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52/50 Wrap-Up and Photographic Challenges for 2014

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I’ve really enjoyed my 52/50 Project and am so pleased that I didn’t miss a week of it. I love my 50mm lens, and it was a good excuse to be sure it got put on the camera at least once a week. So here are the last of the photos, some of which I’ve posted earlier for other subjects.

Week 48:

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Skylar was loving the ranch dip at Thanksgiving. I don’t think too much celery got eaten.

Week 49:

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I had my zoom lens on most of the time during my first trip to Chicago, so there wasn’t much to choose from. I love the photo, but it’s not technically very good.

Week 50:

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The perfect photo for the week!

Week 51: 

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We took Caleb to the Wonderland Express at the Chicago Botanic Gardens. Once again I had my zoom lens on until lunch when I remembered I needed a 50mm photo. Caleb’s delight in this photo is watching the train that goes around the dining room of the cafe.

Week 52:

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Caleb was helping put away all the Christmas decorations. Sarah made sure Christmas was over before Caleb’s birthday celebration on December 30th.

With a new year ahead, I’ve given a lot of thought to what kind of photography project I wanted to take on for 2014. I’ve considered a lot of different things, but have finally settled on spending a year with David DuChemin. His e-book “The Visual Toolbox: 50 Lessons for Stronger Photographs” should give me more than enough challenges to last the year. Here’s a blurb from Craft and Vision where I purchased the e-book a few months ago.

 The Visual Toolbox is packed with lessons about the tools of the photographic language – the camera, the lens, and the more important stuff like visual language, composition, and learning to see. Most of those lessons are accompanied with real-life, honest-to-God assignments to get you out there learning how to make stronger photographs, not just learning to use a camera.

 On my reading list for a couple of years are two of DuChemin’s books, Within The Frame and Vision and Voice, so I hope to finish both of these as well.

 I purchased a small notebook to use for this year’s project on Amazon. I’ve already made a list of a variety of subjects and themes I might use as I practice my skills, and will use it to take notes on my reading, and reflect on my experiences.

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I’ll be participating in Cheryl McCain’s Frugal Still Life class as soon as we return from Florida, and in Helena’s meme Zoom Out, Zoom In. Here’s the first pair for Week 1:

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One of the many amazing displays at The Chicago Botanic Garden. I took the zoom out first, then the zoom in.

Having a photography project (0r two or three) seems to keep it fresh, and I’m looking foward to finding new images in 2014!

52/50

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Time flies, and I have seven weeks of my 52/50 Project to share, but even more amazing—there are only five weeks left for the project! I need to find a new photography project for 2014. I’m signed up for the Still Life Photography course with Cheryl McCain but I know that will be difficult when we’re traveling. I’d like a weekly project—one that requires me to do more than take a daily shot with my iPhone and something that challenges me to improve my photography. If you come across something, I’d love to hear about it. 

Week 41 found us in Niagara-on-the-Lake for a weekend of wine tasting and theater. Grapes were still heavy on the vine.

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The following week (#42) we were in Florida. I walked around the Boca Raton Resort and Club with my 50mm lens one morning and found lots to photograph. This gorgeous flower is one of my favorites.

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Most of the photos I took in Key West and the Everglades were with my 18-270mm zoom lens, but I finally remembered to get the 50mm lens on as we drove home through the Blue Ridge Mountains at the end of Week 43.

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Technically this isn’t the best shot from Halloween (Week 44), but it’s my favorite. Skylar was a fabulous bumblebee.

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Week 45 found me in our yard. Our relatively new maple tree was in the midst of changing colors.

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Tracy and I have been trying to get several good walks in every week while the weather is still good. (I think we may be at the end of that. We had 2-3 inches of snow this week, and the temperatures are hovering around freezing at their highest!) During Week 46 we walked through Highland Park, one of our favorite routes.

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Last week (Week 47) we were trying to find a new route and went to the Cobb Hill Reservoir. We walked through the woods first, but I didn’t find much there to photograph. The leaves have fallen off the trees, and it was pretty drab. I liked the light on the reservoir through the bars, though, and decided to do a black and white conversion which I also like.

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With the upcoming holidays, a wedding, and a quick trip to Chicago in early December, finishing up this project should be pretty easy. Then I’ll have to decide what to do with all the photos.

A Weekend in Canada

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Our annual trip to the Shaw Festival in Niagara-on-the-Lake was this weekend. This summer we wondered if it would take place when Mike was so sick, but he’s nearly fully recovered, and we had a great time.

