The other day, as I was cooking dinner, I walked into the family room to say something to Hubby. Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed some unusual light in the foyer.
When I turned to look more closely, this is what I saw.
Blue Shadow
The setting sun was coming in the front window just so. Lighting up that blue vase and casting a very cool (in my opinion) blue shadow on the wall.
I ended our conversation abruptly so I could go and grab the camera. That’s one of those things you probably will never see again unless you have a lot of time to sit and wait for it to happen. But what if it is cloudy? What if the Earth has rotated just far enough that the sun is at a slightly different angle?
It was a hard image to capture. I wanted to be able to see the flowers, but I also wanted to see the shadow. The image above used the flash.
The image below did not use a flash…
More-intense Blue Shadow
The flowers are a bit blurry in the second image. In low-light shots, even the slightest movement will cause blur. But I think it’s clear enough. You can certainly see the blue shadow better.
It may not be an image I would frame, but I think it is interesting enough to share with you guys.
One of the things I like most about participating in memes and other blog challenges is meeting new people and discovering new things. The You Capture photography meme is what led me to some of my now-favorite bloggie friends.
You know I like photography, right? I don’t mean just taking pictures. I mean looking at other people’s work, too. Vacation pictures, family pictures, artsy pictures, whatever. Maybe I’m just nosy? Anyway, one of the coolest things about You Capture is getting to see some amazing stuff. Snippets of people’s lives. Views of how other people see the world.
I just think it’s neat. That’s how I found the goat.
That shot made me chortle. (Now, there’s an underused word for you.) I just HAD to share it.
Bonnie Blackboer (from Eden Hill's Blog)
Here are some other entries I really liked this week:
The lady at Coneflower Ranch experimented with something called painting with light. I just LOVE the third shot with the bottles. That is definitely a technique I’ll have to explore.
And I really dig this Batman and Robin shot (scroll down when you get to Naptime Notes).
Who would have ever thunk bubbly fruit could be so awesome? Look what Chic Homeschool Mama did with it.
The lady from Girasole Farm captured a riveting barbed wire shot and a pretty flower, too.
How could I not love the lady at Gone Walkabout 2, who packed home 53 pounds of rocks from a vacation to Scotland? (Have I ever told you about my rocks?)
There was even a graphic sax image from Awesomeville (those crazy Brits).
And I really enjoyed visiting the snowy forest with Who is Tiffany?
There’s a cool stack of buttons and other great work at Fluffy Bunnies, too.
Anyone can participate in You Capture. Whether you have a fancy camera or not.
It’s fun.
I discovered something else indirectly through You Capture. You know how that goes, following a link to a link to a link.
Despair, Inc., the company responsible for images, as seen below, which have been appearing on Facebook quite a bit lately.
Their collection of demotivational images is perfect for people like me who get so sick and tired of seeing all the sugary, happy-happy-joy-joy stuff people come up with.
This snippet is from their website…
At Despair, Inc., we believe it’s time people face the truth- that any kind of motivation you can buy isn’t worth owning, and in the end will produce even greater demoralization. Given that inevitable fact, we’d like to invite you to skip the delusions that motivational products induce and head straight for the disappointment that follows!
Here’s another one…
It isn’t just the sarcasm that gets me with these images. It’s the shiny-on-the-surface, what you see is not what you get aspect of it. There’s been so much of this motivational crap plastered about, who really takes time to read the small print?
Maybe these images will make folks stop to take a closer look at things again.
Another week has gone by and I didn’t get out on any good photo expeditions. Sigh…
The theme for this week’s You Capture is COLORFUL.
I could have just walked around my house and taken pictures of stuff. Like the big bag of plain, dark-chocolate M&Ms. Before I ate them. Or crayons. If I had some crayons.
But I didn’t. That would just be boring.
One day soon I’ll be able to share pics of my colorful new office. But that’s another blog post…
I did capture a couple of cool images worthy of sharing in this week’s challenge. Both actually feature store windows here in town. I added some texture to both images because I just felt like being different.
That first image captures a large painting in one of several of Warrenton’s cool art galleries. Some people may have tried to capture the shot without the reflections. But I like the reflections. I think they frame the image nicely. Especially the tree in the upper left-hand corner.
The love shot, which is certainly colorful, is from the window of the ceramics store.
Our love affair with this town continues…
To see what other folks captured this week, pop on over to Beth’s blog to peruse the work of the many good photographers who participated.
Mother Nature has been teasing us. All winter. If you can call it winter. We’ve hardly had any really cold days, much less measurable frozen precipitation. Of course, those two things are pretty closely related.
