52 Week Photo Project – Weeks 6, 7 & 8

I've been slacking on the Photo Projects posts! Here's a combo one for your viewing pleasure.

Week 6 theme was "Movie or Song Title." I'd planned on doing a movie title, but this song popped into my head and just had to shoot it.





I love Jim Croce's music. It's hard to believe that he was only 30-years-old when he died.


Week 7 theme was "Light." I shot a few things — light streaming through a glass of water, sun shining on the fireplace just so. But I went with this shot of my Keurig coffee maker buttons.



The depth of field is very short and I was going for the blurry, slightly dreamy look.


And we come to Week 8. The theme is "Laughter." I cheated a bit since I was so busy with work this past week and weekend that I picked a photo I'd taken at Thanksgiving. I asked my nieces to sit so I could get a photo of them together. And this happened.



Actually, lots of feet and hands in the air, laughing, goofing around and generally silliness. I did NOT get a "serious" shot, but that's OK. This represents them MUCH better!

52 Week Photo Project – Week 5 Favorite Place

The theme for Week 5 was "I left my heart in…" If I had my druthers, I would have gone back to Hawaii to take some digital photos, but it was not in the cards. For you see, Hawaii IS where I left my heart, but all of my photos are on film. I found an excellent back up, though – Warren Dunes, Lake Michigan.

Dwight and I managed to go back in October last year. Yep, this is October!

It was an incredible day; probably the perfect day. It was really warm without being crazy-hot, sunny all day, and the beach was gloriously free of the hoards of humanity that frequent it during the actual beach season.

We got an early start and made a stop at Meijer to pick up an a umbrella or some other contraption to keep me out of the sun. Remember this post? Yeah, I'm totally serious about being protected in the sun. Seeing as we were going to be baking on the beach for hours and not just out and about, I wanted physical cover instead of just sunscreen. I don't like being baking in the sun, even covered in sunscreen; I get way too hot and start feeling icky.

We found this tent and It. Was. Perfect. I abso-freakin-lutely love it. It's my new BFF. I was happy as a clam in there. It was GLORIOUS.

My view from the tent. Heaven.

Look at these vistas? Gorgeous. If you haven't been to Lake Michigan or any of the Great Lakes, you might not realize how vast they really are. If I can't be in Hawaii, I'll take the Lake Michigan coast any day.



I did leave a little bit of my heart on this beach that beautiful day in October. It was one of my very best days of 2011.

52 Week Photo Project — Week 4: Self-Portrait

I'd honestly intended to take a picture with my face in it. Kind of needed a new headshot anyway, but I had the idea for this shot and just knew it was what I wanted to do for this assignment. This is an accurate portrait of me in this time and space. Reveling in paint, ink, pastels—anything getting my hands dirty creating, making.

52 Week Photo Project — Week 3

This week's theme is "Your Favorite Thing." LensProToGo elaborated on the theme on their blog:

We want everyone to get to the core of this and find something that they like more than everything else and hold close to their heart. What is the one thing you would most likely save if your house was on fire (considering your family, including all animals, were safe). If you could only keep 1 thing (again considering you could keep your family and pets) what would you want to save?

I like that they added the "in case of fire" explanation. It really made me think about the assignment. I, of course thought of things like all my photos, my computer or CD/DVD back ups, but that seemed too obvious. I wanted to dig deeper.

I mentally scanned my house, thinking of objects in each room, assessing their value. Not monetary but emotional. It was eye opening how many things I thought of as replaceable or not "fire scenario" significant.

As soon as I thought of this, though, I knew it was the one. I picked an oil painting that hangs in my home office. It's on the wall right now, up and to my right, looking beautiful against the "library green" wall. Neither the subject matter nor artist are what makes this painting so special for me, though. It's all of the meaning and emotion behind it.

My mom gave me this painting which was given to her by Marian, my godmother. I never met Marian. She passed away shortly after I was baptized. Marian was my mother's mentor, confidant and I suspect, a kind of second mother. They were very close. I know my mother cherishes this painting because Marian gave it to her, so it means that much more that my mom, in turn, gave it to me. I would be positively devastated if anything happened to it (which is why I should probably take it to a reputable restorer to make sure it is and stays in good shape. The label on the back is brittle and falling off and I noticed some crackling in the paint.

It most certainly qualifies for the "in case of fire" scenario posed by LensProToGo.

What about you? What is YOUR favorite thing, the one thing you'd want to save? Trust me, it's a very thought-provoking and emotional question.

52 Week Photo Project — Week 2

This week's assignment — Your Front Door


(I swear, the door is red, not pink. It's looking a bit pink on my laptop monitor.)


I'm participating in the LensProToGo 52 Week Photo Project. Follow along on their blog or flickr.

52 Week Photo Project — Week 1

I must admit, as much as I'd like to improve my photography, I just can't do a 365 photo project. I'm certain it would become a huge source of resentment despite the fact that it would probably improve the way I take and make photos. Once a week, though? Yeah, I can do that. A twitter friend, Rebecca (@hobnob) brought up the subject and I agreed that it would be a fun project. She found the LensProToGo 52 Week Photo Challenge and it looked the the perfect fit — once a week photo assignment, each week's theme announced at the beginning of the month.

Rebecca and I are Bread Baker's Apprentice "graduates" so this seems like a great way to participate in another group project. I'll be posting my photo each Sunday night in conjunction with the LensProToGo deadline.  Be sure to kepp track of Rebecca's progress as well as mine!

The first assignment is to make a self-portrait without you in the photo (something that represents you). I started by gathering various objects and put them on my art table. I took several shots, but they just looked like a big ole mess. I decided to pare down and just pick a few key tools. I'm much happier with how this turned out.



Baking, art, artsy-crafty, photography, being tied to my Mac - all seemed a good representation. What do you think?

See you again next Sunday for Week 2 assignment — "your front door."