had-to-share – Page 5

January 6, 2011January 6, 2011

You Capture – Favorites of 2010

The “assignment” this week was not to take pictures. It was to select our favorite 10 photos of 2010 to share. Taking new pictures would have been SO much easier. Really. As I said the other day, I took more than 10,300 pictures in 2010 with my digital SLR alone (big camera)!

But I did it. Finally. It took quite a bit of time and required a plan. First, I went through lots and lots of pictures and copied my favorites into a separate folder. That was the top 65. From there, I narrowed it down to the top 25. Finally, I was able to narrow it down further to my top 10.

Remember, the theme is my “favorites,” not “my best.” What makes a photo good anyway? Does it always have to be in focus? Nope. Does the light always have to be perfect? Nope. Does your subject have to be looking at the camera? Must his/her entire face be visible? Does your subject need to be centered? Nope, nope, and nope again.

This assignment has already consumed so much of my time that I am just going to shut up and post the darn things already. Okay? Here are my favorite pics of 2010, in no particular order. Don’t even ask me to rank them from one to ten. The mere thought of having to do that has given me the cold sweats…

1_go_ahead_knock — Go ahead, knock. I triple-dog dare you.

This is definitely my favorite dog pic of the year. I like the reflection of the sunset, but I love the look in their eyes. They are scanning the horizon, anxiously awaiting my return. It doesn’t matter if I am gone for five minutes or five days, the girls are ALWAYS glad to see me when I return. As with many of my favorite images, this one was completely unplanned. I’d actually been outside taking pictures of the sunset. When I turned to go back inside, that is what I saw. I had to tweak the lighting a bit in PS Elements, mostly to get rid of the ever-present nose prints on the glass.

This shot makes me smile. Every single time I look at it. I could’ve removed the red eye, but I think that adds to the craziness. These two play like this practically all day, every day. Yes, they really are playing and not trying to bite each other’s face off. You’ll have to use your imagination for the growls. It can be quite entertaining to watch. Sure it gets annoying at times, too, like when I am trying to participate in a teleconference. But I’m so glad all of our dogs are here.

I chose this picture not because it shows off our grandchild. If that were my goal, I’d post a picture of all of them. (In fact, I’m going to cheat here a bit and give you a LINK to my favorite picture that features the grand kids.) My goal here really is to show how “favorite pictures” don’t have to be favorites because of the subject, quality, composition, etc. My favorite images are usually the ones that evoke the strongest/best feelings, reflect a certain mood, capture a particular moment, etc.

This picture of Joey was shot during the late Spring. Actually, I think it was Memorial Day weekend. We had made all these grand plans to take the kids on a bike ride, but then Joey got sick. I volunteered to stay behind with him while everyone else went riding. He sat for the longest time making “regular soup” with water and rocks in these containers. All I could hear were the sounds of the birds and insects in the forest, Joey’s giggles, his running commentary, and the dogs playing.

Even the weather was perfect. It was one of those moments you just want to freeze in time because it feels really, really good to be alive. When you realize wouldn’t change one single thing about your life, no matter how difficult, because if you did you’d erase all the good, too. And moments like these are definitely good. The best, actually.

I like this shot mostly for its symbolism. As the caption says, I love nature. I’d rather be outside doing stuff than inside, that’s for sure. I especially enjoy watching the seasons change. The Winter to Spring change is one of my favorite times of the year. I always look forward to the blooming of the Redbud trees. This heart-shaped leaf is on a Redbud tree at the end of our WV driveway. If you look closely, you can seem some pink in the background. I could have chosen a shot where the pretty, pink flowers are in focus. But I like that the emphasis is on the leaf here. The heart-shaped leaf to be exact. You’ll appreciate this picture so much more if you click on it to see the larger version.

When you look closely at stuff, you really do see so much more. That’s the theme for this selection. It really is true, too.

This image is simply a fern frond. Not real exciting, right? But if you look closely (click on the image to see a bigger version), you’ll see the intricate patterns on each leaf. The depth of field in this picture (how much of the image is in focus) is what makes the image so powerful to me. It draws your attention right into the middle of the frame and makes you look at the individual leaves. And, as the photographer, that’s exactly what I wanted you to see.

