Wednesday, April 17 2013: Supermom

I felt like a Supermom today.

The last couple months I have not had much energy for typical mom things like crafts, outings, laundry, cooking, housecleaning--I pretty much haven't had energy for much of anything (except watching Star Trek Voyager on Netflix and making sure my kids make it through the day well-fed and in one piece).

Today, I'm sure in part because of the beautiful weather here in Cleveland, I feel like I did it all. Made a Spiderman mask for Isaac out of felt and elastic I had lying around, took Isaac out for tea and to play at a park, and even did a load of laundry and cooked a pretty nice meal.

I snapped a few pictures with the iPhone during some of the fun parts (no pics of the laundry or the cooking).

Spiderman!

Iced Tea and Coffee at Phoenix

Playground

Tuesday, April 16 2013: Sanctuary

Sanctuary

Monday, April 15 2013: Library Window Reflection

Library Window Reflection

Sunday, April 14 2013: Relaxing

Relaxing

 On Sunday I debated whether I should take Sundays as a sabbath from picture taking. I ended up just shooting this one picture with my iPhone.

Saturday, April 13 2013: Bedtime Story 2

I can't resist pictures of Mark reading to the kiddos.

Saturday, April 13 2013: Tendrils

I had a lot of fun taking these. I'm going to see if I can go back to the Botanical Garden some day with my tripod to take more like this. I was first struck by a spiral tendril hanging down from some leaves, and as I started looking around these little creepers were everywhere, trying to coil around anything they could find.

Saturday, April 13 2013: Daffodils Abstract

These are inspired by Freeman Patterson. Both were taken with my Nikon D40 in shutter priority mode, shutter speed 1/15 sec and aperture f/20.0

Saturday, April 13 2013: Prelude

Yesterday was a fun day for taking pictures. We stopped to see the daffodils at Lakeview Cemetery on our way to the Cleveland Museum of Art, and then decided to go over to the Botanical Garden also. Then in the evening there were some cute bed time pictures that I couldn't resist.

I originally had picked 20 pictures from our fun Saturday to post. I narrowed it down to 13, and decided to share them in several posts, because some of them go together as a series, and I wanted them to be viewed that way.

So here's a prelude.

Daffodil 

CMA Art Wall

Spring Umbrellas

Friday, April 12 2013: Attic Ceiling

Attic Ceiling

Taken with my iPhone.

Thursday, April 11 2013: Demolition

Demolition

Taken with my iPhone.

Wednesday, April 10 2013: Tea on the Front Porch

Tea on the Front Porch

Taken with my iPhone.

Sunday, April 7 2013: Sunday Breakfast

Sunday Breakfast

Published out of order because this is the only picture I took Sunday, and it got lost among my other pictures.

Tuesday, April 9 2013: Front Porch Ivy

Front Porch Ivy

Monday, April 8 2013: Orchid

Orchid

Taken with Konika Minolta D'Image Z6 with macro focusing

Saturday, April 6 2013: Parking Garage Stairs

Parking Garage Stairs

Friday, April 5 2013: Breakfast and Cleveland Clinic

French Toast

French Toast 2

Letters

Cleveland Clinic Hallway

Cleveland Clinic Atrium

Ava Rose

Yesterday I ended up having three quick shooting sessions: Isaac at breakfast, a visit to Mark's mom at  the Clinic (she was in for a minor surgery, nothing serious), and Ava Rose in the evening.

I remember in previous attempts to take pictures each day, I felt pressure to find just the right time to take pictures. I might think of getting my camera out at a random time (like breakfast yesterday), but pre-judge and over think it: "These won't be any good. I need to be more intentional about planning a time to take pictures later."

I'm trying to listen to any impulse I have to take out a camera, and not talk myself out of it. I have found this to be much more fun, and it has resulted in some nice pictures.

Thursday, April 4 2013 Abstract

Glass Tabletop

This is the flat top of an old glass-top table on our front porch. I took the picture with my Nikon D40, then clicked "Enhance" in iPhoto, which adjusted the exposure and saturation, adding a lot of depth and dimension and even color that wasn't in the original photo.

Wednesday, April 3 2013: The Drive Home

City Mission

Carnegie at Dusk

Apart from new rules, another change with this new project is that I have two new cameras. Besides Mark's Konica Minolta D'image Z6 (which I like because of it's macro capabilities) and my Nikon D40 (which is my first DSLR), I now have an iPhone 4s and a Nikon D200 which my dad gave me when he upgraded.

During my last project I was sometimes frustrated that in order to take a picture I had to always lug a biggish camera around--I didn't have a pocket-sized point and shoot to keep in my purse. So if I was out all day and had forgotten my D40 (as happened today), I would have to scramble around before bed to take some pictures. Now, I always have my phone with me, so I can take pictures almost any time.

Today Mark and I drove to Toledo for a meeting, and on the way back I realized I hadn't yet taken any pictures. I've tried taking pictures from a moving car in the past, and have felt there's just no hope in getting anything good. But I had fun tonight trying to be creative and find some good shots, and was pleasantly surprised with these two.

The City Mission photo happened when we had slowed down for a red light, but then it turned green, so I got a little blur--I really like the effect. For Carnegie at Dusk I stuck my iPhone out the window when we were stopped at a red light--it turned green just as I snapped the picture. I love the color of the sky and the tree silhouetted against it. 

Tuesday, April 2 2013: Backyard in the Evening

Cut Carl Foerster

Evening Sun

Garage Door

I mentioned in my previous post that I like my new rules. I like this one too: I don't have to pick just one.

Last night around Isaac's bedtime I decided to go outside for a few minutes just to see what I could find. I wasn't confident I could make any good pictures in our dreary, spring-but-not-yet-spring backyard. But I'm pleased with these photos.

Monday, April 1 2013: Living Room at the End of the Day

Living Room at the End of the Day

My first 365 project was a lot of fun, but I had plenty of days where I had forgotten to take any pictures till the end of the day (or just didn't feel like it), and I put pressure on myself to get something good and get it posted that day.

I'm happy with my new rules. So far, instead of feeling like I need to get a great shot and get it online before bed, I've just had fun making sure to get the camera out each day and do something. I'm just glad to have an excuse to take some pictures, even if I can't make a whole event of it. 

This is just a picture at a low angle of my living room after kids have played in it all day, and you can see some of my laundry in the back. There's even a baby in there if you look closely. Not a great photograph, but a snapshot of my life in this season.