Project 365: Are we there yet?

I’m beginning to think this whole Project 365 thing was a tad too ambitious. How’s about we settle for a Project 183 and call it a day? Not that I’m not enjoying it, but there have been days lately when I looked forward to taking another picture about as much as I look forward to picking up the dog poop in the back yard. It’s been that kind of week.

Funny, too, because I took and posted what turned out to be my most favourited, most commented-upon, and most “interesting” photo ever last Saturday. It took about two minutes to set up (that’s about $3 of black matte fabric from WalMart draped over two shoeboxes in the background) and four or five test shots before I got this one – one of my easiest set-ups ever!



I’d had the idea in my head for a while, but it turned out way better than I’d expected. Turns out everybody else on Flickr thought so, too — it was Explored about eight hours after I posted it! It wasn’t even a difficult shot to catch — I just used a smaller aperture to slow down the shutter a bit and clicked the shutter exactly when my helpful volunteer pushed over the first domino (Tristan and Simon took turns launching the dominoes. Family fun on a rainy Saturday!) The only thing I did in Photoshop was even out the black background a bit. Neat effect, eh?

This shot wasn’t even for my 365 but for the monthly scavenger hunt. I knew when I saw the category “yellow submarine” I wanted to do something with a submarine sandwich, but even when I was heading out to Subway to pick up dinner for the family, I wasn’t quite sure what to do. I figured maybe something really simple like a yellow filter. When the girl behind the counter was making Beloved’s sub and the mustard cap came off the bottle, I only hesitated for a second before asking if I could take a picture before she cleaned off the excess mustard!



Conveniently, she was a photography student studying at Algonquin, and also on Flickr, and more than amenable to my odd photo request. And THAT’s why I carry my camera *everywhere*. And yes, this is the same Subway where I encountered Jan Harder. I walked out of that Subway with dinner for five, my MSH shot for a difficult category, Jan Harder’s business card and a bit of a receipt with Sonja’s Flickr account scrawled on it. Funny day!

The rest of this week’s photos are not nearly so interesting!

Notre Dame Basillica, because I loved the sunlight on the silver spires:

Lilacs in my favourite vase/pitcher, because both the pitcher and the lilacs make me happy:

Fruits and veggies in the ByWard Market, also for the monthly scavenger hunt, in the category “the colour of taste”:

This scaly dude was part of a Ray’s Reptiles exhibit outside the Museum of Civilization on free day. Check it out, you can see his tongue as he’s about to maw down on that plantain weed!

Also from the Museum of Civilization, for the monthly scavenger hunt category “colour outside the lines”:

Lillies of the Valley, for the monthly scavenger hunt “May Day”, because in France the tradition is to give bundles of them on May 1. (My neighbour planted these in our common garden. I’m still not sure I’m happy with them because they’re a pestilence, but at least they’re a pretty pestilence that smells good.)

From last Friday, the first day the Rideau Canal was open to boaters. This is the last series of locks before the Canal dumps into the Ottawa River. I think it’s cool that they still operate the locks by hand — I’m disappointed that in this shot the Parks Canada guy got kind of washed out and lost in the detail. Will have to get in for a close-up before the end of the summer!

We were at the Museum of Civilization on Monday, poking around out behind it where it backs onto the Ottawa River. I knew Beloved had the boys, so I didn’t have to keep too close an eye on them as I looked for interesting things to shoot, but they lost track of me. Beloved later recounted this conversation.

“Where’s your mother?” Beloved asked the boys.

“Oh, you know,” Tristan replied with a bit of a sigh. “Probably taking pictures.” Apparently I’m not the only one who finds the whole 365 thing a little wearying at times!