This reflectofrog shot is the perfect example of how unplanned stuff sometimes makes an image. I was trying to get a shot of myself reflected in the frog’s globe. I did. But I also got a shot of K’s leg in the foreground with her whole body reflected between me and the frog. Because I can’t go anywhere/do anything without the dogs coming along to see exactly what it is I am doing. They’re nosy like that. I don’t know if that’s a dog-in-general thing or a Brittany thing. But these three dogs of mine are VERY curious about everything. And they are rarely far from us at all. Not that I am complaining. My dogs make me happy. But it really is like having little kids around trying to “help” you do stuff.

7_DSCN1363 — A Picture-Perfect Motorcycle Day

This shot represents a picture-perfect motorcycle riding day in the Greater Appalcahian Valley. Blue skies. Big, puffy white clouds. Smooth, empty road winding through the foothills and into the mountains… does it get any better? If you look really close, you’ll see Hubby in front of me. I was lagging behind a bit since I was riding one-handed at about 45 mph while shooting pictures with my point-and-shoot camera. None of that craziness in 2011. This year I get to use my new HELMET CAM! 🙂

8_5110818190_c35b886e3e_b — Almost Heaven

This picture is a great example of why we chose to build a house in West Virginia. Mountains. Lots of mountains. They’re no Alps or even Rockies, but you know what? We have discovered plenty of great motorcycle roads. I’ll begin sharing that info pretty soon (stay tuned for new project announcement). For now, you’ll just have to look at this picture and the previous shot to enjoy the scenery we encounter on a regular basis near our WV place. This picture was actually taken from the Dolly Sods Wilderness Area.

The kids together at Christmas. They’re not all here. Amy’s hubby is deployed. But this is the first time in a while that Shannon, Amy, and Eric have all been together with us at the same time. (That’s Eric’s girlfriend, Kelsey, on the right. She’s a real sweetie.) It was nice having them all here relaxing and enjoying each other’s company. I was enjoying it, that’s for sure.

And finally, Hubby and me right after climbing the Jaufenpass on motorcycles during our tour in Europe. I’m with my favorite guy on the trip of a lifetime. What more could a girl ask for?

There’s no way for words to describe what it felt like to ride on the Jaufenpass. For me, this was my favorite part of the whole Europe trip. It was fun, Fun, FUN! The road was technical, but not so technical that I couldn’t race through it. I think I smiled broadly the entire way, feeling like I was riding in a video game. (Wanna know what it felt like to ride the Jaufenpass [pronounced hoff en pass]? Watch the first 60 seconds of this YouTube video [not mine]. Be sure to leave the sound on so you can hear the engine scream. It gets particularly interesting around the five-minute mark as the road climbs higher and higher. You get to see what it feels like to encounter a bus coming in the opposite direction and how I wasn’t exaggerrating when I said the road hung onto the side of the mountain.)

That trip was by far the most fun vacation ever. And we’ve had some pretty cool vacations. It wasn’t just the motorcycle part either. The tour was awesome in every regard, but the week after the tour we got to visit two different sets of friends in Switzerland and Belgium. Even if we hadn’t seen more really cool stuff, seeing our friends would’ve been enough to make me happy.

Anyway… that was my 10 favorite pictures of 2010. I can’t wait to see which ones other people chose. If you’d like to see, too, visit Beth’s You Capture page.

December 30, 2010December 30, 2010

You Capture – Holiday Favorites

Those of you who saw my post the other day know that my currently deployed son-in-law is home for a brief visit.

What I did not explain is the fact that their three kids were at another grandparents’ house for a few days so they could have a little bit of adult time. They knew, once the kids saw their father, there’d be no such thing as adult time. They’ll be on him like glue. Not just any glue either. Super Glue.

I’m proud to say that my obsession with photographing or otherwise recording special family moments has completely rubbed off on Amy. It was her idea for me to accompany her to the airport so I could get pictures of the reunion. And we were both thinking about possible video opportunities. The only problem was that the kids weren’t staying at our house.

No problem. At a little after 6:00 AM, she called us (under normal circumstances, that would be a no-no) to say she was bringing her husband to our house. She dropped him off here then went and picked up the kids and brought them here, too. At Hubby’s insistence, I was positioned behind TJ with the video camera. Shannon was on the sofa with the still camera. It was Hubby’s job to answer the door and corral the kids in the foyer so they could remove their coats before coming all of the way into the house.

