovely beach wedding and the pool area below.

 

 

9. Complementary Colors

Tiny and two of her friends spent the afternoon sorting and painting sea shells in complimentary colors for a craft project. Sometimes she gets inspiration from Pinterest for her crafts. And sometimes she even finds inspiration there for her photo shoots!

27. Memories

During this time of year I always think back to my memories of my kids starting a new school year. I began the tradition of them holding a sign with the date and what grade they would be starting when they were very young. The photo HAD to be taken on the very first day. Over the years their expressions changed a lot! During the early elementary years they held their signs with pride and gave me giant smiles. When they entered middle school their smiles were forced and their eyes were rolling. In high school sometimes they went along just to shut me up or I would have to chase them as they tried to leave the house without doing it all together. It was a game that I didn’t mind playing because I loved the photos so much.

When school ended and they left home I was sometimes surprised by them sending me photos of themselves holding a sign they made on their own to mark an important first; a first day of college or a first day on the job.

Now they are taking their own photos of their kids firsts’.  I hope while they are taking photos they will also be remembering when they were the one holding the sign. And at least once I hope they have to chase one of them down the driveway waving a sign in one hand and a camera in the other!

I decided that Tiny  taking a photo of  her little friend wearing a backpack would be a good way to bring this memory to life. But because it’s such a happy memory for me I decided to take the photo myself!

16. Frame Within A Frame

This week Tiny and her little dog Lola attended a show at a gallery showcasing the work of a local pet photographer. She was pleasantly surprised to see that a large framed portrait of her and Lola had been included.

35. On The River

Rain in Florida is not unusual. What does feel unusual for me is rain lasting for days upon days. The rains we have been getting in the last couple weeks feel more like the rainy seasons we used to experience when we lived in Panama. The morning news has been full of flood advisories and warnings not to drive through flooded streets.
I decided to take another tiny Playmobil man out to the street/river in front of my house for a little creative photo shoot. The gutter must seem like a river when you are 2 1/2 inches tall!
All my clothes are now in the dryer….

31. Panning

Today I was finally able to take some photos to fulfill the panning theme! I had a few shots that I was unable to use because they were taken before last August 1st. That would be against the rules so I had to start from scratch. With the help of my photography partners in crime, we stood on the streets of downtown Sarasota practicing until we got it just right!

Shutter Priority; 100 ISO; 1/25 sec; f/7.1

 

A-5 Reflections

I have been wanting to try this reflection technic for a very long time. Susan Karski, another 52-week blogger showed me a photo she had taken out west with a beautiful reflection awhile back. I was really surprised when she told me that the photo had been taken using just a small puddle of water. I thought it was near a LAKE! Today I finally had my opportunity. I was at a near by light house called the Nubble Light. I took the iconic shot but kept searching for how I could make it mine. I saw a couple puddles of water and thought of Sue’s puddle trick…. The arrow points to the puddle of water and the creative doodle is supposed to be me laying on the ground holding my camera!

The second shot shows my finished photo.

21. It Happens Over Time

Last fall when I visited Venice I loved to hear about the history of the city. It is sometimes referred to as the floating city because it was built by setting wood pilings on the 118 submerged islands in the Northern end of the Adriatic Sea. There are 400 foot bridges and 170 boat canals connecting the city.

Modern technology has proven what everyone has suspected for a very long time. The city is sinking…  Venice has battled rising water levels since the fifth century. But today, the water seems to be winning. Several factors, both natural and man-made, cause Venice to flood about 100 times a year — usually from October until late winter — a phenomenon called the acqua alta.

41. Single Color On Black and White

This theme has been haunting me since the beginning! I have thought about so many different ways of doing this in my little studio room but none of them have felt right. Then today while going through photos that I took while adventuring around Idaho this one jumped out begging me to be used. I’m a weirdo about snapping photos of lone trees on mountain ridge lines. For some reason they make me think of old western movies when all the indians would appear on top of ridges while wagon trains passed through the valley below.  I told you I am weird…. or maybe I just have a very active imagination.

I think I’ll title this photo, “Indian On The Ridge,” just because I can…

Indian On The Ridge

47. Summer Fun

Yesterday I had a lot of fun photographing my niece and her family at the beach while they were in town visiting. I think this photo in particular captures the fun they were having as well!

42. Skyline Panorama

When this photo challenge year began I expected that this theme photo would be a skyline photo of downtown Sarasota. Fortunately for me I recently had an opportunity to visit Mormon Row in Grand Teton National Park. In the area several original cabins, barns and other structures still stand watch at the base of the Tetons.

