Photo 52 ABCs-Playing Catch Up

I'm still participating in the 52 week ABC photography project, but I have been lagging in blogging each week's pictures. I've been slammed for time lately and lacking in inspiration for some letters, but I like that the project is a challenge. So, with that being said, here are my pics for D-G (this week is H, but I haven't come up with anything yet).

Dd Dead Tree
The husband and I live in the foothills of Mount Baldy and there is a nice little trail that begins only a few miles from our house that we hike every so often. It begins in a nature preserve and then the trail splits and if you follow it straight up, rather than following the loop, it leads to a stream and a waterfall. It is pretty tough going up once you leave the loop because you are pretty much walking straight up the mountain in full sun at that point (even in winter it is sunny, since you know, this is southern California. :) ), but it is worth it to make it up to the waterfall and relax on the rocks at the top.
We took a little side detour to a Native American historical sight before heading up to the waterfall. While the husband read all the signage, I practiced photographing different plants and landscapes, including this blackened tree. It looked like it survived a fire at some point, but with it's complete lack of foliage I decided it worked well as my D shot.



Ee Eggs
Have you ever been to Anthropologie? I love love love that store, especially all the fun kitchen and home accessories they sell. I have been lusting after the cute ceramic egg holder and berry basket since forever, but always found them to be a bit too pricey for my blood. Lately, I've been giving a lot of private lessons to the swimmers on the team I coach, which is all just extra money, so I finally allowed myself the indulgence and scooped the egg crate and berry basket up. (Now I am saving for the Canon 24-70mm L lens. ::drool::)
This photo did not really come out the way I imagined. I overexposed the picture, blowing out the whites of the eggshells. Also, I think my 50mm sucks, and I couldn't get the composition I wanted without backing up too far. (Though, I guess, I should have just cropped in PSE. oh well). I do want to try this again another day...maybe on a cloudy day?



Ff fruit
There is a farmer's market in the parking lot at Mt. SAC on Saturday mornings, which happens to coincide with my being there to coach swimming. The first 3ish months I was coaching I kept forgetting about the market until after I was on my way home, and living 30 miles away, I didn't want to turn around. Finally, I made it a priority to check out the market after practice one Saturday and was impressed with the variety of produce. I scooped up hefty, sweet strawberries, a bundle of broccolini, some tiny tangerines, small Persian cucumbers, and these blood oranges.
I am absolutely entranced by blood oranges. I love their deep red, nearly purple color, and their tangy-sweet taste, as well as their slightly morbid name. The first time I ever tried a blood orange was in a margarita in San Diego several years ago. That was hands down, the best margarita I've ever tasted, and I've never forgotten it. Each year when blood oranges come into season I want to buy them by the bagful and make margaritas. I still haven't done that yet, and now I've found so many other tantalizing blood orange recipes I want to try as well. I've also seen some amazing photographs that perfectly capture the deep crimson juice staining white cloth napkins.
I snagged several blood oranges at the farmer's market, planning to re-create those photos, but procrastination got the best of me, so I figured I'd use my new Anthropologie berry basket and set up a different shot. The red-orange colors play so well off the bright blue of the basket, doncha think?



Gg Garlic
The husband bought me From Plate to Pixel, a food photography book by well known blogger Tartlette, as a "reward" for working on my thesis a few weeks back. My friends make fun of me for receiving rewards for doing my work, but the extrinsic motivation helped jumpstart my efforts after they'd stalled out for way too long.
I poured over that book as soon as it was in my hands, focusing most of my attention on the chapters covering composition, styling, and props. I like Tartlette's clean, simple asthetic, and I've been attempting to emulate her style in my own shoots. This garlic picture was one I took shortly after reading through her book and practicing her composition and styling techniques. I feel like I achieved just what I was looking for-the garlic looks to me like I've been using it to cook with, the dried white papery skins left scattered on the counter, several heads rolling around as I search for the "perfect" clove. I also like the effect the side-lighting brings to this photo, giving some depth to the image, while illuminating the head of garlic on the left. What do you think?



So, now I am 6 weeks into this photo project and I feel like I'm getting better with creating an image, even if it doesn't always come out exactly as I imagined. I didn't plan for my pictures to focus on food, but I like working with still life subjects (especially as we don't have kids and the husband hates having his picture taken). I'm still struggling to come up with something interesting for the letter H though, and with Sunday fast approaching, I need to hurry. Any ideas?