It worked like a charm.

Oh wait. I forgot to tell you to grab a tissue, didn’t I? Sorry!

The video is awesome, yes. But this next picture is most definitely my holiday favorite this year. Can you see the glow of happiness on each and every one of their faces?

I told Amy I thought this just might be her new favorite picture. I wonder if I was right?

As an aside… this is the sort of thing these soldiers of ours and their families, both here and abroad, have to sacrifice every day. So the next time you see a soldier, be sure to say thanks. Okay?

To see what everyone else is calling their holiday favorites, be sure to visit the You Capture page on Beth’s blog.

December 29, 2010December 29, 2010

A Little Bit of This and That

Believe it or not, I do think of y’all often. And I challenge myself constantly to come up with new and interesting stuff that will tickle your fancy.

Conglomerate Frog — Shot by Cobalt123: http://www.flickr.com/photos/cobalt/

Coming up with new and original material is not an easy thing. So I try to keep my eyes open for interesting stuff to photograph.

Sometimes I am successful. Sometimes not.

I did not shoot that cool frog photo (at left). I discovered it this morning when I was looking for clip art with a “conglomerate” theme. It come from Cobalt123’s Flickr page. There are some other cool images there, too. Be sure to check out his stuff if you have time.

The images I have managed to capture are slightly less unusual than the conglomerate rock frog, but equally as cool.

Some of them are, anyway. In my opinion. 🙂

So, without further ado, I present you with my December conglomerate of images. In no particular order.

IMG_7844 magnets — How to piss off your OCD grandchild.

Joey, our youngest grandchild, is a bit obsessive about organization. He gets it honestly (from his mother). She gets it honestly, too (from Hubby). The organization gene was apparently suppressed in my family’s bloodline.

Just like I’ve always enjoyed toying with his Mom a bit (messing up the alphabetization of canned vegetables in her kitchen cupboard is one example that comes to mind), I like to mess with Joey. He’d pushed all of his refrigerator magnets into one large group at the top, front of the fridge. He had to use a step-stool to reach. I thought it would be fun to see how long it took him to discover the message I left for him.

That evening, I got a call from Amy who immediately said, “Someone wants to talk to you.”

It was Joey. He didn’t say “hi, G” or anything. He launched right into the angry voice (picture a face LIKE THIS ONE) and said, loud and plainly, “Don’t. MOVE. My. Magnets.”

It’s okay though. It took me about three seconds to convince him that I HAD to do it because I wanted to leave him a message so he’d know that I love him and was thinking about him.

Oh, and in case you are wondering, it was less than 3 hours after he got home that he saw my little note.

IMG_8114_spinach quiche — Spinach Quiche

I’ve explained the dinner rotation thing we do at my house several times before, so I won’t go into it in too much detail. The week before Christmas was Shannon’s turn. It’s nice having someone new in the line-up. Especially since she likes to cook lots of different stuff. It’s like eating at a new restaurant (a good one!) five nights a week.

By now, she knows most of our various likes and dislikes, too. Notice I said “most.” That’s important. Because Shannon actually made me eat quiche, which I’ve always hated. It’s a texture thing. The thought of biting through what to me has always felt like thick, curdled eggs was enough to turn my stomach. The whole way to the table, I kept telling myself, “Don’t vomit. Don’t vomit. Don’t vomit.” Which is why my mind was a bit too preoccupied to think about taking any “before” pictures.

But, because I’m a big girl (as in mostly grown up), I tried a small piece. And guess what? It was actually very good. You may have already figured that one out from the picture above though. Shannon said the secret is the spinach-to-egg ratio. Keeping the amount of spinach high helps with the texture tremendously.

Speaking of being a big girl…

IMG_7854_shortbread — A FOUR pound, six ounce tin of shortbread.