Myself along with three other photography friends woke up before sunrise and made the pilgrimage to photograph a pair of barns built by T.A. Moulton in an area called Antelope Flats in the southern portion of the park.

It was definitely worth the early morning alarm, layers of clothes and wearing winter gloves!

43. Solitary

There is a place in Naples, Florida that is pretty special. It’s called the Kowiachobee Animal Preserve. Kowiachobee means “Big Cat” or “Screaming Cat” which refers to the Puma aka the Florida Panther.  I was fortunate enough recently to visit the preserve while attending the recent F3C conference in Fort Myers, Florida. I along with about 30 other photographers went on a hunt in search of a great photo.

This solitary Panther was one of my favorite shots of the day. I was sitting quietly with my camera and for a brief moment felt like the animal was looking right through me.

I chose to enter this photo in the Marie Selby Botanical Gardens 35th annual juried photographic exhibition and was lucky enough to win second place in the Birds, Bugs and Critters category. I hope that in some way that recognition will help to raise awareness of all the good things that they are trying to do at the Preserve. To learn more click here.

Facing Extinction

15. Graveyard

Since the beginning of this years 52 Week Challenge, I knew which graveyard I wanted to photograph for this theme. It is located in Boquete, Panama. The graveyard contains several different types of graves, the traditional single plot, lawn crypts and private mausoleums. I find all the different types in the same area very interesting.

Luckily for me I was able to visit a few weeks ago. Along with fellow blogger, my friend Ida, we took a walk around town that included the graveyard. It was the week before Easter, schools and many business’ are closed beginning on Wednesday that week. There did seem to be many more decorations this time so I am going to assume that more people visit the graves of their family members during this holiday week.

I chose to edit these photos using Silver Effects Pro 2.

 

46. Still Life

I took this photo yesterday while visiting the South Florida Museum. Our group was allowed special behind the scenes access to the museums shell collection that totals over 20,000 pieces. One of the curators, Tiffany, placed the shells of our choice in a lighted box used by the museum to catalog their pieces. We were allowed to adjust the lighting as it suited us to create our own special photos.

In this photo I took 4 separate images each slightly different in focus. I then stacked them in photoshop to give me 1 sharp image. The tutorial I used can be seen by clicking here.  I also ran across this tutorial  that teaches how to use photo stacking for landscape photos. I’m looking forward to giving it a try as well!

49. Two Of Us

I’m writing this post while visiting Panama. My husband and I lived here full time for awhile. We moved back to the United States almost 3 years ago. We try and come back to visit friends as often as possible.

A dear friend of ours had his wedding while we were here this time and I was able to take their wedding photos as a gift to them. Tonight we are meeting them for dinner and showing them the photos for the first time. I thought I’d share one here because it seems so appropriate for the theme.

24. Long Exposure

Recently I attended the f3c conference in Fort Myers, Florida. When not attending workshops or lectures I was spending time with friends exploring the area. One night we had dinner downtown and then explored the area afterwards with our cameras.

This shot was a little different than the others because a public bus drove through the shot while my shutter was open. I liked how the light trails filled the frame yet didn’t cover the sign on the restaurant.  Pure luck really!

28. Natural Beauty

Yesterday I had the opportunity to take my first guided bird boating tour. Our guide, Bob Salyers, was a recent speaker at our local photography club. Several of our members have taken tours with him in the past and he came highly recommended. I was not disappointed. Bob was great at giving me instructions in advance about what camera settings would be appropriate for the lighting. He explained back button focus to me in a way that was easy for me to understand. I will now be using that technic exclusively when I am taking action shots! He was always giving us a heads up on what the birds were doing or about to do in different areas of the rookery. A short attention span has kept me from being a regular bird photographer but Bob kept me on my toes!

I shot this white egret, with a Sigma 120mm-400mm lens that belongs to Bob. I spent most of my day shooting at a 400mm focal length just because I could! My camera setting were 1/4000 sec; f/5.6; ISO 200; Aperture priority; spot metering.  In post processing I edited in camera raw and then used a couple texture overlays just for fun.

33.Paths And Or Trails

Last weekend I participated in the F3C conference in Fort Myers. One evening a few of us got together for dinner followed by a walk around the downtown area to explore with our cameras. It really was a wonderland of photo ops! I recommend it to anyone thinking about doing any sort of night time street photography.  I thought this gated path through a back alley was a good choice for the theme ‘Paths and or Trails.”