I took this shot out the front window of the car as we approached the Rainbow Bridge at Niagara Falls. The cloud of mist was amazing. Sadly, the Falls were on the far side of the bridge so I didn’t get any shots of it.

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The Niagara River is always beautiful in the fall.

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Friday night we relaxed at our favorite B&B. We’ve been coming here for many years, and the new owners are the third set we’ve known. John and Phyllis are warm and friendly, and we had a great time with them Saturday afternoon on their patio.

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(This photo is from the web since I totally forgot to take a shot myself.)

Saturday was clear, sunny, and warm. We headed off to a few of our favorite wineries. We always seem to learn something new on these tasting tours, and inevitably end up with a case of wine to bring home. This year was no exception.

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Strewn Winery has the best ever semi-dry reisling. 

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There are still a lot of grapes on the vine. I think this is my 52/50 shot for this week.

This still life was arranged in a nook at another of our favorite wineries, Vineland, our favorite winery for red wines. Tracy bought six bottles to put away for five years. It’s good now, and inexpensive, but they told us it will be exceptional in a few years and worth a lot more than we paid for it.

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After Vineland, we went off to lunch at The Irish Harp. We couldn’t get the parking meter to work, so one of the guys at the restaurant gave Tracy a band-aid (they had no tape) to attach a note. The parking meters are monitored constantly here, and we didn’t want to have to deal with a ticket in Canada.

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Here’s a shot of Karen and Mike at The Irish Harp. You can see how great he looks, thanks in part to all your good thoughts and prayers!

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After lunch, we strolled down the main street. The flowers are still beautiful.

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And I loved this window filled with caramel apples decorated for Halloween.

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Saturday night we saw a wonderful production of Guys and Dolls at the Shaw Festival Theater.

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Before we left on Sunday, we stopped at the Pie Plate and picked up a pumpkin praline and a cranberry/apple/pear pie. They’re safely tucked away in my freezer for November entertaining.

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There was a long line of cars waiting to cross the border. Nearly all of them were from Ontario. This weekend is their Thanksgiving, and our Columbus Day holiday, so folks from both countries have a three-day weekend. 

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Today I’m busy organizing and packing for the next trip. We’re home just two days before we head off for Rachel and Juan’s wedding in Florida.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Happy Fall: Two Challenges and Fall Foliage

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When I saw this week’s CAS(e) This Sketch I knew exactly what stamps I wanted to pull out. 

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I’ve always love the “Take Three” series by Papertrey Ink, and the fall images are great. I chose pumpkins for this card.

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You can see by the shadows that the pumpkins were attached with some dimensional tape. This card also meets the challenge at Addicted to CAS:  Autumn/Fall.

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We had a fabulous weekend in the Adirondacks this past weekend. We left at 6:00 am, stopped in Old Forge for a hearty brunch, and dropped off the intrepid backpackers around noon.

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Bob and Tracy have been working to hike most of the 46 High Peaks in the Adirondacks. Cathy and I have done a few as well with our kids when they were growing up, but we gave up serious backpacking quite a few years ago. After dropping the guys off, we head for Keene Valley for a bit of shopping (turned out neither of us bought a thing), and then checked into our hotel in Wilmington, NY. This was the view of Whiteface Mt. from our balcony.

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We drove into Lake Placid, did some window shopping and had a lovely dinner overlooking Mirror Lake. The next morning we had a fabulous breakfast at our favorite diner, did a bit of shopping, and then changed into our sneakers to walk around Mirror Lake. 

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It was a stunning day, in the mid-70’s and sunny. By the time we got around the lake (about 2 1/2 miles) we were pretty warm and headed back to our hotel. We sat on our balcony, had some veggies and dip, and enjoyed the wonderful fall day. We decided not to drive back into Lake Placid and went to a lovely restaurant just a mile or so from our hotel. We’d been there before. The food is great, and very reasonable. I’ll leave you with one last photo of the stream that runs by the parking lot of the restaurant.

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The leaves are beginning to turn here, but it will be a couple of weeks before it’s as beautiful here as it was in the Adirondacks. (The guys, by the way, had a great time, and added another peak to their list.)

52/50: A Long overdue Catch-up

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When I went back to look at the last 52/50 post, I was shocked to see it was at the end of July. I’ve kept up with the project and had most of the photos filed appropriately, but I did have the last few weeks to edit. Posting them in batches seems to make sense, but I’ll try to be a little more timely for the rest of the year.

