Amy and I have a new theme for the week (or at least 5 days of it) - the 5 senses! We are going to try and do the same sense on each day with our first day being sight. I had to work quite a bit tonight, so I didn't have time to be too creative - but I like the focus on this shot and the slight reflection it gives on the surface.
Getting late after I posted all my backlog pictures from the weekend, so I had to quickly find something. I thought the kids play tools were fun - the depth of field in this photo makes it more interesting than just a bunch of toys!
For those of you who have been following my blog regularly - you know that I had my very first triathlon today! Of course I had to take my camera (maybe a bad idea - but I HAD to). I took a number of pictures before the race started - then took my camera back to the car. This is the back of my leg - they write your age on your calf (no clear reason why - I never saw anyone really checking my calf) so of course I had to take some pictures of it. I liked the perspective of this one with the rest of my equipment in the transition area. It also fits the blue theme as my shirt and the towel are blue!
Cheater day - I ended up on upwards of 7 conference calls today (on a Saturday - ugggg) and we had to run to Lake Geneva to pick up our triathlon packets, so I simply ran out of time to take a photo. This one was from a few days ago when I was shooting the Marquette Interchange for blue week. There was this sign post that has fallen over and the grass and weeds and flowers were growing up around it. I thought the mix of the two was interesting.
I couldn't let the week of blue go by without posting a picture of the blue sky! I was on a number of conference calls on Friday afternoon while I was working from home, I decided to grab my camera and take some pictures while I was sitting on my patio! The sky was mostly clear (I love the faint white cloud in this photo) and the tree gives it a little dimension.
Ahhh so tonight Ray and I went for a bike ride before our tri on Sunday (I accidentally made him fall off his bike clipped into his pedals - ooops, I feel bad). Overall we did great. It was still bloody hot out today - as it has been all week (90's and humid) so after our ride we decided to shower and get margaritas! Yum!! By the time we got home, I had to scrounge for a photo - luckily I have blue drinking glasses. Not overly original, but I did love the light on the curves of the glass.
Theme Blue Day 3. For a few months now I have been wanting to take some photos of the new Marquette Interchange in downtown Milwaukee. The underside of the ramps are blue - so I thought it would be a great subject for this weeks theme! Talk about being blue - try 5 years of closed ramps as this puppy went through a major overhaul! As far as interchanges go - it's pretty nice now. This pic reminded me of roller coasters! I did some minor PS tweaking in the blue channels.
Day 2 of Theme Blue, and what could be bluer than blue jeans? As one of my favorite fashion items in my wardrobe, I thought they would make great subjects. I liked how these turned out - interesting perspective. No Photoshop on these tonight. 
Day 1 of a new weekly theme - Blue. I had my last Photoshop class tonight so I didn't have a lot of time to get a photo in. I stopped at Starbucks before class and wouldn't you know it - the building was blue (or blue-grey, but it will do). This could have also fit last weeks theme as one of my favorite things! I bumped up the blue channel in Photoshop just a tad for this one.
Favorite Things Day 7 - Photography! OK, so you may be trying to figure out the correlation between a photo of a barn and photography - let me explain. Since I have been doing this project, I have found myself looking around at everyday things and wondering how they would look in a photo - and I love that. Ray and I went for a run on a back country road this morning and I saw this barn and wanted to come back to get some shots of it. I especially wanted to see how they would look in black and white. I did some editing in Photoshop in adjusting the colors as well as adding a layer mask (woo hoo - new technique!) to make the clouds pop more (they are very subtle in the original). So much more to learn and play with in PS - but I'm getting there.
Favorite Things Day 6 - Sun, water, outdoors! I am spending the weekend up north and today we went out on the lake to fish. Well, I couldn't fish as I don't have a license, so I just took pictures and got a little sun. I liked this one a lot as it focuses on just the steering wheel but you can see all the activities going on around it - primarily the fishing! I also had fun using my 50mm lens some more - I had to make some adjustments to not overexpose the photo in the bright sunlight.
Favorite Things Day 5 - Coffee! I love coffee! I have a glass vase filled with coffee beans in my kitchen, so I just spread them on the counter and grabbed my close up lens. I particularly liked the one bean just right of center that's in focus.
Favorite Things Day 4 - running. As the days tick by, I'm getting closer to my first triathlon (about 2 week away!) and my first half marathon (a month away). I'm starting to worry that I need to get a few more good training sessions in - so we went for a nice run tonight - probably about 6 miles. I thought my shoes would be a good subject for the night. And as a side note - I'm loving my 50mm 1.4 lens!
