Wednesday's Assignment

Waiting for Godot, a photo by scookster on Flickr.

Make a photograph today that either contains motion blur or conveys motion in some other way.

I'd like to entitled this one, "Waiting for Godot."  I suppose it's because I stood in one spot for nearly 90 minutes waiting for this hummingbird to make its appearance.  I have this feeder adhered to the window- can't say I've seen hummingbirds in the past.  But I thought it would be cool if they'd come to the window to feed.  That way the kids could see them if they were lucky enough.  I think there's a pair of  in the neighborhood as one is quite bright and the other is not.  I decided to set my tripod w/camera as close to the window as I could. I read somewhere that if one is taking a picture through glass then one should get as close to the glass as possible.  No such luck here as the legs take up a lot of room.  After 90 minutes the male appeared and of course I became all flustered.  Couldn't find the shutter button and was pressing some other obscure button.  So I couldn't get him in mid-flight. Darn if I was going to stand there for another 90 minutes waiting for another appearance. So I hooked up my quick release button and once again could not get a photo of one in flight. But I did get this picture which is kind of cool.  I assume this would be counted as "motion blur."

Sunday's Assignment

Spring flowers, a photo by scookster on Flickr.

Don't over-think it.  Make a beautiful photograph today.  And tomorrow.  Keep at it and discover your own view of beauty.

Excuse me for a moment...%#$%$#@$....darn that flickr website.  I had my entry written for my blog and when I went to post it via flickr, the post crashed.  Of course, nothing can be saved from that site so I have to begin again.  I've had this happen to me a few times and you'd think I'd learn my lesson.  What I can do and should do is just post the picture to my blog and then write my entry from the blog side.  But....as I was saying....my spring flowers are looking rather bedraggled.  The clematis on my fence is beginning to bloom but some of the other flowers are looking less than perfect.  Fortunately the hostas look healthy as does my grasses.  I am looking forward to the daylillies and their blooms as they add a different color to my garden.  I tend to have more purples than anything else so it's nice when the yellow flowers come into play.  I had thought about taking a picture of my new nikon 5100 instead of these flowers.  I decided to splurge on a new camera as my d60 has less bells and whistles.  The new cameras are all outfitted with video now in addition to still shot photography.  Hopefully I'll find the video capabilities worthwhile and then I can get rid of some of my old equipment.   But I like the feel of this new camera and it does have 16 mega pixels so I should be a "professional" in no time flat!

Photo of a square

Photo of a square, a photo by scookster on Flickr.

Make a photo emphasizing a square or a grid today.

Spent the majority of the day perusing my surroundings looking for a square.  It seems as though the majority of things are rectangles.  Even though these blocks are squares I did form them into a rectangle. No getting around that since I wanted to include all of the letters in the word "square".  I managed to shoot this one in manual though and there appeared to be no area that was overexposed. Hooray for me!  I still am fumbling around with the settings- which way to go for both aperture and speed.  But if I can at least get to the point where my exposure is balanced then I think I'm doing okay.  Of course, after I took this picture I made myself a cheese sandwich and noticed that the cheese was a perfect square. Had no intention of reshooting the photo- but now know that when this assignment comes up again the first thing I will do is head for the meat and diary drawer in the refrigerator.

Parallel lines

Parallel lines, a photo by scookster on Flickr.

Parallel lines draw the eye. Make a photograph with parallel lines today.

Did this same assignment a few months ago on the tracks of the metra.  Decided to do one better and take a self portrait of my very short haircut.  I don't know what I was thinking when I said, "how about a pixie cut?"  Jamie Lee Curtis looks adorable in one.  I on the other hand do not.  I look like a eggplant with fur on it.  My lovely husband asks everyday if I've cut it shorter.  One of the boys asked "what happened to your hair".  I know I look ridiculous and if I could hide for the next four weeks until it begins to grow out I would.  Unfortunately that's not possible so I'll just have to grin and bear it.  Perhaps people will think I've had some kind of treatment and feel sorry for me.  I have certainly learned my lesson and that is, "less is not better!"

I did shoot this with my external flash as the built in caused a shiny forehead.  Short is bad enough- shiny and short is worse!