Week 32:

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Two of my nieces and a grand-niece kayaking on Conesus Lake. It doesn’t seem like it was that long ago we were all enjoying the lake together.

Week 33:

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Handsome Caleb at 20 months. I love those big brown eyes.

Week 34:

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Vineyards overlooking Seneca Lake. We do live in a beautiful area.

Week 35:

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Matt and Skylar; it’s so good to have them just around the corner!

Week 36:

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Bread at the Ithaca Farmers Market; this photo got the most votes when I asked which one to choose.

Week 37:

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Miss Skylar playing with Grandma’s iPhone. Both my grandchildren are techno-savvy at a very young age!

Week 38:

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Lake Michigan. I almost didn’t get a photo with my 50mm lens that week. Got this on our way home from dinner. I had lots of photos, but they were all taken with my phone.

Week 39:

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Caleb and his English cousin, Samuel, playing after Adam’s Installation Service. 

Week 40: 

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I have lots of lovely photos from this past weekend. We were in the Adirondack Mts. from Saturday to Monday. The weather was gorgeous, and the autumn colors were at their peak.

I’ll be back tomorrow with a little recap of the weekend and some more photos of the beautiful fall foliage.


 

Saturday Road Trip

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Twice a year, once in the spring and once in the fall, we try to get to the Ithaca Farm Market. We have wonderful farm markets locally, but the one in Ithaca is a favorite. I never tire of taking photos there, and all of the photos at the market were taken with my 50mm lens for my 52/50 Project. I’d be curious to know which one you’d choose for this week.

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I loved the slogan the Sticks and Stones Farm has chosen.

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The Six Circles Farm had one of the loveliest displays of their produce. I love these baskets.

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These plum-filled scones were delicious! This is my favorite bakery at the market. Their bread is simply lovely—and tasty!

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I left the market with a peck of Roma tomatoes (from which I made roasted tomato sauce to freeze), peaches and plums for my first galette (on today’s agenda), candy-cane beets (roasted but not yet eaten), some cute pumpkins for a fall display, and a scone, of course.

When we left the market we headed for the Cornell campus. I had two items I wanted to buy from the Cornell store, but alas, it doesn’t open until noon on Saturdays. On our way up the hill, I got this shot of the Uris Library Tower with my iPhone which I’ll use for the Scavenger Hunt (I have an earlier one, but this one has more meaning.)

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We decided to walk to College Town, a lucky choice since I found what I wanted in the first store I tried. On our way, we passed the Law School, and I loved the name of their cafe.

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We drove up the east side of Cayuga Lake to Auroa for lunch. We’d never been to the Fargo, but the reviews on Yelp gave it high marks. We would concur. Lunch was delicious. Tracy had New England Clam Chowder, and I had a chicken/cranberry salad sandwich.

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Our destination on this side of the lake was the Heart and Hand Winery. We’d read about it this summer in Summer in a Glass, a lovely book about the Finger Lake wineries. The owner spent much time trying to find just the right composition of soil (limestone) on which to grow his Reisling grapes. Although the wines we tasted were lovely, we’ll have to wait another year before the single vineyard wines are produced.

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On the way home, we stopped at Sauders, a wonderful Amish market where we picked up some meat, cheese, and a big pumpkin for the porch, and the Waterloo Outlets where Tracy picked up some new sneakers, and I got a jar of facial cream. Then we headed home to roast all those tomatoes. A lovely day on the road.

 

Summer Scavenger Hunt 2013: August Link-up

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There are just a few weeks left to complete this year’s Summer Scavenger Hunt, and I’m closing in on it. I need to do the self-portrait, and our heads are still in the clouds looking for something recognizable. But I have a few new ones to add to the list as well as a few extras.

While Sarah and Caleb were here, we went to the Seneca Park Zoo one morning with Betsy, Matt and Skylar. Our zoo is tiny, but well-kept. Skylar’s a member of the zoo and goes regularly. For a little girl just under two, she knows her way around well, and was eager to take Caleb to see her favorite animals.

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I got quite a few good shots. I’ll choose one of these from the mix for the final Summer Scavenger Hunt layout. (#11 Animal in a Zoo)

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I decided to add the animal names to the photos (there are quite a few more) and make a little photo book for Skylar and Caleb. I finished Skylar’s in time to give it to her when they came to dinner last night. 

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This cute photo of the two of them in front of a mural of the zoo made for a good title page.

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Here’s one of the inside spreads. After the animal photos, I included a group of photos of just them at the zoo.

