Friday Shoot Out !!

I've joined a group of photographers that participate in "Friday Shoot Out". A topic is given and one has to post that theme on Friday. The theme this week is 'Eating Outside'. I'm new to this group so I hope I did the assignment correctly.

Yesterday, a beautiful day, was the perfect day to eat outside. Nothing says summer more than watermelon! Here, my niece and I have fun trying to capture this summer time tradition.


Below is a photo taken on Friday for another project I am involved in. For those who have not yet caught onto my blog, this challenge is to take a photo every day for 365 days in a row. Unlike yesterday, today was rainy...AGAIN. Passing by the tennis courts I was struck by the midday fog forming over the warm courts.

Jar of Plenty

Two photos, two different styles. The last photo was taken with a Lens-Baby. Sorry Jayme, the candle assignment, though a great idea, isn't going to work for me today. I promise I'll catch up with it!!

Must Be Sunshine Somewhere!

Early Morning on the Finger Lakes

A few more pictures from my trip to the Finger Lakes.

"Christine"

An early start to the gym allowed me to pass the parking lot that I mentioned a few days ago. It hosts, every now and then, an "old" car for sale. It's all I found today, with the rain and clouds!

The Finger Lakes

Recently, I traveled to the Finger Lake Region of NY. I found it very difficult to capture the lakes, with the sun reflecting off the surface. I found it challenging to capture the colors in the sky and in the landscape during the brightest part of the day. Sometimes we photographers just can't be at a place at the perfect time of the day, so we do our best. These were my best on that day.

Hiking As Friends and Photographers

A terrific hike to a beautiful waterfall and a great dinner afterward.

The Message Is Simple

"It's The Climb"

My photo taken today, Sunday.

Finding a balance and moving forward. There will always be "danger" and a slippery track from time to time, but as Miley Cyrus says, "it doesn't matter what's on the other side, it's the climb."

Back To School

Traveling back to Cortland was a big thrill for me as I never really took pictures of the place. I have pictures of friends and fun; however, I never took photos of the places that were important to me. The two houses shown were my first two apartments ever and the only two I lived in at Cortland. The bars and restaurants are good memories along with the academic buildings of course. It was a good trip. I had gone back a number of years ago but I think it was too soon as I was filled with sadness then. I think I still wanted to be in college! Now, no sadness at all. I'm WAY too old to think I would be a college student walking around campus and living the college life. Cortland is one of the places I stopped to visit in the last few days. I will tell more later about my other trip. Incidentally, the New York Jets are making Cortland their summer training city. A big thrill for Cortland! A bigger thrill for me if the team was the Washington Redskins, but I'm happy for Cortland nonetheless.

Traveling

I'm traveling but here is a photo indicating where I am.
I'll be home tomorrow and then I'll show more pictures.

1,2,3 Which Do You Like?

First Photo- Exactly as I saw it


Second Photo- Blk/Wht with a infrared filter

Third Photo- Super Saturated and Contrast

There is a place, on my way to the gym, that seems to be setting out a new "old car" every few weeks to sell. I have photographed two of these vehicles so far. Thank you to those people! They have no idea how much help I am getting for this photo-blog contest. Also, I'm learning to wake up early because by 11 the sun is gone! Soon I will be photographing boats! Have a good day!

Don't Push My Buttons!

My mini-assignment for Thursday is to photograph buttons. Well I found ONE button in an old drawer!
I decided early on that I would create modern art with the theme of buttons. In the background is a photo
of what appears to be many buttons of various sizes. That is a trick of multiple exposure and zooming in and out to
generate different sizes. On top of that background are various photos that I took with that same button. Here I used
filters of various types including cloning, bubble wrap, swirling and texture. I'm sure I won't win an award with my
concept; however, with one button, I think I did pretty well. I look forward to seeing what the other photo-group
participants came up with!

Flower Power- Part 1

As I stated with the other flowers, below this post, I really like these. I'd love your feedback.

Flower Power

I'm so excited about these! I hope you all like.

Cemetery Art

One Must Have Sunshine And Freedom

Above, I tried to place the butterfly in the corner to take advantage of the shape of a butterfly's wings. Not bad, considering how quickly I had to snap the shutter! Not sure if I'm explaining myself well or if you can see what I tried to do? Below I inverted the butterfly on Photoshop. I think this trick works well with metallic objects and black and white photos; however, I like this image nonetheless.



Finally, I chose to create an image of the entire butterfly with no alteration whatsoever. I had so many other ideas but wouldn't you know the butterfly had better things to do! I took about twenty five images in 30 seconds. I also would have preferred if the butterfly had landed on a flower or something more attractive but again the subject doesn't always cooperate! An unlikely find at Walgreens, this butterfly was flying around a construction area. Who cares that all those workers wondered what the hell I was doing...get back to work!


The butterfly counts not months but moments, and has time enough. ~Rabindranath Tagore

Waterfalls Galore!

A beautiful hike today near Duanesburg. A "short" hike and reasonably flat, this was enjoyable. All I did with the photo above and below is to slow the shutter speed a bit. With no tripod, getting the photos sharp took some patience as I braced the camera on rocks, logs, etc.

The photo above shows the larger of the two falls. Beyond that log is a swimming hole which was being enjoyed by a woman who wouldn't have appreciated me taking her photo. I had to get down low and photograph with the log in my view. It is such a small space I doubt that I would have been able to get the entire waterfall had I moved closer, so it all worked out.

The falls above and below are the same; however, I added a glow filter to the image below.

I love days like today! These memories are what I cling to in order to make it through the winter!

Fill' Er Up!

I came across this old-fashioned gas pump today. Is there a better subject to convert to Sepia, adding texture as well?

Early Morning In The Garden