Weekly Photo 5/52 for 2013: Purple Daisy

Spring has sprung here in sunny SoCal. Today’s post for my weekly photo is just one of the many flowers that has decided that the combination of scattered showers and warm weather we’ve been having mean it’s time to poke their heads up and get their bloom on!

I was good this week and didn’t just go out with the automatic settings, but played around with several different shots on manual. Some I was happy with, others not so much. I need to plan a field trip with my camera. I have a couple places in mind, but my days have been full lately.

Settings: Sony SLT-A33 • 1/500 • ƒ/5.6 • ISO 320 • 300 mm

Weekly Photo 3/52 for 2013: Silk Floss Tree

Today’s weekly photo is of one of two Silk Floss Trees (Chorisia speciosa) on our property. This tree is holding on to its blooms as long as it possibly can, despite the lows in the 20s and frost several mornings in a row last week.

I haven’t been able to get an interesting picture of the impressive thorns on these trees. The rejects from this weekly photo batch included some clouds, the moon out in the afternoon sky, some rather impressionistic ones of the back yard where I had the camera set completely wrong. But you know, in some ways I find those worth investigating because the effects are cool and if they could be applied in the right situations on purpose, who needs Photoshop filters!

Settings: SONY SLT-A33 • 1/500 • ƒ/5.6 • ISO 250 • 300 mm

Weekly Photo 1/52 for 2013: Camelia

As some of you know, last year I started a 365 project where you take and post a picture for every day of the year. I stalled out in September and even though I tried to pick it up again in October, the momentum was gone. This year, I decided to take a lot of the pressure off and only require myself to post one weekly photo, although I may take lots more. Downloading my camera and posting the pictures wasn’t the hard part. Some days it was just getting outside to take a picture. Sure I had my iPhone with me, but I don’t like the picture quality as well and it felt like cheating when the whole point of the project was to learn how to use my dSLR better. And I think I made great progress toward that goal.

I hope you enjoy these posts and looking at the year to come through my lens with me!

Your Turn: What are you doing for fun, relaxation and to feed your creative muse this year?

2012 Photo Challenge: Week 42

Week 42 of our 365 Photo Challenge.

I spent most of the past week in an allergy med-inuduced fog. So, I’m afraid it wasn’t a very interesting week photo-wise, but I took ’em!

What you see below are links to my flickr set for the photos I’m posting for this photo challenge. Click on any photo below to go to flickr and then you can navigate through the set with the “Previous” and “Next” arrows at the top.

Sun: Oct 14, 2012		Mon: Oct 15, 2012
Tue: Oct 16, 2012	Wed: Oct 17, 2012	Thu: Oct 18, 2012
Fri: Oct 19, 2012		Sat: Oct 20, 2012

2012 Photo Challenge: Week 41

Week 41 of our 365 Photo Challenge.

It’s been hard getting back in the habit this past week. I’ve had to resort to using pictures from my phone and have a VERY wide variety in subjects this week. But hey, I’m hanging in there!

Sun: Oct 7, 2012		Mon: Oct 8, 2012
Tue: Oct 9, 2012	Wed: Oct 10, 2012	Thu: Oct 11, 2012
Fri: Oct 12, 2012		Sat: Oct 13, 2012

2012 Photo Challenge: Week 40

Week 40 of our 365 Photo Challenge.

I fell off the wagon in a big way during September. Everyone here was sick at the end of August, just in time for the school year to begin. It took about 3 weeks to fully recover from the plague that descended upon our house, and even then it took a while longer to get back into the swing of things emotionally. A shortage of sleep certainly didn’t help matters and the dog makes sneaking in those middle of the day naps difficult to time.

I did take photos for week 35 (End of August) also, but they’re over in the flickr set, not posted here. Similarly, I’ve posted one of the 184 or so pictures I took during September that is going to count for that month and placed it here for the 30th’s slot. See, I took lots of pictures last month, just not spread out over the course of the month. Looking back, you can see how she’s losing her puppy looks (she’ll be 8 months next week!) and posing in what our son calls her “Majestic Golden Retriever” look.

One quarter left, only 12 more weeks really. I can do this! Stay tuned to see what the rest of the year holds!