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One of the items on the scavenger hunt list that’s been giving me a lot of trouble is #9:  someone or something that’s clearly out of place or doesn’t belong. Yesterday on our walk through Highland  Park, we came upon this cute little guy who was sitting in a tree. Clearly not a permanent resident of the park.

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Last month I posted a photo of a windmill. It was actually a flower container, and I’ve had my eye out for a real one. Last week while my brother was here, we went to the Finger Lakes for a day, and passed this one overlooking Seneca Lake.

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At the beginning of the hunt, I started a collection of benches and I’ve been adding to it all summer. But this post is already photo-heavy so I’ll save those for another day. You can find link-ups to other hunts right here on Rinda’s blog. Clicking on the Summer Scavenger Hunt logo on my sidebar will take you to a collection of all my photos so far.

Summer Feet and the BPC Phone Photography Project

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On a whim, more or less, I enrolled in the Big Picture Class “Phone Photography Project” in July. I’m not sure if I didn’t read the class description accurately, or if it wasn’t quite presented as billed, but I was a bit disappointed. From reading the message boards during class, I know I wasn’t the only one. I was hoping to get some good ideas about how to improve my iPhone photography, but there was little, if any, content related to that. There were great reviews of apps, and I learned how to use a few I already had, and picked up a new camera app that I’m quite pleased with so far. I also got in the habit of posting to Instagram regularly which I’m always meaning to do, but don’t. The bulk of the content was a project to work on each day. The first day was Summer Feet, and I decided that would be my Project 365 for the month of July.

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This turned out to be a lot of fun. Trying to capture some context to the photo was the challenge, but most days it worked out well. Here’s where I was this month (left to right, top to bottom): Strong Hospital, working at Foodlink, at an RPO concert, in the garden, under our tree where mushrooms are sprouting daily, at the gym, at church, buying groceries, at the Irish Harp for lunch in Niagara-on-the-Lake, in the OR waiting room with my friend, on a walk with Tracy, at book group, on the Ford St. Bridge walking to the Corn Hill Arts Festival, at the pool, on the patio, catching up with email, in the kitchen, getting a haircut, out to dinner, at a wedding (no context here though I really tried!), at the Dryden Theater (waited too late for good context on this one), lunch on the Erie Canal, dessert on our patio with candle light through our open work table, a midsummer pedicure, at Charlotte Beach for sunset photos, with Skylar, at the Mt. Hope Cemetery where Susan B. Anthony and Frederick Douglass are buried, at the Silver Thread Winery, pumping gas, waiting for the dermatologist, and ready to run errands. 

Most of the other projects were ones I was familiar with after doing Capture Your 365 for nearly two years. I may go back to look through them another day, but I didn’t find any of them compelling. I’m not sorry I took the course, but I’m not sure it was worth the money.

 

52/50: Weeks 25-27

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Finally, a much shorter post! Thanks to all of you for your prayers and good wishes for our friend, Mike. There hasn’t been any significant change. What we need now is “purposeful movement,” responding to commands. They reduce his sedation and medication every day now for a few hours. Yesterday he moved his head from side to side, and opened his eyes, but it wasn’t in response to a command, nor did he seem to focus or recognize anyone. Keep your prayers coming!

Here are my picks for the last three weeks of my 52/50 Project:

Father’s Day was the beginning of Week 25, and Matt was here to help celebrate. We had dinner at TRATA, and ate on the rooftop terrace.

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Matt and Betsy gave me a beautiful orchid for Mother’s Day, and I’ve managed to keep it alive for nearly two months. This week (26) was pretty dreary, so I took a lot of photos inside. This one was the winner.

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Tracy’s been working on our shade garden which surrounds our patio for many years. It’s particularly beautiful this year. (I’m sure more photos will be coming.) This week (27) we picked up some new plants at Grosman’s. They’ve added some nice color to the garden.

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Summer Scavenger Hunt 2013

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How did the first month of summer fly by so quickly? It’s time to link up at Gallo Organico for the Summer Scavenger Hunt. I have a few new ones to share today, and thanks to Miriam’s Flickr slideshow, decided to create a gallery for mine at SmugMug. You can click on the Summer Scavenger Hunt button on the sidebar to get there as well.

We walked to the Farmer’s Market today which has moved for a few weeks across from the town hall and library. I knew I’d be able to find a police car (#15) and the town hall (#3), and I hoped to find a fence (#13) as well.

Much to my surprise, I found a deer standing in front of someone’s fence on the way to the market.

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But I also like this shot of our garden fence now that the flowers are finally beginning to bloom.

