Balls!

Cleveland Rock Gym

Monkey Bread

Mark and I celebrated our Christmas this morning by having our traditional Christmas breakfast and exchanging gifts. It was a wonderful morning. Mark got me a wireless remote for my camera (on its way from Amazon) and a subscription to PC Photo magazine. This came about because an issue of this magazine was accidently delivered to our house, and I looked through it thinking it had been sent to me because of the camera I just bought, and decided I liked it. My first legitimate issue should arrive in 3-6 weeks.

Lamp Base

Frost

Helicopter

Tuesday, December 25, 2007

Farm

Monday, December 24, 2007








With all the busy-ness of the holidays I haven't had a chance to post in a couple of days, but I have been taking pictures everyday. This one is from Christmas Eve morning. I took a picture of this same farm back in July, from another angle.

Warning

Sunday, December 23, 2007

Turquoise Wall

Saturday, December 22, 2007

Sisters

Friday, December 21, 2007








On our way to Logan last night we stopped at my good friends', the Hamptons', for dinner and a visit. Ellen and Karen were having a bit of an argument over a game of Set.

Opening Statements

I started teaching Social Studies this week. The boys have been working on a mock trial. We've had a lot of fun with it. Some of them have been really getting into their roles. Here one of the prosecutors gives his opening statement while his co-counsel and the defense looks on.

Work Shoe (Sepia)

Fruit

I've been in a slump lately, partly because I've been so busy and had a lot on my mind, so I haven't taken time for photographing. I just snap a few pictures whenever I get the chance, and that usually results in not so great shots. And usually I don't get that chance until after the sun goes down, which makes it even harder because the lighting is so bad.

So, I decided to start the collection of photographic accessories--I bought a flash. My camera comes with a built-in flash, but that only allows me to cast a pretty harsh light on my subjects, causing dramatic shadows, and is really only helpful for snapshots. My new flash can be pointed somewhere other than directly on the subject, bouncing off walls or ceiling, which gives me the capability of taking handheld shots that aren't blurry and aren't so harshly lit.

I messed around with this today for only a few minutes, but it was so nice to be able to take pictures inside, after dark, and not have such trouble with the lighting. I can't wait till next week when I spend time with family, to try some portrait/candid photography, without worrying too much about lighting.

Just for the sake of comparison, below I'm posting three similar shots--1 with no flash, 1 with direct flash and 1 with the flash bouncing off the ceiling.

Beads

Lamp

Candle and Creche

Gingerbread Tree

Friday, December 14, 2007







Another late night and I forgot to post. I should get another one up tonight.

Sculpture

Night Light

Toy

Untitled

Drips

Le Petit Triangle Cafe

At the Grocery Store

Friday, December 7, 2007








As I was lying all snug and cozy under my covers last night, I remembered I hadn't posted a picture, although I had taken a couple (literally--I only took two pictures yesterday). So here is yesterday's post.

White Lace

This lace looks black, but it is really white. It is backlit, and the snow outside the window is white, so the lace is in silhouette.

More Snow

Snowy Driveway

Kitchen Sink

Christmas Lights

Orchid

Phoenix Coffee

We went here tonight to read the Brothers Karamazov. We have until 4:00 tomorrow to finish.

Sophie

Roses BW

A few days ago I posted a picture of Mark that I took at the Cleveland Greenhouse. I took over a hundred pictures that day, but Mark was just too cute for me to resist posting his smile. But, I later went back and looked at some of the plant pictures I took. I wasn't thrilled with them, but after I played around with them with my new photo editing software (Picasa, free from Google), I decided there were some really nice ones. The reason I mention this today is that they are black and white, like today's picture. You can see them at www.jpgmag.com/people/mindylou.

Fall Day

Pretzels

Mark

Condensation

Memorabilia

Mark, his parents, and his aunt and uncle spent this morning looking through old scrapbooks, photos and newspaper articles from the Walter family (that's Mark's mom's family). The article in the foreground is the wedding announcement for Mark's parents' wedding.

Thanksgiving Snow

Thursday, November 22, 2007







Mark and I were in north-western PA celebrating Thanksgiving with family yesterday. There was a light snow, and we went for a nice walk in the woods. It felt very seasonal.

Falling Leaf

My New Toy

When I started this project almost eight months ago with the digital camera Mark bought for his work, I hoped I would have fun and maybe learn a few things about photography. I have definitely enjoyed this adventure (although there have been many days where I did not feel at all like taking a picture), and I have learned, and am still learning, a ton.

A few months ago I felt I was beginning to outgrow the Konica Minolta Dimage Z6 I had been using. I'm sure there are things that camera is capable of that I never learned how to do, but there were enough times when I became frustrated at what I couldn't do with it that I began to think about getting a better camera. So, I began saving up, and did lots of research, and called my dad up several times to ask his advice. I think I learned as much or more about photography during these last two months or so of research than in the previous six months of making pictures.

Anyway, today, my new Nikon D40 came in the mail. Yay! Unfortunately by the time the battery charged it was already dark, so I couldn't do as much exploring with it as I had hoped. There's going to be a bit of a learning curve. It is quite different from the Dimage. And there are still lots of other accessories I'm going to need to buy. But I can't wait to see the pictures I'll make in the last four months of my little project. Maybe I'll even extend it beyond the year mark of March 29.

CDs

Sugar Bowl

Untitled

Kittens!

We came home tonight to find our Christmas cactus lying on the floor, dirt splayed all over the dining room and the empty pot rolling around in the living room. Aargghh.

Fall

The Brothers K

My last two Facebook status updates were "Mindy is thinking she should be reading the Brothers K..." and "Mindy is thinking she needs to take a picture tonight but is uninspired". So I combined the two. Well, sort of. Now I'm off to actually do some reading.