Friday night into Saturday, we had a winter weather event. First it snowed. Not much, unfortunately. Then it rained. And it was cold enough that the rain became freezing rain. Which left a densely compacted layer of ice.
Yes, ice.
Yuck.
Snow, I love. Ice? It’s no fun. Just ask my dogs who missed out on both of their walks yesterday and one walk already today. Things are just too slippery.
They’d be fine, of course. It’s me I’m worried about.
Here are some shots of our world, which I took yesterday morning.
The Front PorchIcy BushOur SidewalkAnother Icy BushClean Street, Icy SidewalksCold ManCold, Surprised Lion
This shot is my favorite. I love the expression on the lion’s face. It looks to me like he is saying, “Help! I’m frozen and I can’t get up!”
Warrenton CourthouseNow THAT Looks ColdIcy SidewalkAccumulated IceIcebergs?
Look at the roof of that car to get a better idea of the thickness of the ice.
Frozen GreensSouth Sixth StreetOur Driveway
It’s a good thing the streets got plowed. Otherwise, they would have looked like our driveway and I wouldn’t have gone anywhere yesterday.
It’s still cold today, so not much has melted. Tomorrow, it’s supposed to warm up. They say February will be our month for snow. Will we have another Birthday Blizzard maybe? That would be awesome. NOTE: If you follow the Birthday Blizzard link, you should watch the video. It’s one of my all-time favorites.
For me, 2011 will forever be remembered as a crazy year. Really. So much happened. Talk about your ups and downs. Most of it was good. Some was not-so-good. Any way you slice it, though, it was busy. As a result, I didn’t take very many pictures.
The hundreds of pictures from my two-week vacation don’t count. I’m talking about the sort of pictures where I just walk around with my camera and shoot. Well, there’s usually more to it than that. If I was just shooting, I’d have a bunch of crap. Photography takes thought. And time. Often both.
I’m going to do better in 2012. I’ve missed my little photo outings.
Before I jump in to 2012, I figured I should recap 2011 by posting my top 11 images. It was supposed to be my top 10, but I think 11 sounds better since we’re talking about 2011. Besides, even in a year where I didn’t shoot that many pictures, do you have any idea how hard it is narrowing the field down to my favorite 11?
No? It’s hard, trust me. But I did it. Forget ranking them favorite to least favorite, it was hard enough just trying to figure out which 11 to share.
Here they are, in no particular order.
Liquor
Plain or Peanut?
Bud Bug
Harold the Fence Lizard
Alice the Foster Puppy
Friendly Tree Frog
Water Play
The Fisherman
Ruins at Capitol Reef National Park
Fun on the Slide
Our Girls
This last shot (below) doesn’t count as one of my top 11 because I didn’t take it. But it’s a picture of me that I actually like. So I wanted to include it here, too.
ToadMama in Sunflowers on Antelope Island
To come up with this top 11, first I had to gather all of my favorite images to sort through. It was a small pile. Only 146. If you’d like to see all of them in a slide show, CLICK HERE.
Wonder what my top 10 for 2010 were? Follow that link if you want to see them.
It seems a bit weird, having been back from vacation for more than a month now, to launch into a series of “here’s what we did on our vacation” posts. So I won’t.
I will share a few pics, though. Just because I like them.
Colorado National Monument
Colorado National Monument was one of our surprise finds. We actually only went there because we were in the neighborhood. None of us really had any idea just how breathtaking the place was.
This is not the sort of landscape you picture when you think of Colorado, right? As you can see on this map, it’s pretty close to Utah. We only did a drive-thru visit, really. We were on our way to Moab after all. But we HAD to stop and take some pictures.
Capitol Reef National Park
The next pleasant surprise was Capitol Reef National Park. I mean, how interesting could a “reef” be in the desert Southwest?
VERY interesting.
Capitol Reef National Park
The scenery was amazing. If you’ve never been out West, it’s hard to comprehend just how much wide open space there is. And fantastic scenery. It’s a bit mind-boggling, really.
Capitol Reef National Park
That image immediately above is one of my favorite landscape captures.
Capitol Reef National Park
This is another of my favorites. I love rocks anyway. Especially red rocks. And the lines, angles, and colors captured here really intrigue me.
If you click on any of those images, you’ll get a larger version to examine more closely if you like.
These are just a few of the really good images I am thinking of entering into a calendar contest sponsored by my employer. The problem is, I can only submit ONE shot.
Do you have any idea how hard it is to choose? Sigh…