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I didn’t need to get behind the police station to find a police car either, as one pulled into someone’s driveway as we walked to the market.

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Here’s the photo I planned to take:

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We don’t really live in the city of Rochester, though we are just one street away from the city. So we have a town hall rather than a city hall.

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Thanks to Becky, I realized I also have a dinosaur (#20) residing in our living room. We’re not sure how it came to be there, but Tracy likes moving it around so you’re never quite sure where you’ll find it. Here he is on the bookshelf in the living room.

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I like this one, too, that I found a few weeks ago at the Ithaca Farmer’s Market.

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Finally, the scavenger hunt has prompted a new little photo project for me. As we were walking this week I saw several cool benches (#10), and decided to do a little Bench Project. So here are this week’s captures.

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At the library; a self-portrait and a reflection of Tracy, too.

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Both of these were on Monroe Avenue

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And a sailor’s memorial bench behind the library that I’d never noticed before. I love how these projects focus your attention.

So now I’ve checked off seven of the twenty-one items. I know where I’ll find a couple others, but I’m going to have to work a little harder on most of them.

 

 

Shoot the Moon

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The photo editors meet-up group I belong to held two photo shoots this weekend to shoot the “super moon.” I ended up going to both of them, and I’m glad I did. I got much better shots the second night. One of the organizers gave a short tutorial on HDR Friday night. I’ve bracketed my photos before, and I’ve owned Photomatix Essentials for over a year, but I’ve never gotten up the courage to try it. It’s so easy, I’m embarrassed I waited so long. Here are my favorite shots from the two nights. I didn’t get any shots I loved of the moon the first night, but there are a couple others I like.

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This is the area where Carl gave his tutorial. It’s the underside of the Fredrick Douglas/Susan B. Anthony Bridge that goes over the Genesee River.


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Here’s a look at the bridge itself, taken with my iPhone the same evening. No HDR here.


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And the downtown skyline at the blue hour.

On Saturday night, we met on the bridge overlooking the Erie Canal in Pittsford.


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Here’s a look at an overprocessed HDR. I had to give it a try, but one of the organizers told me the surefire way to tell that it’s overdone is the halos behind the trees. I love that we can get good feedback so I don’t keep making the same mistakes. Good to know when looking at others’ HDR photos as well.


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My favorite shot of the moon.


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And my final shot. I’ve tried several times before to get good shots of the full moon, but this is the first time I’ve felt at all successful. I always learn something at these photo shoots, and these were no exception. How was the moon where you were? We saw a shot taken in Iowa last night on ABC World News that was nearly three times as large as anything I saw here.

52/20 Catch-up

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Almost all the photos I took on our holiday were taken with my new 18-270mm Tamron zoom or my iPhone. But I did take my 50mm with me, and once a week put it on the camera for enough shots to keep up with my 52/50 project. 

Here are the last five weeks of photos for the project:

Week 20: Most of my shots for this week were taken in the Spice Bazaar and the Grand Bazaar. There were two other contenders for this week, but I finally settled on the spices.

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One of the guide books recommended buying Turkish red pepper to bring back. I didn’t, and I wished I had, along with some sumac which is an ingredient I’m finding in many Turkish recipes. But Saturday I found a great Turkish market right here in Rochester, and was able to purchase both spices and some other ingredients I wanted. We loved the Turkish and Greek foods, and I’ve made several dishes from The Sultan’s Kitchen since we’ve returned–all of them delicious. 

Week 21: Each morning in Santorini our breakfast was delivered to our room. If it wasn’t too windy, we ate on our patio. We had quite a nice menu to choose from, and the food was great. We ate lunch at the hotel a couple of times, as well as dinner. One of my best meals of the trip was here—lamb on roasted white eggplant puree. (I’d love to get that recipe!)

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Week 22: This photo was taken from a museum looking up at a restaurant. I loved the bright green umbrellas against the clear blue sky. Matt couldn’t get over the blues in the photos from Santorini. None of the colors in my photos are enhanced. It really was that blue! We ended up eating lunch at this restaurant later in the day.

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Week 23: When we arrived home, our peonies were in bloom. I always enjoy taking photos of them.

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Week 24:  Saturday we took our annual spring road trip to Ithaca to go to the Farmer’s Market. On our way home we stopped to have lunch at Tracy’s cousin’s home in Interlaken. Mike had trimmed the bushes around their entrance way the day before, and discovered this tiny nest. The morning of our visit, this baby bird hatched. His eyes are still closed.

