Project 52 Week 36

I love my field. Well, it isn't really MY field, but I think of it that way. I see it as I drive home every day and I see it when I step out my front door. It changes with each season and it can't help being beautiful all year round. Just a few steps away from all of this openness. I try to read books out on my porch but often lower them and just stare at my field. Wouldn't you?

Project 52 Week 32

Boy I'm really terrible at keeping up with my weeks in this project 52. But I'm doing my best. :)

Project 52 Week 26

I love this time of year when I can sit out on my porch reading a book or writing my book. Every so often though I look up at the sky and think, "wow! That is gorgeous!" and I hop off my chair and run for my camera hoping I'm not too late to get to the field before losing the light. I wonder if my husband ever pokes his head out the door looking for me?

Project 52 Week 22

When life is difficult or chaotic I love to turn to nature. It brings peace to look at the beautiful things in nature, their complexities, their colors and marvel at the wonder of creation. I have always been terrified at the thought of riding a horse (although I finally did it for the first time two years ago). Yet despite my fear of horses, I think they are beautiful and magnificent animals.

Project 52 Week 21

This last weekend was my oldest nephew's wedding. Although I was not the wedding photographer I had fun taking as many pictures as I could because, well, I love taking pictures. This is one of my favorites.

Project 52 Week 20

Last night I was out watching the kids play basketball for our family night activity (Sheriff's choice) and I saw the sun going down over the mountains. It wasn't a spectacular sunset by any stretch of the imagination but what caught my attention was the pretty tree in front of my neighbor's house that was in front of the green field with the mountain in the background. I quickly ran for my camera but the light was fading fast. What resulted was more of a silhouette style picture.

I took the same picture though and lightened it and saturated it to see what the result would be...

Project 52 Week 19

I know, I know, I have been terrible at keeping up with project 52 but in all fairness the site I chose for project 52 gave up on ME. They stopped posting inspiring ideas for pictures and as I'm not an original thinker I couldn't come up with my own ideas for pictures.

Until yesterday.

I was driving my two younger boys two school... you know... the ones who got kicked off the bus for not following the safety rules. Anywhooo. As I was driving them to school and repeating to myself over and over "only a few more minutes and you will have peace and quiet" (relative peace and quiet... I still have 2 1/2 year old Sunshine... but try having a morning with Smiley and Giggles and you will understand what I am talking about).

It was then that I looked up at the mountains and I thought "where the heck is my camera!!!" I wanted to turn around right then and get it but that would mean more time in the car with two naughty boys so I bit my nails the whole time hoping the beautiful view would last until I dropped them off and ran home for my Canon Rebel to capture what I was seeing. Of course the beautiful rays of sun shining through a brief gap in the clouds were gone but I still managed to get a couple of pretty pictures. If you look closely at the first picture you can see a bird flying across. I think clouds and mountains are beautiful. Frankly I think so many things are beautiful but I haven't quite figured out how to capture what my eye sees yet. Perhaps one day...

Week 13 of Project 52

I know, I know, you are wondering... where did weeks 11 and 12 go???? I'm wondering the exact same thing!!!! Life does that though doesn't it. You blink and it's gone never to be retrieved. You know you lived it because it was a chaotic blur of cubscouts, scouts, moms and muffins (don't even get me started on that because the dads get doughnuts), two birthday parties planned and executed, multiple doctors appointments, multiple temper tantrums experienced and diffused (not me of course although I felt like it on more than one occasion), a broken dryer (still not fixed) and multiple nights of Sunshine waking in the night crying. Thanks Sunshine... I love you anyways!

So hopefully I'm back on track with week 13 and the topic of Green. With Sunshine and her powerful 2 year-old personality... you know the stage... "mine"!!!! And my seven-year-old who is still in the same stage. They have to have their separate boxes of crayons. I didn't let them see me combining their greens momentarily or all you know what would have broken loose...

My kids need to lighten up a little. Wait... did I just say that? hahaha!!!

Weeks 9 and 10 of Project 52

I am combining weeks 9 and 10 into one picture.
Week 9 is Loud
Week 10 is Quiet.
I took this picture of the kids on a day off of school at an aquarium. Of course many other moms had the same idea that I had and also took their kids to the same aquarium. The noise level was incredible and I had to shout for my kids to hear me when it was time to move along to the next station. The serenity of this picture is VERY deceiving. Yet when I look at the fish swimming around in the tank I imagine it to be very quiet for them inside (inbetween the moments of children tapping on the glass of course).

