Week 11 - Bon Appetit!

Yeah! 2 weeks in a row!

This top picture was my choice for our 52 week challenge. This past Sunday, my wife hosted a baby shower at our house. The spread was fantastic. You'd think men had organized this by the shear volume of food people brought.

My wife his this really cool set of Ratatouille spreaders. Picking the background was pretty easy. FOOD!

Even better this weekend, I got a new computer! um, but old habits die hard. Both shots for this week are as shot. The lighting was what I found lying around, aka...it's the stuff coming through the windows.

The party was a lot of fun, or so they tell me. I spent most of the time playing on the new computer. I'm hoping to get some time in trying out this digital editing thing.

The second picture, or as some would say, the runner-up/bridesmaid, was the cupcake spread. How cute is this? The whole spread was much bigger then this, but you can't beat a cute baby, can you?

Week 10 - In Goal

This weeks addition to the 52 week challenge came from OhCountess and I taking in a Minnesota Wild game at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul, Minnesota. We had just awesome seats but I found the angle to the ice, while great for just watching the game, existed in some kind of strange, weird, sucky vortex where I just couldn't find the shot.

Oh well. It's still early in the year...

Week 8 - Catching a smile on a rough day

It's been quite a week. Not much time to just concentrate on my photography or especially this 52 week challenge.

Today I grabbed my wife's point & shoot and tried it at work. I had some idea of things to try and even shot a few of them, but I got this one on a whim. Isn't that where we get some of our best?

I caught his smile coming through on a really rough day at work. We were on our way to the pool at the Healthy Living Center to get in our afternoon workout.





Here's my runner-up for the week. I put the camera into macro mode and shot my little brain and stress dude. For the background, I moved my collection of pop tops into view. No idea why. I'm really just glad I did something this week. This is way tougher then I thought it would be!

The Cross

I was working on some other blog posting stuff tonight for a couple of my other blogs when I came across this photo.

I shot it at my wife's childhood church, happens to also be the church we were married in, but on this day, we were there for a baptism. Hi Greg! Hi Kris!

There was something about this whole frame that caught my eye. I was supposed to be shooting the family, but with all the flashes from the other cameras, my eye caught this lovely collection of lines, perspective and depth.

This is as shot. I took it into Photoshop thinking I might want to fix the color and lighting but as it turns out, I really just liked it as is. Heck, I didn't even crop it.

Tomorrow is Friday, I'm bringing the point and shoot to work and I'll hopefully find a shot for the 52 week challenge. We could only hope.

Week 7 - Plummer House

Crap. I was really hoping to keep this from becoming the 26 week challenge but alas, I missed week 6. This past Saturday, I really didn't want to miss another week so with the wife off at work, I bundled the kids up and we went to one of my favorite local spots: Plummer House.

This is the same spot where I took the wedding party pictures at the bottom of this search. This place is just amazing in the warmer months but I'd never been here in the winter.

This top picture, is my submission for the 52 week challenge. I felt this was my best composition. I love the line, the color and the textures.

This second photo is was my second choice. I have a really hard time picking between some of my photos. It's like choosing between my kids. How do you do it?

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And choosing between my kids...well here they are. I couldn't resist just shooting some with the kids in the frame. They like to ham it up once and while although my oldest daughter is getting sick of being on the Internet. Shh...don't tell her :)

Week 5 - Lunar Apogee

The hardest part of these photo challenges is just doing them. If it was only a matter of shooting and posting everyweek, I would - forget it, I'd probably miss a few of those too.

Having now missed 2 weeks worth of a 52 week challenge, I submit to you week 5. I'm beginning to think that my biggest problem with doing these is worrying whether or not I'm posting my best possible picture.

This is a shot from the lunar apogee night a few nights ago. I had never tried shooting the moon before. Getting the exposure just right is tough thing to do. I doubt I get it right this time but what I did chose to do was include the cloudy sky for texture.

Anyone got a point and shoot they just love? In my research into these challenges, they always recommend just carrying a camera with you. I have a 1st Gen iPhone, I've used it but without autofocus it's a bit lacking. I'm thinking about getting a little camera just have with me at all times.

Week 3 of the 52 week challenge - Brrr...

Yep, I missed last week. I procrastinated. I hemmed, I hawed and on the last night, I basically just fell asleep. This will hopefully be the last week I miss.

This week is probably not my best work. There were so many opportunities to get great shots of hoarfrost. It was everywhere and VERY thick. Good thing my iPhone camera white balance is putrid and I just couldn't bring myself to carry my good camera to work. Mostly just excuses. I suck.

Here's the snowman from our front yard complete with a 5 o'clock shadow of frost.

Ya! The Neon Graveyard continues

With the letters of long since retired signs laying everywhere, it was fun to find them sitting in a way to say a message. Some of them were obviously planned, others were well, ya!

Week 1 of the 52 week challenge - Caution Icy

And it begins. This is week 1 of our 52 week challenge. I have until midnight Thursday every week to submit the photo the group on Flickr. I'm not sure the other guys want me to share a link to that.

This shot actually took a trip through Photoshop. I know I rarely do it, but my back was against the wall. We see this view every day when I walk to work from this abysmal parking location. In PS, I made everything black and white except the face of the sign. Nothing really fancy but I prefer my winter shots black and white. It was also take with my wife's point and shoot. It's just too much to drag my kit to work with me. Maybe with an idea in mind it wouldn't be too bad, but when I'm clueless about what might shot might be...nah.

I'm not sure what I think of this shot. It's similar to one I did with my iPhone a few weeks back, only sharper and better perspective. I just don't know, what do you think? Major suckage? Last minute miracle? Let's discuss this....the forum is open!

Words and lines

All over the neon graveyard are words and images. There's so many possibilities for finding letters, phrases and meaningful words. Dollars just seems so fitting for Las Vegas.