Project 365: Monsters and melons, oh my!

This week was the closest I ever came to missing a day. Somehow, all of Saturday slipped by without me taking a single picture. Then we had company for dinner, and still the camera sat neglected on the shelf. The guests left, we tidied up and I realized that I even though it was well past my bed time, I still had to pull something together for the photo of the day. Luckily, we had this lying around taking up space in the living room.

221:365 Let sleeping dogs lie

Let sleeping dogs lie — unless you are desperate for a photo subject and it’s dark and you’re otherwise flat out of inspiration and really just want to get it over with and go to bed yourself.

These little guys were in a shop in the Byward Market. Kind of sums up how I’ve been feeling this week!

220:365 Colourful monsters

(Hey, I just realized that they made it into Explore for a little while there. Kewl!)

This week, I’ve been playing with a new technique I read about way back in the beginning of my 365 project. It’s called TtV, or Through the Viewfinder. You take a picture through the viewfinder of another camera. In this case, I used my little FujiFinepix point and shoot, because it has a terrific macro setting that lets me get within one centimeter of my subject, and held it right up above the viewfinder of my ancient Brownie Hawkeye that my uncle gave me when I was a kid. Then I cropped the image right to the edge of the viewfinder. This is my first try:

222:365 TTV Fruitbowl

It was surprisingly difficult to get everything aligned, which is why there’s a bit of a tilt to the composition. Ordinarily, I’d correct that in photoshop — but because I’m working within the frame of the viewfinder, I can’t correct it. The dark patches are the dust and scratches in the glass of the old Hawkeye.

Here’s another one I tried later in the week with Lucas. There’s a bit of a glare, which is why most people who do any amount of TtV work build contraptions with tubes attaching their digital camera to their viewfinder camera, blocking out all the extraneous light.

224b:365 Lucas TtV

The Hawkeye isn’t the ideal camera for TtV, either. I’ve been scouring the flea markets and garage sales for an old Kodak Duaflex IV or a Starflex — let me know if you have one you’d like to part with!! I’m quite addicted to this now, and would like to try a lot more TtV stuff in the future. If you want to be blown away by the possibilities (or maybe it’s just me!) take a peek at the TtV Flickr group.

Of course, I filled some gaps with more conventional pictures this week, too. I took this picture just so I could title it “Show me your melons!”

224:365 Show me your melons!

And then there was this one, of one of the grand old maple trees in our neighbourhood, just starting to show the first blush of fall colour. (Oh, the colours! Think of the photo possibilities of all that fall colour! It’s *almost* enough to make up for the end of all those gorgeous summer flowers.)

225:365 First blush

And it’s always nice to capture a lovely sunrise, if for no other reason than the picture of the day is in the can by a quarter to seven in the morning! I like this one (snapped from the window of the bus on my way to work!) because of the funky flare shape, the bit of reflection on the silhouette of the railway crossing, and the hint of mist you can see on the fields to the right of the frame.

226:365 Sunrise at the crossing

Of course, I couldn’t let the first day of school go by without commemorating the occasion!

223:365 Back to school

And, speaking of milestones, the end of August means another monthly mosaic. August certainly was a colourful month!

August mosaic

1. 223:365 Back to school, 2. 222:365 TTV Fruitbowl, 3. 221:365 Let sleeping dogs lie, 4. 220:365 Colourful monsters, 5. 219:365 Fake TTV daisy, 6. 218:365 Hair-raising slide!, 7. 217:365 Garden spider and (*cringe*) egg sac, 8. 216:365 Granny and Lucas, 9. 215:365 Lion cub, 10. 214:365 Pug, 11. 213:365 The Black Tomato window, 12. 212:365 Damn hydro lines, 13. 211:365 Contraption, 14. 210:365 Peas, 15. 209:365 Cotton candy ice cream, 16. 208:365 I’ve lost my marbles!, 17. 207:365 The apple thief, 18. 206:365 Summertime in B&W, 19. 205:365 Beer bokeh, 20. 204:365 Doughnut, 21. 204:365 Not quite ripe, 22. 203:365 Connaught Building, 23. 202:365 The lost art of Sunday afternoon, 24. 201:365 Tristan in B&W, 25. 200:365 Colours, 26. 199:365 Weathervane, 27. 198:365 Toddler rage, 28. 197:365 Vintage rose, 29. 196:365 Buskerfest revisited, 30. 195:365 Jurassic Sean, 31. 194:365 Birthday beach bliss

Author: DaniGirl

Canadian. storyteller, photographer, mom to 3. Professional dilettante.

2 thoughts on “Project 365: Monsters and melons, oh my!”

  1. I LOVE the photo of Katie! And, um, the one with the leaves and the blue sky? Would make a great gift for my mum… just in case you ever felt like giving her one :o)

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