Week 8 of Project 52

This one was a little tougher for me as the topic was Fall. Now if was in the fall season it could have been a little easier but as we are still in winter I had to get a little creative. I am currently getting emails from a great photography site called Adorama which sells equipment but also provides tutorials. I watched a tutorial on macrophotography and from that I decided to work on some macrophotography. That is how I did my plug photo but also how I did the above water droplet photo falling from the faucet. You can turn out some interesting results with macrophotography. Thanks to Alicia for giving me the tip a few months back of reversing my lens!

Week 7 of Project 52

This week wasn't so much challenging as it was a little anxiety-provoking. The subject for this week was "plug". I had to laugh really because twice I have been shocked and burned (literally) when I have plugged things in to outlets. I really don't like plugging things because I always worry that I will be shocked again. No kidding. My husband sincerely believes that I am cursed when it comes to electrical items whether it is computers, blenders, hairdryers etc. If it requires electricity to run it, something will happen if I am nearby. Take our recent trip to celebrate Sheriff's birthday. The token machine broke down when I went to purchase tokens. It jammed when I needed just 10 more tokens. The worker had to count out 80 tokens by hand. Poor thing. Same thing happens when I call places like the bank or other organizations with computers and the person says, "I'm so sorry but my computer is down." Of course it is. I am on the other end of the phone. Your computer will be up and running as soon as I hang up.

The other week Brett bought a new computer and one of his programs wasn't working. He called the company who wrote it and they said they had never encountered that problem before. Brett demanded to know if I had touched his computer, or emailed his new computer. "no," I replied, "but I did THINK about it." Poor Brett.

Wire Challenge

This week's Project 52 challenge was all about wire. I thought - WIRE? How dumb. Now don't get me wrong. I see beauty in just about anything. When I'm driving I look around and I think everything is beautiful... but wire? I was skeptical. I remembered that there was a wire fence on the way to school so I stopped today to take some pictures. Maybe wire can be beautiful after all...

New and Old

This week's photography challenge was steel. Again I brought my camera with me and was chewing my nails trying to figure out what to shoot. I saw a building going up with the raw steel exposed and tried some shots but wasn't really happy with the results.
My husband would disagree, however, and say that it is a thing of beauty. Of course he would! He is a steel man through and through. Steel is in his veins. If he had his way our home would totally be made of steel. Forget about Superman, Brett is my man of steel. He lives and breathes it everyday.

This afternoon as went to run errands I saw some old, run-down items in front of a home just outside our neighborhood. They were perfect!


Some people love displaying rusty relics in their yard like broken down farm equipment, old wagons, broken lawnmowers. Me, I stick to sitting on my porch in the warm summer evenings. I don't know what cultured people find more offensive. At any rate, you'll have to decide what you like better, the new or the old.

Project 52 Week 4

This week's assignment was lines and I have to say that this was a much trickier assignment than last week's assignment of "dirty". I looked everywhere for lines and although I saw many lines in things I rejected possible photo after photo. I even considered taking a picture of myself staring at the blank lines of a page - believe me... as I write my book the blank lines of a page are very daunting. I was loving the lines in the empty fields as I drive along the back roads of town but when I took a picture of them the photo isn't as appealing as in real life.
Probably an expert photographer would make it look soooo much better. So I drove around town again this morning and saw this broken down barn and fell in love with the variety of lines. It is hard to see on my blog but there is chicken wire in the windows adding another line pattern to the photo.

It always makes me a little sad to see run-down barns. Sort of like when you see a house that is abandoned and falling apart... it makes you sad that it is not being used anymore, taken care or loved. I love it when I see old homes and barns still lovingly taken care of and preserved.
Despite its condition we can still find something interesting when we look closely at things.

Taking the Challenge...Maybe

I looked up Project 52 to see what this week's challenge was.... or maybe I am off a week and I actually did last week's challenge come to think of it. My brain kind of work's that way now I realize. I don't pay attention to the details anymore. I sort of scan stuff now and that gets me into trouble. I scan and assume and then I read it closer later and go, "oh CRAP!" I should have read that more carefully because I got it all wrong! hahaha!!! That's me now.... 40 and getting it all wrong. Oh well. Take me as I am I guess. Or don't.

So this week or last week's challenge depending on how you carefully you read it, is Dirty. So I was watching my little fostergirl eat her sandwich and this is about as dirty as she gets:


As soon as she gets anything on the table or herself she wants it washed off so for her, this is "dirty".