Day 146: May 26, 2010

Colors

 

 

This is the second art piece my daughter had in the art show yesterday.  I tried to shoot it at the show but the lighting was awful.  I didn't take as much time with this shot as I should have, but it's better than what I was getting yesterday.  It's essentially a big Shrinky-dink sheet of plastic, colored, cut strategically, and partially melted in the oven.  The kids then painted a wooden block for a base and glued the sculpture onto it.

I really like the organic shape hers took on and the colors are great.  I did not expect the projection of color onto the wall behind the sculpture - an added bonus of using a flash! Makes me want to play with this more with different lighting.

Day 145: May 25, 2010

Helping Hands Art Project

I took this photo on the date above, but am posting it a day late - yesterday was a very long day!  Yesterday was the Spring Festival of the Arts at school followed by the 8th grade play.  My daughter had three pieces in the art show, including this one.

The kids used a rubber glove to mold a hand performing an action, then cast in in plaster of paris and painted it.  They were to highlight a charity of their choice and attach meaningful words and other symbols to the sculpture then write a paragraph or two about the charity.

My daughter chose Afghans for Afghans, which collects knitted squares to make into blankets for children in the war torn region of Afghanistan.  As the entire Middle School read the book Three Cups of Tea this year, which deals in part with the abject poverty and lack of schools in that area of the world, her choice was very fitting.

It's not the best photo, but it is meaningful to me.

Day 144: May 24, 2010

Camouflage

I found this Swallowtail butterfly feeding on nectar while on my way back through campus today after dropping off the band students at practice for tomorrow's Festival of the Arts.  Normally, yellow would seem to be a rather dangerous color for a little insect, but if it hadn't been flying when I was looking, I would not have seen it on this bush.   I cropped this photo in pretty tightly (hence the less than perfect sharpness) and upped the contrast a bit to make it a bit easier to see the butterfly.  I was only able to get this one shot before it flew off.

Day 143: May 23, 2010

Harvest of One

Thanks to all the rain last week, the strawberry pots are doing well! This one is just about ready to pick - should be able to eat it tomorrow or the day after I think.  There's another one almost ready and a bunch more that are just forming. I took this after I watered them - it's supposed to get HOT this week!

Day 142: May 22, 2010

Lines of Symmetry

Today was dreary and rainy off and on...again.  After dropping my daughter off at the Zoo for her volunteer job, I stopped off at Walbridge Park across the street.  Walbridge park is a long skinny park along the Maumee river and encompasses several boat docks and lots of picnic areas.  It sits high above the river and has stone steps leading down to it, with two wide, grassy terraces along the descent.  This is the first one and it's lined with benches at very regular intervals, spaced between large trees.  

From the look of the stone buildings and steps, my guess is the park was built in the 30's as a WPA project.  I'm sure at that time one could sit on these benches and see more of the river - today the vegetation has grown too tall to afford much of a view.  Yet people must still sit here as the ground is well worn at the base of each bench in the row.  

I decided to convert the shot to monochrome as the lighting was pretty blah and hazy.  Also, it makes it look like the photo could have been taken when the park was first built - except for the size of the trees!  Do stop by Monochrome Weekend for many more monochrome shots!

This is definitely a place I want to explore further on better-lit days!

Day 141: May 21, 2010

Bubble Joy! **

Today was the last day of my Science Elective class, so I whipped up a batch of bubble solution (*the secret ingredient is glycerin) and we had some fun.  Yes, there's "Science Content" in there with surface tension and refraction of light, etc...but mostly the kids had FUN!  They quickly discovered their (wet) hands made the best bubble "wands" and also that if their hands were wet, they could catch bubbles and stick their hands INTO the bubbles!  

Today was another rainy day, so we were stuck under the long covered walkway in front of the school, but thankfully the bubbles' structural integrity wasn't hampered by the weather.  I saved the left over bubble solution and the kids in after-care played with it all afternoon.

** The title of the post is the name of a song that was on a record (yes, an actual vinyl one) I had when I was little - sometime in the mid-70's.  I think it was called Big Blue Marble, but one of the songs was called Bubble Joy - I can't remember all of the words, but the tune has stayed with me.