25. Long Shadows

My husband and I had to make a road trip to Orlando today. Anyone who has ridden in a car with me in the passenger seat knows that trip across I-4 is not pleasant. After listening to my gasps and watching me grap the dashboard all the way there, he broke up the ride back with a stop by the Florida Polytechnic University. I was wowed by the beauty of the architecture. So much so that I worked out a photo field trip for my photography club to return as a group for a private tour!

34. Patterns

Yesterday I went on a road trip with a group of photographer friends, including some from the 52 week photo challenge. It was intended to be an outing to photograph shore birds. Lucky for me the morning started out shrouded in fog. I have a thing for piers in the fog, but because I am not an early morning riser I don’t have a chance to photograph many.

I thought the repeating patterns would make a nice shot for this theme. I hope you all do to?!

7. Car Lights

I’ve been wanting to try this shot for a long time… Luckily for me our photo challenge forced me to finally go give it a try. I think I may be addicted now to long exposure car light photos! Both photos were taken on a tripod. I included the settings I used under each photo.

Exposure: 30.0 sec; f/25; ISO 100; Aperture Priority

Exposure: 30.0 sec; f/25; ISO 100; Aperture Priority

37. Rows And Rows Of…

To fulfill this theme I chose a photo of rows and rows of gondolas that I took when visiting Venice, Italy. I did some post processing with Topaz Impressions and Flypaper textures.

All of Italy reminds me of a painting so I thought it was an appropriate effect to try on a photo taken there.

 

1. At A Distance

I have only ever seen the St. Louis Gateway Arch at a distance until recently. This time I was able to see it right up close! Even standing right next to it the observation area still seemed rather far away. It really was much taller than I expected it to be…

8. Differences

Today I took a break from a project that I have been knee deep into lately. It’s required a lot of concentration and was giving me a headache. I needed a little right brain vacation from my left brain project. A photographer friend who’s work I really admire, Laura :), recently posted about  an editing program that really peeked my curiosity. I made the leap and purchased the program and then had some fun today. I went digging into my archives from the last few months and dug out a few photos that I liked but didn’t love…. I’m still in the experimental stages but I thought it might be good to make a post under the theme “Differences” and just show you a comparison….

The photo itself isn’t very interesting, but I am emotionally attached to it. I took it last fall when I was visiting my family in Indiana. On this particular day I was wandering around downtown Fort Wayne looking for fall colors. I liked the leading line of the sidewalk but never felt like it was composed correctly. Oh well, it came in handy today when I needed a photo to play around with! I think my head is starting to feel better already… 🙂

Before

After

2. Below The Knees

A couple weeks ago my husband and I were given two tickets to go watch the Tampa Bay Lightening vs. Toronto Maple Leafs hockey game. My husband is from Maine, was very active with the University of Maine Black Bears and both of his sons played a lot of hockey as kids. He loves the game!  I on the other hand am from Indiana. I grew up on IU basketball. And I hate the Purdue Boilermakers. Don’t ask me why, I’m not really sure. I think my mom told me I had to, it’s a family rule.  In Indiana you are either an IU fan or a Purdue fan. And I still make fun of Gene Keady’s hair. If you have to ask… well don’t.

Sorry I digress. I agreed to go to the game or a few reasons. I thought it would be fun to spend time with my husband doing something he enjoys so much, he said the tickets were in the 4th row, I thought a hotdog sounded good to eat and I thought I would get a few shots for the 52-week photo challenge without a whole lot of effort. After all, he did say 4th row!

At first I thought I was going to try to get a good panning shot. My sitting so close proved to be problematic for panning. I couldn’t even get a lock on the player before he was gone and shooting through the big giant plastic wall wasn’t helpful trying to focus either. I guess now I know why there weren’t any other people sitting with cameras that I could see. They were more focused on yelling at everyone to punch each other! I ate my hotdog and plotted a new strategy. I decided to focus on just the goalie. And in particular the goalie “below the knees”. It was still a struggle to focus on him and try and look out the corner of my eye at the jumbo-tron at the same time. It was hard to know when they were headed back to my end of the arena. I did all of this while balancing my hotdog on my lap! I’m going to have to use a few so you can see that I did get better at it and managed to even catch the puck slipping through the goalies knees and into the goal. All this was accomplished with only 1 drip down the front of my shirt from my hotdog! The last photo made the cut because Santa Claus appears to be enjoying a big cold beer in the stands. And that made me giggle. I wonder if he ate a hotdog? I didn’t see any mustard down the front of his shirt…

 

 

19. Horses and Humans

I was driving near the polo fields today when I noticed a couple riders in one of the practice fields. I really was hoping that if I waited long enough they would make their way a little bit, or actually a lot closer. That didn’t happen, but I was still happy to take a few minutes and just watch them. The photo really doesn’t do justice to the skills of the riders or how beautiful the horse were.

