Week 8: Silhouette

This week was pretty easy for me. Whenever we go to the beach, I try to get up before sunrise at least one day to get some sunrise shots on the beach. On our last trip, I got a lot of great shots, but around the time the sun was peaking and creating beautiful color in the sky, a fisherman came down to the waters edge and tested the waters. The silhouette that was created with that gorgeous sunrise behind him was just perfect. This is still one of my favorite shots ever...

Week 7: Eyes

Well, it appears that I am still behind. I am trying to get caught up this weekend though. I haven't had a lot of opportunity to get out and shoot, so I'm sifting through some old shots to find suitable ones for the belated submissions. Week 7 was all about eyes. I had a pretty good shot of Brandon's eyes for the "Love" topic, but I didn't want to re-use that one. I found a couple of good animal eye shots though.

This first one is an eagle that we saw at a Birds of Prey exhibit at Brookgreen Gardens. These were all animals that had been wounded and were temporarily in captivity while they were being nursed back to health. Their beauty is truly amazing.

 The next shot was taken at Latta Equestrian Center just outside of Charlotte, NC. I took my niece one weekend to go horseback riding and was able to get quite a few good shots of the residents. This particular horse was beautiful, and quite calm. Although the eye in this shot doesn't really "pop," it does bring a feeling of peace.

My final shot for week 7 is not really a photo of eyes. However, at our last visit to Landsford Canal, we notices these flowers on the trail down to the Spider Lily lookout. I was really tickled by them because it looked like a face to me. Maybe it takes a special kind of mind to see it, but I really enjoyed the "eyes" in this photo :)

Week 6: Fantasy

I had a lot of fun with the week 6 theme. The masters of fantasy are kids - their imaginations can take you so many places! Since I don't have any kids of my own, I had to borrow someone else's for this particular assignment. Then, my friend Maggie asked me to watch her girls one afternoon, which gave me the perfect opportunity to get these shots. I found some Halloween costumes that they gladly put on and we went outside to get some photos in the yard. This is my favorite photo before editing:

Riley was looking at something on the ground and was being so ladylike about holding up her dress. She was also still holding one of the wands that I brought for the photos. I thought she looked like the perfect princess. The background didn't really do much for me though. I decided to play around a little in Photoshop to make it more like a really fantasy. I tried to think of what she was picturing in her head while she was playing with her sister. So, after some cropping and dodging, plus a few other minor adjustments, this is what I came up with:

I also took some great shots of her sister, Morgan. She is a little ham at all times, so it is never hard to get an animated shot of her. These are two of my favorites:

Weeks 5: Repetition

Well, I am playing catchup in a big way so I will be posting quite a few this week!  Week 5's theme was repetition. I wanted to find a really cool pattern in the world around me, but this was likely one of the most hectic weeks EVER! I was working every day and going to VBS in the evenings. These were some pretty long days, so I didn't get around to my photos for this challenge. However, I did take photos of the kids at VBS each night. One of the shots was a quick one of that night's snack, ready to be served. I thought the repeating patterns and colors on the cups full of bright orange goldfish was pretty cool. Plus, every night of VBS was pretty repetitive in itself - fun, but repetitive :)

Then I took a photo the following week at an Anniversary party. The chandelier in the ballroom was a pretty good representation of "Repetition." I chose to compose the photo with only half of it in view to create a diagonal line down the shot with a dark background.

I've since played with the shot in photoshop and with just a little "dodging" I think I gave the crystals of the chandelier a little more sparkle:

Week 4: Love

This week's theme for the 52 Week Photo Challenge was "Love." I had a hard time with this one - not because I couldn't figure out what to do, but because I couldn't figure out which shot was my favorite. The things I photographed for love all represent different aspects of love, so you get to choose which one you like the best!

First, I will show off the picture of my handsome husband! I love this picture of him because it captures a very sweet, quiet moment. For anyone who knows Brandon, you know that he's usually pretty sassy so this side of him is difficult to catch on camera. I love all sides of this wacky, silly, sweet and wonderful man :)

 

The next shot is a picture of me with my cat, Cleo. Cleo has been a special part of my life since 2004 and was there to help me through some very difficult times. She is incredibly sweet and affectionate, and one way that she expresses her love is by kissing or biting my nose. In January of this year, she had to have 6 teeth extracted, and during her recovery, we kept her in the bathroom and made sure everything was well padded so she would be safe as she came off of the anesthesia.  Well, ever since then, that has been "her" spot and every time I go into the bathroom, she's right there under my feet. So, here we are...having a (staged) moment in the bathroom! I couldn't decide if I liked color or Black and White better...