Day 140: May 20, 2010

Trapped

Shot my favorite chameleon today while at the Lourdes' Life Lab.  Played around with more artsy-fartsy filters in PSE.

Day 139: May 19, 2010

Strawberry Fields Baskets Forever

I always buy a couple of hanging baskets of flowers around Mother's Day.  This year, I was out scouting the sales and found a great sale! And then, on the sale rack, I found....ever-bearing strawberries!  In baskets!  Woo!  I was so excited I didn't look at a single basket of flowers after I saw them.  I'm hoping against hope the birds and squirrels don't eat the fruit before I can get to it. They are supposed to bear fruit all season long so I may have a fighting chance.There are already some white and pinkish berries on the vines and quite a few new pink flowers!   So pretty!  I can't wait to eat strawberry-everything!

Day 138: May 18, 2010

Orange Barrel Season

They say in Toledo we only have two seasons: Winter and Orange Barrel. And in my end of town at least, we are smack dab in the middle of Orange Barrel season! Thankfully I know a lot of shortcuts through neighborhoods to avoid the worst of the construction zones!  Sometimes, however it simply can't be avoided.

Today was yet another rainy, gray day.  I swear we're turning into Seattle or London!  I had a super-hectic day and didn't think I'd be able to get any sort of creative shot today at all.  Then, while stuck in traffic thanks to the above-mentioned construction, I grabbed my camera and shot the big earth-moving machine that seemed to be slowly sinking into the mud.  The traffic started moving so I only got one shot in before having to roll up my window and put the camera down so I could drive.

I cropped it super-close and started playing with more of the filters PhotoShop Elements has to offer.  I like this one in a funky sort of way (click make it bigger for the full effect).

Day 137: May17, 2010

Kitten Close-up

It's been a little while since I posted a cat picture.  It was another dreary rainy day (payback for the beautiful weekend we had) so I was stuck with shooting indoors today.  This is Wednesday, our kitten.  She is 8 months old and has grown so much since we brought her home last December!  She is still a tiny kitten compared to Colby who is 16 lbs!  

She blinks with the flash every single time and the lighting in my living room is not ideal, but managed to get this shot without a flash.  She really is a beautiful cat with a long super-fluffy tail.  One more reason I need to invest in a light or two!

Day 136: May 16, 2010

Shadows and Reflections

Today was another busy day and I had so many shots to play with from yesterday, I decided to use one of those for today's picture.  I played around with saturation and tint with this one - I wanted most of the color to be the green of the leaves - there's a lot going on between the shadows, reflections, light, debris on the water, and all the vegetation.  So much to learn about how to use PhotoShop Elements to its fullest!

Day 135: May 15, 2010

Monochrome Shadows

Two themes in one photo today! Digital Photography School's weekend challenge is "Shadows".  And I liked it better in monochrome, so it's also part of Monochrome Weekend!  Now if only I'd managed to capture a reflection as well...

This is the boardwalk to the covered bridge at Wildwood again.  Got a lot of good shots there today - the weather was absolutely perfect!

Day 134: May 14, 2010

Moth-Ra

(OK not really.)  We've been inundated by these brilliant orange and brown moths for a few days now.  They swarm around the yard in twos, threes, and fives in some sort of intricate, high-speed mating dance only they understand.  The moment they land, their wings fold up and they are nearly impossible to see, blending in perfectly with their surroundings - not a hint of orange color showing.  They move so quickly in the air I despaired of every capturing them on film.

And then today, with the warmth of the sun fading, they began to alight on the fence and open their wings to the sun.  This little guy let me get close enough to snap a few quick shots.  In fact, until I looked at this picture and saw the furry antennae tips, I'd been calling these guys butterflies!  I'm not sure what species they are but have been fun to watch!

Day 133: May 13, 2010

Eye in the Clouds

I know, I know....another cloud shot.  But they were too stunning to not photograph today.  We've been under a tornado watch all afternoon, and the clouds started to really build.  The wind was blowing and different layers of clouds were scudding across the sky at different rates - a very dynamic sky!  Suddenly a hole opened up in some darkening clouds and the late afternoon sun lit up the edges of the hole.

It must have been a good omen because the storms all scooted north of us and it's calm with a nearly clear blue sky just 2.5 hours later!