This And That

Above is a picture that I took yesterday of my niece Megan. If you enlarge, you will see uncle Steve taking the photo. Below is a photo from yesterday as well. A different viewpoint from the same flower.

Below, a photo of a plate (not very creative today) where my mother is from. She grew up in this city, named Neunkircher or Neunkirchen. It has all the charms of an industrial, Germany city. I look forward to interviewing my mother for my yearly, special project. More details on this project coming soon.

Beauty

Sunday Morning In The Mohawk Valley

Hop To It

A fun time with family today. We celebrated the end of the school year and the success of all four of my nieces. All are moving on to the next grade level with accomplishment. I'm proud of each one. Knowing I needed a picture, and knowing that my nieces would not want a rain-soaked photo, I was happy to find a bunny in the garden...so I hopped to capturing this image.

My nieces Megan and Lindsey recently saved a rabbit's life..could this be the same?

Laying A Wreath

In memory of Michael Jackson...ok, not really. It does seem fitting though when one looks at the media coverage of the "King of Pop". You would think a major world leader has been assassinated. Besides, we all know Stevie Nicks is much more influential on music than Jackson.

Maybe this wreath is better served honoring Farrah. She, at least, tried to show the bravery and dignity that comes with fighting cancer. Incidentally, is it wreath? or wreathe? Spell check likes both so perhaps it is a word with two spellings? I vote for Farah because I had her poster as a kid and it had a big impact upon me!

UPDATE- I've gotten a vote from my friend Trish for Ed McMahon

Diagonal Assignment

Above is the assignment for today. It's a bit lame but I was on a field trip all day, and a dance at night...no time for creativity.

Below, I managed to photograph this scene to and from school today. I like it. I don't know why but I like the clarity and colors.

Two Views Of A Shack

Which do you prefer?

Heavenly Light

In the picture above I purposely cropped out some of the sun so that it wasn't too overpowering for the image. I then added some 'noise' to the photo to give the statue a bit more texture. The bluish tint and the shadows were natural, caused by the nearby woods and indirect sunlight. Below, you can see the sun between the angel's wings. This photo took me a while in order to capture the correct exposure. A silhouette was the most logical outcome but I kept playing with the settings so that I could get the angel to have more detail and brightness.

Gorgeous Morning

Early Morning Sunshine

I went for a dreamy look because at 6:30am, aren't we all still dreaming?
Maybe enlarge the image for full effect.

The "Dark Side" Of An Aging City

Driving around for some picture ideas of Amsterdam.

Like Madonna...like Cher....there is JENNA

Brave...Silly...Sassy...Smart...Unique

Jamie's Last Soccer Game

It was a muddy day but it didn't dampen the spirit
of this team! Go Dragons!

Sweet Girl

A sweet girl and her dirty dog. Without much hope she goes out looking for her puppy who is lost. She finds her best friend dirtied from its experience. Reunited they could care less about the messy state that they find themselves in. They have one another and that's all they need.

These Are A Few Of My Favorite Things

My coffee and nature...my favorite things!

Church

Quiet, Country Church.

I'm still experimenting with the filters and different looks.

Patterns

My goal today was to take an image of patterns and/or shapes.
Not a prize winner, but interesting?

Morning Glory

As the sun came up I noticed rays streaming down into the fields. These fields are on my way to work and they are one more reason I get up and head to work much earlier than I need to. The scenery is beautiful. If you look carefully, the bottom image is a portion of the one above. With a few minutes between photographing each, the look is completely different. What an enormous difference five minutes makes.

Albany, New York

I wanted to focus the photo on the sky and clouds rather than the buildings. I think one can look at a skyline and see buildings with a pretty sky in the background OR one can see sky and the power of earth, leaving the buildings to play a secondary role. I wanted the sky to overpower the buildings. I'm not sure I am stating this the way I thought of it. I'm not even sure if I pulled off what I wanted...but here it is.

Massachusetts

On my way to a hike I came across this scene. Who wouldn't stop and photograph this! I was so happy with the dramatic clouds and the winding road. Coming back to NY I found darker clouds so I made a good decision to go East.

Nature's Colors

One of the things that I like about photography as an art is that the artist can now manipulate the colors to reflect his mood, style and symbolic interpretation. Above I altered the image to demonstrate a dream-like view where each bit of foliage takes on its own uniqueness. Looking at an entire scene of greenery can suddenly explode into various colors when looking at that scene in terms of temperature, allowing the areas that are the most warm and/or cool to radiate a different glowing color. Below, the simple green path that I once again walked upon is transformed into a dream-like winter scene with glowing leaves and frosty foliage.

As a painting or sculpture is the result of an artist's perspective so too is an image taken by a photographer whose goal is to evoke emotion with his image.

Beautiful People - Many Broken Promises

Arguably the most photographed President and First Lady in U.S. history, the Kennedys have been portrayed as a beautiful couple with enormous public appeal. They brought into the White House many promises of creating a "better" America. Scandal and stories of corruption plagued the administration. Rumors of affairs rocked the marriage. Assassination ended the dream.

To accomplish my image I photographed a poster. I then turned the photo into an old-fashion photo by converting the color image into black and white. I added "noise" to give the photo some texture. Finally I added a sepia tone to the image. After adding text, layer by layer, I "flattened" the layers to produce the above image.

Looking Up!

Most of the day was rather cloudy/dreary; however, when I was able to get free from the prison, which is what we Americans call our public educational system, I found a very nice, warm sunshine. For me, the day was looking up and I think nature agrees with me!

Sending Angels To All

I take a lot of statue photos so I changed this one up a bit. Using filters, I liked this look. I like the purple behind the angel. Go easy on me if you do not like this.

Enlarge For More Of An Impact

I was surprised to find the sun shining after work as I thought it was going to be cloudy. I decided to take advantage of the great weather and take a walk after grading 130 essays today for New York State (morons!). It was a great walk minus the prehistoric-sized mosquitoes that drained gallons of blood from my body.

I was not the only person on the trail as you can see below. I made the image a watercolor which can be better seen enlarged. Otherwise, it just looks blurry. Please enlarge.

Early Morning Walk

Beautiful gardens are found when one is looking for them.

Nature Lover

I found these treasures as I began to panic that I wouldn't find a good image to add to my "photo of the day" collection. Luckily, I found something to show!

Wink

A sidelong glance,
A funny remark!
Glittering eyes
Meeting in the dark.
Fear of what’s to come
Glad of what is here.
Hoping, wishing, believing
We will be as one.
- David Bennett