 

Last on my list but definitely not least...I tried to get a good shot of the cross that is located outside of our church. Unfortunately, there's a lot of distracting stuff behind it, and I was not able to get the awesome shot I had imagined. I played with it a little in photoshop, and the image that I came up with is below. This one is special to me because the faith that I have discovered over the last few years and our amazing church family have brought me a huge amount of love and joy since we started attending this church. Plus, the love of God is undeniably the greatest love of all.

Week 3: Childhood Memory

 

Week 3 is supposed to be a "Childhood Memory." I struggled a good bit with this topic because I don't have easy access to my childhood home, which is where most of my memories occurred. I didn't really want to put someone else's child in my photo, and so it really came down to objects. This teddy bear was my constant companion when I was a child. It was a birthday gift when I turned 5. I slept with him every night tucked under my arm, and he still sits on my nightstand 29 years later. He's as flat as a pancake, his eyes are all scratched up, his nose is threadbare...all signs of the love that I had for my "Teddy." I took the photo with a low aperture setting, but I deleted the image from my memory card before I was able to record all of the exposure settings I used.

Runner up photos:

I also took the photo below of the Sunday comics hanging over the edge of the couch.  When I was very young, every evening, when my mom came home from a long day of work, we would lay on the couch together and she would read the comics to me. It was my favorite time of day and was so special to me. I think this is also one of the things that gave me a love for reading - although I didn't get beyond the newspaper strips in the comic genre (much to Brandon's dismay).

 

I took the photos below at a friend's birthday party today. The kids were playing in the yard between the pool and sandbox. The sandbox photos remind me of specific moments in my childhood when we went to Swan Lake and played in the sandbox on the playground there. Usually, it was me and my cousin Greg and we would have a good time playing until we made each other angry over something. In my memories - that is sort of the way it always went down until we got older. The photo of the kids in the water just reminds me of the joy and carefree feeling that I had as a kid - especially in the summer. We always had an above-ground pool in the yard and it was always full of kids in the summer time.

Same photo, but I can't decide which I like better. The color version is bright and really reminds me of the kids that had just deserted the sandbox. The B+W version is much more dramatic though - I like the contrast in this one. Either way, please make note of the mud pie that had been prepared with love and care by the young girls that were playing here.

 

I just love this one...

The Week 2 Photo Challenge was  "Animals." There are a lot of options for that particular topic around the Morgan household, but I was hesitant to use one of our cats. Naturally, there is the jealousy issue- I don't want any hurt feelings when one kitty is featured on the blog and the other two are left out. That could go bad pretty fast! Plus, I have a feeling that anyone who keeps up with my blog regularly will see PLENTY of the cats as we explore different topics. 

So, I started looking for some other photography subjects. Then, on Tuesday, one of my coworkers returned from the beach with some stowaway hermit crabs in shells she had collected. We've decided to adopt them in the Biology Department and I took my camera with me today to try to get a few shots. Thankfully, one of them was feeling pretty active. Actually, I don't think it was really all that excited about moving around as much as it just wanted to get as far away from me as possible. No worries, I didn't torture them too long. I snapped a few shots and then put them back into their habitat. I was pleased with the results, though, and decided to use this one for Week 2. That one in the front is Watson (I think) and Crick is in the background (for my non-biology loving followers, Watson and Crick are the scientists credited with discovering the structure of DNA). I did a little Photoshop editing to bring out the colors in the shell but I am still learning how to do most things in PS.

The runner-up pictures DO include my cats. This first one is our spoiled baby Cleo. She must drink from a red solo cup. And, by the way, you have to put fresh water in the cup every time she chooses to have a drink. Only the best for Princess Cleo please...

The other two cats refused to pose for picture time, so I have pulled a couple of older shots that I really liked of them. Comet is on the left and Cairo is on the right. It is funny that I put them side by side because typically this is a formula for disaster.

 

Finally, I took some pictures of my sister's boxer, Candy, when we were home over the weekend. Candy has quite a personality and is a very sweet dog. I love the one of her trying to get the red dot of the laser pointer on the floor!