What you see below are links to my flickr set for the photos I’m posting for this challenge. Click on any photo below to go to flickr and then you can navigate through the set with the “Previous” and “Next” arrows at the top.

Wed: Sep 12, 2012		Mon: Oct 1, 2012
Tue: Oct 2, 2012	Wed: Oct 3, 2012	Thu: Oct 4, 2012
Fri: Oct 5, 2012		Sat: Oct 6, 2012

2012 Photo Challenge: Week 34

Week 34 of our 365 Photo Challenge.

Back to school, a plague upon our house, what else could go wrong? Kind of a variety of subjects this week. Some with the dSLR, some with the iPhone. Even played with Photoshop a little with one of them. Can’t believe this week will be September already!

Sun: Aug 19, 2012		Mon: Aug 20, 2012
Tue: Aug 21, 2012	Wed: Aug 22, 2012	Thu: Aug 23, 2012
Fri: Aug 24, 2012		Sat: Aug 25, 2012

2012 Photo Challenge: Weeks 32 & 33

It’s been a busy couple of weeks here as we try to get ready for going back to school. It’s hard to believe both kids will be in high school this year. The dog is still stealing my time as well as the show. I’ve found it very difficult to remember to pick up my camera most of the time, so I haven’t had much choice in what I have managed to shoot each day. It’s pretty bad when my mother had to remind me that I haven’t remembered to post these recently either.

Week 32 of our 365 Photo Challenge.

Sun: Jul 08, 2012		Mon: Jul 09, 2012
Tue: Jul 10, 2012	Wed: Jul 11, 2012	Thu: Jul 12, 2012
Fri: Jul 13, 2012		Sat: Jul 14, 2012

Week 33

Sun: Jul 08, 2012		Mon: Jul 09, 2012
Tue: Jul 10, 2012	Wed: Jul 11, 2012	Thu: Jul 12, 2012
Fri: Jul 13, 2012		Sat: Jul 14, 2012

2012 Photo Challenge: Weeks 29-31

Apologies for not posting in such a long time, but we’ll combine the last three weeks of photos into one post. I’ve been taking them, just haven’t had time to post.

Week 29 of our 365 Photo Challenge

Olivia loves the pool as you’ll see. Lots of pictures of her being goofy. It’s difficult to keep her out of it once she’s got her mind made up. She got stuck on the slide once, but hasn’t accidentally or purposefully gown down it yet. That will be a huge surprise for her when she does.

Sun: Jul 15, 2012		Mon: Jul 16, 2012
Tue: Jul 17, 2012	Wed: Jul 18, 2012	Thu: Jul 19, 2012
Fri: Jul 20, 2012		Sat: Jul 21, 2012

Week 30 of our 365 Photo Challenge

I spent the majority of this week in Anaheim, CA at the Romance Writers of America’s National Conference. This was the hardest week to remember to take photos. I don’t like most pictures of myself, so I don’t think to take them with other people either. I should have. I’m kicking myself. The ones I did take came out crappy on the iphone, but that just means I need to practice with it more. As you see the one day, the only photos I took were of presentation slides. Oops. I also found out that DH’s camera is a month ahead for the date, so that made for weirdness when I tried to upload everything.

Sun: Jul 22, 2012		Mon: Jul 23, 2012
Tue: Jul 24, 2012	Wed: Jul 25, 2012	Thu: Jul 26, 2012
Fri: Jul 27, 2012		Sat: Jul 28, 2012

Week 31 of our 365 Photo Challenge

Recovering from RWA12 and starting to gear back up for school starting in 3 weeks. Lots of stuff to do and plan and organize. So yes, lots more puppy pictures since she’s taking over my life and takes up huge chunks of my day.

Sun: Jul 29, 2012		Mon: Jul 30, 2012
Tue: Jul 31, 2012	Wed: Aug 01, 2012	Thu: Aug 02, 2012
Fri: Aug 03, 2012		Sat: Aug 04, 2012

2012 Photo Challenge: Week 26

Week 26 of our 365 Photo Challenge. Halfway point!

I can’t believe we’re halfway done with 2012 and this project. I can tell that I’ve slacked off again lately and I need to push myself on a lot of fronts. Only 180-some more to go!