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Liberate Your Art Blog Hop

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Kat Sloma has hosted a Liberate Your Art postcard swap for several years now. This year there were over 200 people signed up for the swap. This is my second year to participate, and I’ve enjoyed it more than ever this year. Not only is it fun to send your work out in the world, it’s great fun to find out where it landed as well as receiving postcards from others. This year I’ve made several nice connections with folks who sent me art, and folks who received mine. 

Here are the two postcards I sent out to the world. The top is a photograph of the benches at the Pentagon Memorial and the quote I wrote on the back was “Lest we forget.” The second one was taken at the Oregon Sand Dunes State Park, and the quote was, “When you stand alone, you realize what you have in you.”  I know two of my cards ended up in the UK and one in Texas. I hope I’ll find out more today on the blog hop.

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The first postcard to arrive came from Cathy in Arkansas with the quote “Let the rays of your heart shine on all who pass by.” Her beautiful flower with a bee certainly shines brightly.

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Another lovely flower arrived next. The quote read, ” Beauty surrounds us.” Sadly there was no other message so I don’t know where it came from or who sent it. Perhaps I’ll find out today.

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This stunning image came from Andrea. You can find more of her photography here. The quote on the back reads, “In the end, it is not going to matter how many breaths you took, but how many moments took your breath away.” How true!

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The fourth beautiful postcard to arrive came from Shannon in Richmond, VA.

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The final postcard arrived from Helga in the Netherlands. I love how unique it is.  The quote by Twyla Tharp reads, “Art is the only way to run away without leaving home.” 

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And last, but certainly not least is the beautiful piece of art from Kat.

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You can find a list of all those participating in the blog hop here. It’s sure to be inspiring and interesting!

 

 

More photos – 52/50: Week 19

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There’s a lot happening here this weekend so I knew I needed to get my link up to Kent’s Project 52 earlier than usual.

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Although I expect to love my new lens, my 50mm/1.4 will always be my favorite lens. This project gets me out there using it, and finding new ways to use it. I was surprised at what great landscape shots it took in Oregon. My favorite shot with the 50mm is to open it up wide and shoot in close. It’s almost always sharp and pretty. (Although this week the two shots I took of a beautiful magnolia blossom were both too soft.)

I walked to Highland Park early in the week. I knew the lilacs were starting to bloom, and the annual Lilac Festival begins tomorrow. If you want some peace and quiet in the part, that’s not the time to visit. We love to go over at least one night to grab dinner from one of the food carts or tents, listen to some music, and admire the lilacs, but it’s not great for photography. All but one shot this week came from the park.

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Every year there’s a pansy bed, always planted in some kind of pattern. This year’s is the most unusual; it’s planted to create a large white arrow!

PansyBed2_blog

Park_blog

A shot of the park. It’s even more beautiful now than it was earlier in the week. My friend and I drove by after dinner last night, and it was stunning. There are over 500 lilac bushes. You can smell them from the car.

WhiteBlossoms_blog

This is my pick for the week. Not a lilace after all, and worse yet, I’m not sure what kind of tree it is.

Here’s one last photo. This one is of our street at the far end that goes into the Colgate Divinity School property.

SummitDrive_blog

It seemed like a long wait for spring this year, but it’s always worth waiting for.

 

 

 

52/50 Week 18

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This week’s photos are a little of this and a lot of spring. We’ve had an entire week of above average temperatures and all-day sunshine. It’s been glorious, and according to our favorite meteorologist it’s going to last most of the coming week as well.

Sunday Tracy and I walked to Park Ave. for breakfast. As we passed our neighbor, Marge’s, house we stopped by her garage sale. She’s about to enter the Peace Corp for two years serving in Moldova. I’ve been looking for a working vintage typewriter for awhile, and she had one. I was happy to take it off her hands.

4.28Typewriter_blog

Monday night we hosted our duplicate bridge group. When I asked for a dessert suggestion, Tracy was quick to reply, “Cathy’s cake.” Our friend brought this chocolate praline cake last month and it was divine. You can find the recipe here.

4.29ChocolatePraline_blog

Although I took a lot of photos this week, most of them were with my iPhone on my daily walks. The rest of the 52/50 photos came from our yard.

5.2Rhododendron_blog

Azalea_blog

JapaneseMaple_blog

PorchFlowers2_blog

This photo of our Korean Pear tree is my pick for the week. 

5.1PearTree_blog

More photo inspiration can always be found at Kent Weakley’s P52 Project.

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