Now, I LOVE good shortbread. But I never buy it because it’s expensive. I could probably splurge and fork over $1 per ounce (about the going rate for these things) every now and then, but it’s the principle of the thing. Essentially that’s about $1 per cookie. So, when I saw this four pound, six ounce tin of Walker’s shortbread cookies at Costco for less than $19, I thought I’d died and gone to Heaven. That’s 73.6 ounces of deliciousness that I just could NOT pass up. Heck, I even went back and bought a couple extra boxes to keep in the pantry. It’s a good thing I saved money on those, ’cause I’m going to need to buy some bigger pants soon.

IMG_6480_grasshopper — Big-ass Grasshopper

I can’t remember if I shared this picture before or not. I saw this huge grasshopper on one of the plants in front of our house. Months ago, obviously. But I like it, so am sharing it here, too.

IMG_8163_snowman balls — Cadbury Christmas Balls. Yum.

I actually took this picture with the theme of holiday magic in mind. Because after my family quickly devoured one bag of these bad boys from the candy dish, more “magically” appeared. I tried various angles. There’s just something about this next shot that makes me smile…

Doesn’t it look like Santa and the one snowman are staring down at the other snowman who appears to have been eviscerated with all of his green, red, and white innards showing?

Maybe it’s just me.

Hubby took this picture a couple of months ago. K and Belle like to sit on Mama’s lap. It makes it sort of hard to use my laptop computer, but I have to let them bond with me sometimes, right? I wasn’t actually sleeping. How can you be so sure? No one ever takes pictures of me unless I say, “Person, will you take a picture of me?”

This frog desk organizer was a Christmas gift from the grand kids. It’s tacky as all get-out, but right up my alley. He can hold an assortment of binder clips, pens and even a roll of tape. How’s that for handy? It makes for a pretty funny picture, too.

Speaking of funny pictures… there’s this foot-long hot dog place sort of near me that I only drive past occasionally. It sits at an intersection where it never fails that I catch the red light. Every time I sit there, all I can do is stare longingly at the front of the store and its mascot, which is prominently displayed on the curb in front of the place, because I always seem to be by myself. Or with Hubby. And he would just think the whole idea too stupid to bother with.

Last night was different. I needed to exchange some Christmas gifts and Shannon was with me. I caught the light, as usual, but this time when I looked at Ann’s my mood brightened. Shannon was there and could actually take my picture!

We did the clothing exchange first then on the way out of the mall stopped at Ann’s for this…

anns_famous_footlong — ToadMama with the Ann's Dari Creme mascot. Finally!

I love cool (fun!) statues like that. So I can hardly resist getting a picture with as many as I can. I love hot dogs, too, and theirs are awesome. But I wasn’t even slightly hungry at the time.

Yes, I could have just asked someone to take the picture for me, but I was afraid saying “will you take a picture of me with the giant, foot-long hot dog” to a total stranger might launch me into hysterics.

It's not what it is, but what it represents.

This key fob was a Christmas present from Hubby. What it “represents” is his final agreement that yes even though there are cheaper bikes out there, we deserve to get ourselves the ones we REALLY want.

Really, really.

These were the motorcycles we rode in Europe and LOVED. The mountains of West Virginia ain’t The Alps, but there are plenty of fantastic roads and just as many dirt roads we have previously been a bit hesitant to explore. (You try riding a 900-pound, bulky motorcycle through dirt and gravel once. It’s a bit disconcerting to say the least.)

I don’t know what’s more exciting… knowing I’ll be riding a new motorcycle soon or thinking about all the cool new gear I get to buy to go along with that new bike. There’s a certain image we have to uphold you know.

Speaking of new images… the other night while we were at a friend’s house, having a grand old time if I do say so myself, Shannon mentioned the latest fashion trend to us. Jeggings.

jeggings — Jeggings = stretchy denim leggings

While doing the exchange thing last night, we saw this sign. I just HAD to get a picture to share with y’all.

Here’s another shot I HAD to share. It’s not the most flattering self-portrait, but Meg hung out on my lap for the longest time Christmas night and I wanted to take a picture. She’s my crazy, old girl. (The dogs call me “Mama”, not ToadMama. They have a hard time with the tee sound.)

And speaking of Meg, I’ve also been collecting pictures of her in her bed again. I’ve never seen one dog lay in so many different positions! But I’ll save those for another time. This post is already WAY too long.

If you actually made it to the end, be sure to leave a comment to let me know. Please?