Official cheater day - sorry, I have not had many. Ended up running errands after work, then out for dinner to celebrate Ray's birthday, then to meet friends for some drinks. When we got home, the neighbors were outside so we had a few more drinks with them. Needless to say, I ran out of time for a photo. So, this is one of my favorites from a photography class that I took last summer. And wine IS one of my favorite things!
I was trying some sun ray shots this afternoon - I wasn't getting the length of rays that I was hoping for, but this one still turned out pretty good. The clouds add to the image as well.
Post wedding, hotel bar, cosmos and photography.
I attended Tiffany and Jim's wedding on Friday and was able to take a few pictures. This opportunity reinforced how horrible I am taking pictures in low light. I still haven't figured out the external flash, and my built is just doesn't do that great. Anyhow, knowing that I was not going to be getting tack sharp photos inside, I just went with the fun of the movement. This was one of my favorites of their first dance.
I left work after 6pm today, so I figured it would be just fine to jump on the freeway... wrong decision. So I was sitting in traffic and my camera was in the back seat so I thought I would grab it and take some shots while I was driving (err.... sitting in traffic). Needless to say it was moderately challenging as traffic was moving slowly and I still had to pay attention. Since I was driving I didn't have the opportunity to evaluate the shots I was getting very closely - so this is the best I got. I'm sure the guy in the Honda thought I was nuts... oh well - I am!
I started out tonight trying to take a photo of a colorful ceiling fan that was on - I thought I could get some interesting movement shots. That didn't work, so I resorted to pic's of my swirling wine glass. Overall I think they are fun!
I wasn't sure what I wanted to take pictures of tonight. I ended up outside shooting a small bistro table. The grids on the table turned out better that I had hoped, and I also did a little editing in Photoshop. I brightened it a bit in curves, and adjusted the reds to give it some warmer color. I don't think the reds are as vibrant in the web posting, but still an interesting abstract.
Taking the dogs for a walk today took us by few schools. On this playground, there were a two baseball diamonds and some kids were playing on one of them. This one was empty, but I thought view down the fence of the benches gave a sense of anticipation of all the kids that will playing and watching games at this diamond throughout the summer.
On Sunday night I was once again searching around the office for a subject. I have been wanting to get out and take some pictures of our clock tower (the largest 4-sided clock in the world) so I went over to the roof of one of our parking structures to see if I could get a decent shot. It turned out to be a bit misty outside. I didn't have my tripod, but there was enough light from the faces of the clock to compensate (along with my higher ISO). The objects on the ledge of the building interrupt the photo, but I still thought the look of the haze with the lights from the clock and spotlight on the flag were interesting.
As you may have read in my "so sorry I have not posted this weekend note", I was at work all weekend - literally. So Saturday left me walking around a city of cubicles looking for something moderately interesting to shoot. Low and behold, I found a desk full of fun origami! Not really gallery worthy - but still fun!
On Friday I got to sneak out of work for a few hours to get some dinner and a few photos. It was a beautiful day (unlike all the ones since) and I decided to head over to an area of downtown that has some beautiful churches. This wasn't even one of the ones I had in mind initially, but I loved the angels guarding the tower. I even did a little editing of this shot in Photoshop - I used a sepia filter (75%) and did a little adjustment in the curves. I had so many nice shots and I kept debating if it would look better in enhanced color, sepia or black and white. I settled on this one. I'll try and start adding my photo specs as well...
Met friends out for dinner - mexican and margaritas! I thought the patio was fun with all the umbrellas in various colors. All of the diners didn't fine me as interesting, as they were making faces because they thought I was taking pictures of them. I wasn't.
I've run by these tracks a number of times and thought they would be a nice subject for a photo one day. The sun was starting to go down and the light was hitting this bridge and showing off the red-orange in the beams.
Sick as a dog today - got a cold over the weekend that started out slow and hit me over the head hard on Monday night. After a few good doses of cold medicine, I felt a bit better and did get my picture in for the day. This is from some bushes that are in my back yard. Not sure what they are, but they have tons of these fuchsia buds all over them. This was taken with my close up lens - has a dreamy fog around the edges.
The little bike looked so cute sitting on the yard with the helmet hanging on the handle bars.
