Monday's Assignment

Today's number is 5.  Make a photo that illustrates the number in some way, either literally or abstractly.

My feet have never been my favorite feature- but I am trying to keep the nails polished more frequently.  The baby toenail has never fully developed and now I have other nails that appear to list to the side.  Unfortunately, I am not a big fan of pedicures.  I am extremely ticklish and I don't like anyone scraping or sanding these sensitive areas.  I do love having my feet rubbed though, but can't get anyone in the household to take over that job.  If I could just have the pedicure people give me a foot message and skip the torture I'd be in heaven.  Not sure if you can see the bruise on top of my foot- hazard of wearing leather sandals all day long.  I am not big a big fan of sandals either but decided to wear them to school and of course I'm having to deal with the consequences.

Taken with automatic settings today.

Sunday's Assignment

Make a photograph using a hard light today.  Feature the crisp and strong shadows as a major element of your photograph.

What exactly does that mean- hard light?  Even if I research the term "hard light" I'm still not sure what it means.  I find that some of the recent assignments have caused me to question my knowledge about photography- which to be honest is obviously lacking.  Is that where an art background comes in handy?  I spoke to someone recently who said that in photography, we need to look at the world as two dimensional.  How do I go about doing that?  Is that what good photographers do?  Frustrating to say the least, I do need to look into some additional photography classes.  What I've taken so far is just about the mechanics of the camera.  There's so much more to learn.

Taken with automatic setting today.

Sunday's Assignment

Challenge: Sympathy can be difficult to express in words.  Make an image suitable for the cover of a condolence card.

I think this photo does need some help.  I doesn't scream sympathy to me.  I think the green in the background distracts from the simplicity that it needs.  Most of my flowers are looking rather sad anyway and on a condolence card you'd want something that has sharp colors and lines.  I think I may have been able to work it in Photoshop to bring out more of a soothing look instead of a hodgepodge of green and pinks.

Taken with automatic setting today.

Saturday's Assignment

Visit a park today--national, amusement, playground--and make a photo of something that catches your eye.

Here's my little piece of a park- which is what Ellie calls it.  I set up the slide last year thinking that she and her brother would spend hours climbing the slide.  If they spend 5 minutes on it that's probably 4 and a half minutes too long.  She's really not an outside girl- especially if she sees a bug.  Maybe when her brother gets older he may be more inclined to climb on it.  I put in the arbor this summer thinking I would sit there watching them play.  Where was my brain???  To be honest, the number of mosquitos hovering around is enough to prevent much play.  Those pests seem to have gotten worse as the summer's progressed.  But I spent long hours setting up this area to make it not only a place to go but something that is appealing to the eye.  I guess that should be enough for me.  But really....what was I thinking?  Someday I will look back on this photo and hopefully see an abundance of clematis climbing up the trellis.  And who knows.  Maybe the next family who moves into this house will enjoy my "playground".

Shot with manual setting today.

Friday's Assignment

Insects are everywhere.  Photograph a bug in your environment (no spiders- they're arachnids).

Stood out in the garden waiting for something to land on the coneflowers.  They seem to get the most action in my garden.  Got rather close to a bumblebee but it made a beeline for me so I moved on to bigger and better things.  Standing still was nearly impossible as the mosquitos are out in full force.  As soon as I moved they moved toward me.  I think I got a few bites in a matter of seconds.  But I digress.  I happen to notice this poor butterfly- if you can zero in on it you'll notice that the wings are rather weather beaten.  Even the color was muted so I wasn't sure if it was alive but could see the wings move ever so slowly.  So I quickly took a picture and of course it's not quite in focus.  Unfortunately, I had to bend over to swat a mosquito and when I looked back it was gone.  Don't know if it fell to the ground or took off but I had enough of the mosquitoes and headed for the protection of my house.

Due to the mosquito onslaught this photo was shot with automatic setting today.

Thursday's Assignment

Fabric: we wear it, sleep on it, decorate with it.  Make a photo of an interesting cloth design or texture.

I am not one for patterns or any fabric other than cotton.  But in my skinnier days I tended to buy and wear skirts- skirts of all fabrics and patterns.  I ordered this long skirt and top thinking that one day I could wear it to a summer wedding.  But alas...no summer wedding and of course it no longer fits.  Such is my life.  But I'm hanging onto the out as you never know.

Shot with automatic setting today.