I did a little research when I got home and here are a couple facts I learned. Free flowing manes and tails are a danger in polo because they can become entangled with players’ mallets or with the reins as the rider tries to control the horse. Manes, therefore are shaved and the ponies’ tails are wrapped or braided to prevent the hazard.  Also, lefties are banned from polo. To understand why, consider this: you’re driving down the road when all of a sudden, coming straight at you, is a crazed English person (Patricia) driving on the left side of the road. The panic you’d feel in the situation is just what a right-handed polo player feels when he and a lefty approach the ball from opposite directions.

The polo season is just getting started here in Lakewood Ranch. To see this years schedule click here. It’s been several years since I have been to a match. If anyone is interested, I think we should get together a group and go sometime. It would be fun to pack a picnic and take our cameras out for a little practice. There are a lot of photo themes just waiting there for us: below the knees, panning, at a distance and of course horses and humans!

 

 

39. Shot Through Glass

My grandson, Greyson, was with us on Christmas morning this year. It was great fun to be able to watch him open a few presents. Like a lot of 2 year olds he seemed more interested in normal everyday things than he did in his presents. This year his favorite thing to play with was the patio door. The perfect gift for him would have been a tiny, just his size patio door to take home to open and close all year long. Of course if I HAD found him a tiny door he would have probably been more interested in the box!

22. It’s A Mystery

While driving around Tarpon Springs, happily lost, my friends and I noticed this old Spanish style building.  We made a mental note of it’s approximate location so we could come back to it after we visited the sponge docks.

It was old and beat up and did not fit in with the historic neighborhood filled with beautiful victorian style homes. The doors were locked tight but one window was broken out. We could see that there was some type of remodel under way.  We had a lot of questions but no answers until I was able to do some research after returning home.

I’ve found that the abandoned three-story building was built in 1926 and originally was christened First Baptist Church. It is currently known as,  A Glorious Church.  It is being transformed into a residential home by it’s current owner Richard Boeckl. Only the buildings majestic frontage along Read Street will match the remnant of the facade.

Boeckl purchased the building in the early 1970’s and rented it to several congregations until a 1993 storm flooded its ground floor with three feet of water and ravaged sections of the roof. He has been doing his best to maintain the building over the years. At one time there was a plan to remake the space into an antique condominium. In an old newspaper article that I found Boeckl said he hopes to have a certificate of occupancy within a year. Based on what we saw through the broken window and the photos shown in the article I think that might be a stretch. When I have a chance to revisit Tarpon Springs I will certainly seek out the old church again to see what progress has been made. How it turns out will remain a mystery until my next visit.

 

 

 

 

48. Sun Flare

The other day I took an impromptu road trip with 3 of my fellow 52-week photo bloggers. We jumped in the car and drove to Tarpon Springs, Florida. We grabbed our cameras and set out on a hunt for photos to match some of our remaining themes. I anticipate that we will all be making a couple posts from the same areas but under different themes. I’m looking forward to seeing how different we all saw the same things.

We went a little silly when we noticed our reflections in the decorations of one of the Christmas trees along the sponge docks. At the time I was using a lens baby lens on my camera. I didn’t realize it until I uploaded the photos that the lens had warped the sun flare and made the photo a little more interesting. I also like that you can see the reflections of my partners in crime!

19. Holiday Spirit

The holiday spirit has been a little hard for me to find this year… yesterday I may have finally found it!

I went to visit my daughter and her family to take their annual Christmas card photos. It was a beautiful day at an uncrowded beach in Florida. It didn’t take us long to figure out that our list of Pinterest ideas wouldn’t be necessary. Greyson, my almost two year old grandson, had his own ideas. We decided to just make it a lifestyle shoot… we followed around the little Mr. and tried to do whatever necessary to just get him to make eye contact with the camera. Both a smile and eye contact were rare this year! I don’t want to ruin the photo surprises to those on my daughters card list who might see this post. But, I am going to include my favorite from the day. Sorry Lis… 🙂

And thanks for getting me into the spirit. I watched the movie ‘Elf’ twice while I edited photos this morning. I have all my silly movie lines stuck in my head now… “I just like to smile, smiling is my favorite!” or “This place reminds me of Santa’s workshop, except it smells like mushrooms and everyone looks like they want to hurt me…” HAHA