Down the Long and Winding Road Street

208/365 "streets", originally uploaded by asterismos (Dawn).

In the interest of trying to post something here more often, I am going to begin posting at least one shot (maybe two) from each weekly theme for my 365; I am now past two hundred days. I haven’t quite taken a photo every day but I certainly have learned a lot about photography and I hope it shows in my images. This past week the theme was “streets”. Here is a shot I have been wanting to try for awhile now. It is kind of cliche but taking these kind of shots, for me anyway, increases my understanding of how various types of photos are made.

Happy New Year!

193/365 “New Beginnings”, originally uploaded by asterismos (Dawn).

Wishing everyone a great 2010!

Besides my coffee machine….

99/365 “Machinery”, originally uploaded by asterismos.

and maybe my bread machine, my favorite machine is my sewing machine. This past saturday, I was honored to again have a photo of mine place in the weekly Digital Photography School forum assignment for “Machinery”. Thanks again to all the moderators at DPS forum for voting for my photo and a special thanks to all my fellow 365 DPS assignment group members for your participation and for awarding me as winner in the weekly group icon competition for this assignment.

Updated: This photo reached position #244 on Flickr Explore for July 21, 2009. Thanks Ya’ll!

Ahoy!

95/365 "humor", originally uploaded by asterismos.

“Wait a minute, garrrr…..this t’aint me sloop!”

On a visit to Price Park this past Tuesday, daughter found this flip flop downstream from Price Lake. After a short hike, we enjoyed a midday cool off in a small creek named Boone Fork near the picnic area and trail of the same name. This week is also Price Pals week on the Blue Ridge Parkway where Junior Rangers can learn all sorts of information about animals and vegetation within the forest. We plan to attend friday’s session for sure as it is “Wilderness Survival Day” which includes instruction on ways to build a shelter and fire, and also how to canoe your way around Price Lake.

DIY Light Stand + Homemade Reflectors

I was asked by some of my fellow 365 group members to share a little bit about the homemade light stand I have been using for some of my “ghetto lighting” assignment shots. I have also recently made some reflectors so I could participate in the recent  “ghetto lighting + reflectors” assignment. I hope you find the following documentation of DIY photo gear projects useful. The above mosaic is a compilation of images showing my light stand, reflectors and images produced using my homemade gear.

I was most inspired to make a light stand after reading this tutorial. I had been using my husbands desk lamp but it unfortunately broke during the recent ghetto lighting assignment.  As a homeschooler and crafter, I recycle lots of objects. Our community has a wonderful site at our county’s waste center where you can drop off things that you don’t want or may be broken but are still usable. Anybody can take the items left for free. I have found many things that either just needed to be cleaned or have slight repairs done but are still perfectly usable to me. This saves a lot of things from going to the landfill since our trash is shipped to a nearby state.

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June 365 Mosaic

June Mosaic II, originally uploaded by asterismos.

I have been quite busy with my 365 project (and it is also a beautiful summer here) which hasn’t left much time for blogging. I have a couple of posts planned though so stay tuned. Here is a 28 photo mosaic showing my photos for the month of June. Assignments for this month included “Black & White Portraits”, “f/16″, “Sweet Tooth”, “chair”, and “Plants, but not flowers”. I have also added some links to some of my fellow 365′ers who have also have blogs.

Mosaic courtesy of Big Huge Labs fd’s Flickr Toys.

This Week in the Digital Photography School Forums…..

My photo was chosen for third place in the ‘wisdom’ themed weekly assignment. I am very excited to be recognized for all the progress I have made in my photography study over the last year. I have to say I owe it all to the current 365 photo challenge that I just started to participate in. 

If you are not familiar with a 365 photo challenge, it presents you with the task of taking a photo every day (of presentable quality) to facilitate learning of a particular subject (i.e. self-portraits), photography techniques and principles, and the camera itself. There are 365 challenges which stick to a particular subject throughout the whole year and some which just challenge you to just take a photo leaving the subject matter choosing up to you. This 365 challenge has subject matter which changes every week based upon the current weekly assignment theme at the Digital Photography School Forums. From the very start of this challenge I have done much more creative thinking than I was doing previously as I am more motivated to follow though with my all shot ideas. We are only 12 days into the 365 but I am so thankful for all I have learned thus far.

Thank you to all the moderators at the Digital Photography School Forums who voted to choose my photo. I am ecstatic. If you would like to follow along as I proceed on my photography learning journey, I plan to continue uploading my daily photos to my flickr photostream and the most recent uploads will appear on my sidebar in the chatter feeds.

Washington DC Synopsis

Several weeks ago the children and I had the opportunity to travel with Brian for the DrupalCon 2009 Conference in Washington DC. After seeing the vibe exhibited by all attendees, I would love to sit in on some of the great talks that will happen at the next conference. It also happens to be in Paris the next go ’round which is just a bonus in itself.

On this trip though, I had lots of time to sight-see with the children. We went to a science museum just blocks from our hotel and went on the traditional monument and White House walking tours. We walked all over the city and the children loved riding on the metro. Even though I did steer us onto the wrong route a couple of times, they were good sports and enjoyed the rides. We ate some really delicious Chinese food in Chinatown which made us miss the old Hunan even more. We also had some good Indian and Thai while we were there.

Besides the great food and sightseeing, the one memory I am left with, about our visit to the United States Captial, is that the people, whether they were visiting, working or lived there, were so friendly. Everywhere I went, I was struck by how everyday people offered their help with holding a door open, helping with directions or just a quick conversation on the metro.

We had pleasant interactions with many people who worked in restaurants, museums and even sidewalk snack wagons. Every business we went to had employees who were interested in showing us points of interest around the city. We had conversations with firefighters, metro employees and people just walking nearby or riding the same elevator. I was thoroughly impressed with the care employees and everyday people showed to their fellow man. I was expecting big city stereotypes but was pleasantly surprised with small-town kindness. It was extremely refreshing to experience this kind of consideration in such a big, diverse city. I am proud of the people I met there and proud to call Washington D.C., America’s Friendliest City.

To see a slide show of photos from out trip to DC, click on the photo below. If you prefer to browse my gallery at your own pace click here.

Early Riser Times Two

Downtown Boone Post Office

Here are some photos of the Downtown Boone Post Office I took last fall after the announcement from the Town of Boone that they have purchased the building. Procurement of this landmark status building in the heart of bustling downtown Boone secures not only the future of the postal services downtown, it also ensures continued public access to this historical site. The mural of Daniel Boone was part of a New Deal program which commissioned art for all post office lobbies.