I’m glad I didn’t quit my photo-a-day project last week, and I’m kinda sorry I whined at you with all my artistic angst. *embarrassed shrug* The thing about the blog is that I write whatever is in my head (if you hadn’t noticed) and if I’ve just stubbed my toe and spilled my coffee and my underwear are riding up a little bit too high, I suspect I come across as a little whiney. But I feel much better today.
This was a great week, though. I got some good photos, I had a lot of fun taking them, I discovered an awesome new shortcut (more on that in a minute) and I hit some fun milestones. On Wednesday, for example, I made it to Day 100 and marked the occassion with this picture:
(Some other dude kept trying to steal the Day 100 limelight on Wednesday, but we know who had the larger world impact during the last 100 days, don’t we?)
It’s been beautiful to be out of the house lately, and nature has given me no shortage of subjects this week. I got down low underneath these dried out weeds and shot at the moody clouds of the sunset because I thought they looked like some sort of funky prehistoric tree, but one of the commenters on Flickr said they look like Dr Seuss trees and I like that even better.
The tulips are on their way, but the daffodils are in full bloom. These guys in my garden practically begged me to take their picture on a rainy day:
And this guy lives in a bed beside the Canal. (Is there anything more lovely than a huge bed of wild daffodils? Exquisite! Plus, lying on your belly in the sun taking pictures of pretty flowers is an excellent way to spend a lunch hour! I highly recommend it!)
Katie and I had both had a long day when I snapped this portrait of her. The tolerant but oh-so-mildly annoyed look on her face? After three kids loving her within an inch of her life, I think it’s her most common facial expression these days.
We’d gone to the annual Lion’s Club pancake breakfast at the fire station on Saturday morning when I saw this giant shelf full of fire hoses around the back of the station and I was utterly fascinated by them. The little sign says “Hoses to be repaired” but why so many? How do they repair them? If these are the broken-down ones, how many good ones do they have? And I just liked the pretty colours, too.
Yesterday, I knew I’d be driving to work instead of taking the bus and going right past Hogsback Falls. Last time I was there in the blazing daylight, I couldn’t play with the longer exposure that would give the water that silky, ethereal look, but at a half an hour past dawn, the light was still low enough to get it, so I stopped for a while to play on my way to work. (Anybody want to spring for a neutral density filter for me? Anybody?) In truth, it’s not a bad way to start the day, and I was still at my desk by 7:15.
Here’s the mosaic for the month of April. It’s fun to see all the new stuff I tried this month!
1. 101:365 Falling water, 2. 100:365 Day 100!, 3. 99:365 Katie, 4. 98:365 Bee’s-eye view of daffodil (1 of 2), 5. 97:365 Feeling daffy, 6. 96:365 Hoser, 7. 95:365 Weedy, 8. 94:365 Flower vendors in the Market, 9. 93:365 Musical bokeh, 10. 92:365 Baby blankets, 11. 91:365 Bitter!, 12. 90:365 Hogsback Falls, 13. 89:365 Gears, 14. 88:365 Suburban sunrise, 15. 87:365 Pizza night, 16. 86:365 First wildflowers (1 of 3), 17. 85:365 Tristan in motion, 18. 84:365 Brothers, 19. 83:365 Mischief in the pantry, 20. 82:365 Easter candy, 21. 81:365 Colouring eggs for Easter, 22. 80:365 Selfie in granite, 23. 79:365 Orthodox, 24. 78:365 Winter’s last blast?, 25. 77:365 Beach in a bottle, 26. 76:365 Empty cradle, 27. 75:365 Rainy bokeh, 28. 74:365 Spring sun, 29. 73:365 Starbucks revisited, 30. 72:365 Just dropping by
Finally, I’d be remiss if I didn’t give a huge hat tip slobbery wet smooch of affection to longtime commenter Mrs Gryphon, who sent me the link to Pioneer Woman’s sets of free Photoshop actions (here’s one and two.) Ironically, I’d just discovered the Pioneer Woman website (funny, with gorgeous photography and great tips) but hadn’t made it to the PS action sets yet. If you know how to use actions, these provide instant and extremely satisfying photo pick-me-ups with just a few clicks, and they’re really fun to play with. I used them in the long shot of the daffodils, for instance, and in the portrait of Katie.
Hooray for finding the fun again!!
You did a great job! I love what you’ve done this month, the CD one is one of my favorites, as are the Dr Seuss trees! Plus I’m so jealous of your daffodils! It all makes me so glad you didn’t quit, look at all the gorgeous pictures you have to show for it!! :o)
You had a really great month! I enjoyed a lot of your pictures but especially the one of Katie. And thank you for the link to those actions!! I want to play with them, but I use Photoshop Elements so I don’t think they are compatible. What version of PS do you use?
Thanks Ari! You don’t have daffs where you live? They make six months of winter and five months of mosquitos worthwhile!
Beryl, she says on the site that they will not work with Photoshop Elements. We have PS2 on one computer and PS3 on the other, I think. Can you buy the educational versions at a discount because you’re a teacher? That’s how we got ours.
By the way, I was just on the Pioneer Woman website and she’s offering a giveaway of some high-end kitchen tools. I just about dropped off my chair when I saw the number of comments from people entering the contest – one she just posted yesterday, mind you. At last click, there were 17, 544 comments! Wowza! And I’m happy when I get a half a dozen comments on a post!!
No I don’t think we get daffodils… at least I haven’t seen any! Such a shame.
Hmm, I keep wanting to steal ideas from you. I keep tagging my project 365 posts as project 365 & pictures… maybe that’s redundant and I should remove the pictures tag…. and use the pictures tag only for posts that have random (non-365) pics in them.
I keep overthinking this, lol!
And daaaang you have a long blogroll. So many for me to explore now, I love finding new blogs!
Green with jealousy…love your imagination and your ability to use your camera so artistcally.
*mwah* right back at you! Glad I could help… and glad you didn’t quit 365, this week’s pictures are great – lots of fun. Oh, and PW’s comments are out of CONTROL when she does giveaways! I once entered one of her contests to win a Nikon D80 (before I got mine!) and I think there were over 20,000 on that one post. Madness.
Great shots!!!
Can you use those actions in lower versions of PS or do you need CS and higher?