Week 21 - Illusion

Week 21, 4 weeks in a row! W00T! W00T! You've probably seen something like this before. I know I have, but part of doing something like this challenge is just posting what you have. I took about 400 pictures in the last week. Some at a wedding reception, some more at the Science Museum of Minnesota and even more at my nieces birthday party. Most of the involve people that I really should ask permission before posting their picture on the Internet. Sigh.

I don't need permission to post this one. This was taken at the Perception presentation at the Minnesota Science Museum. It's the classic, do you see a face or a vase demonstration. I was pretty excited it turned out as well as it did. The lighting in that room is changing constantly and I had never seen it before to know how the timing went.

If I get permission from my sister-in-law, I'd like to post some pictures of my niece eating her birthday cake from 2nd birthday party...so incredibly cute and a bit funny. As of right now, she's not called me back. Bummer.

So, do you see a face or a vase?

UPDATE:

Just got permission to post my second favorite picture of the week! This little lady was working pretty hard on the birthday cake and ice cream. I just love her expression!

Week 20 - Bloom and Balloons

Been a pretty busy week again, last weekend, we had a garage sale. I'm so glad those only happen bi-annually.

Here was my choice for my picture of the week for the 52 week challenge. Not one of my favorite pics but I like the composition and the depth of field. It's really got me thinking about getting a better macro lens. I've really been craving better glass lately. Must be the midlife crisis.

---

Runner up is this guy. It's a shot of a balloon landing behind the houses across the street. Neat trick if you can pull it off. The did, thankfully. We've had tons of near misses lately with the balloons. Our neighborhood is often in their flight path but lately, their landings have been pretty much in the subdivision. Well done boys :)

---

This next one is of a similar shrub/bush/flowering thing from our front yard. This one is a lot more filled out in the bloom category. I just couldn't find a composition I liked. Again, this had me longing for different glass. Excuses, I know.

---

And finally, a shrub. Keeping with the attempts at macro and not really finding what I was looking for. At least, it was green :-/

Week 19 - Target Field Panorama

Here it is, week 19. Sorry I missed last week. I had a pretty good feeling nothing was gonna happen last week. My wife was at a conference in San Antonio, Texas, so I played the part of a single father of two daughters for 5 of the 7 days in the week. I had the camera out for some family fun but by Thursday, I was wiped.

This weekend, on Mother's Day, my wife really wanted to go see the Minnesota Twins play at Target Field for the first time. I gotta tell ya, this park is amazing! For my picture of the week, you should also notice that I'm venturing out of the "as shot" mode and into something different. This is actual a panorama I created in Photoshop Elements out of 8 separate stills. I'd never really done this before so I'm pretty sure there is room for improvement.

Target field proved to be really challenging to shoot during a day game. I should have figured this since midday sun suck big time. I really can't wait to shoot this field closer to evening and even at night. During the day, the colors just seemed so muted from the blasting of the midday sun.

If you click the top picture, it should take you to the Flickr set from the day. If not, try this link. If you don't see much, that means I need to let you in. There are pictures of my wife and kids. My oldest is getting touchy about me posting pictures all over the Internet of her. She going to be in middle school in the fall. Girls...

---

This is my runner up for the week. I'm not sure this small size is really showing much of why I like this photo. If you click it, hopefully you can see what I like. The little boy is clearly enjoying the game standing on mom's lap. It's great to see the Twins fans starting this young.

It's the mood and the story I like so much. I think I got that.

We had a blast at the game. I took a ton of reference shots and plan on taking notes to the game with me the next time I go. I'm pretty sure that shooting later in the afternoon, evening and at night will produce more shots I just love. Even though it was in the 50's for temps, midday sun is just a tough thing to shoot. If you have any ideas for me, let me know. In most of these shots I was shooting with a circular polarizer. Although, to this day, I have no idea how to get anything more out of a circular polarizer I can't get out of a standard polarizer. Another one of life's mysteries.