Colorado

Just before Christmas the husband and I headed off to Colorado for a week long winter vacation. Unlike Hawaii, this wasn't a planned out in months type of deal. Rather, in early November, I told him I was itching to travel again, and soon, and I really wanted to go back to Hawaii. Of course, we are not ballers, so two trips to the islands in one year is not really in our budget. But, that travel bug was still there, so I convinced the husband we should visit Colorado. Neither of us had ever been there, he likes the idea of a white Christmas, there's lots of good beer there, and it is a huge dinosaur area (the husband looooves all things dinosaur. shhh, don't tell him I told you though, he wants to keep it a secret.)

A week before Christmas we packed our bags, I rented the 24-70mm L again, and we boarded a plane to Denver. Holy geez, it was cold there! But beautiful! We loved every moment of our trip and had an amazing time exploring some place brand new to the both of us. A month later we're still talking about the fun time we had and how we can't wait to go back again soon.

I've been more and more into landscape photography lately and I tried to capture the natural beauty of Colorado. Shooting in the snow was difficult-I hard a hard time getting the right exposure without blowing out the details of the snow. I definitely plan to print some of these and hang them in our house.

Capturing C

I usually take my ABC photos on Sunday since I have the whole day free and I have an idea ready. This week, with a cold kicking my butt and zapping my motivation to do anything more than lay on the couch, it took a few days to find my inspiration. I went to bed on Monday night running through all sorts of C words in my head, discarding ideas as quickly as I thought of them. Eventually I returned to what brought me to blogging and photography in the first place-cooking.

Rather than just take a snapshot of something cooking-related, I wanted to create an image. Something that fit the letter theme, but also had an artistic element to it. Remembering the huge bar of dark chocolate sitting in my pantry, waiting to be used, I planned out a close up of the chocolate, chopped up, with a knife in the background. I took that picture, but couldn't get the composition the way I wanted with the knife, so I removed it from my set up and played around with the light some more. I am really proud of this picture; I love the side lighting illuminating the chopped chocolate, with the rest of the bar more in the shadows. I really like the texture the chopped chocolate provides, as well as the texture in the side of the chocolate where the knife cut through.

This is an image I would print, frame, and hang in my kitchen.



Not content to settle for just one subject, I pulled out the cayenne pepper and played around with the composition. I tried a few different set ups, but ultimately went for something simple. Again, I am really proud of this image. I feel like it looks so simple and accidental, which is exactly what I wanted. It evokes the way I cook, spilling things every where and leaving a mess behind me. But to me, it also shows how far I've come. A year or two ago, heck even 6 months ago, this photo would have been merely a snapshot of some underexposed spoons on a granite counter, carefully arranged cayenne trying to look carelessly spilled, all the mess of the countertop in the background.

A, B,...not quite to C

It's not even a month into the new year and I've pretty much already given up on Project 365. Taking a photo every day feels like a chore right now. I want to take photos because I want to, not because I feel like I have to. I have been keeping up with Photo 52: ABCs though (really, not that impressive considering we're only two weeks in lol) and am having fun thinking of ideas for each letter.

The husband helped me with A and suggested ale, which if you know me, was pretty perfect. So I pulled a bunch of bottles of ale out of the cabinet and stocked the top fridge shelf. I love buying new beers, old favorites, and regular standbys, so this is actually only a small sample of what we have on hand. :)



I had several risque ideas for week 2, but wasn't sure how to pull them off well, so I thought I'd just play it safe and take a picture of some books. Bor-ing. Then I remembered the fun topless mermaid hanging by the sink in our downstairs bathroom and had my B picture! Ha! I may be making a bit of a reputation for myself in this photo group!



Since the husband was cooped up watching the playoffs, I took a walk around our little condo community, looking for other B inspiration. I really like how both of these pictures turned out! (ok, I can't find the second picture-birds of paradise-so you'll just have to look at my bare branches instead.)

Shreddin It

Remember, my goal to become healthier this year and commit to doing the 30 Day Shred? We'll here we are three days later and I've completed three days of the shred! I know, I know, 3 days isn't much, but when I think about how lazy I am and how hard the workout was the first day, I am really proud of myself for sticking with it. Days one and two were when I was still on winter break, so I did the workout at home, after breakfast, with the husband. Today was day three, and my first day back to work, so I had to change it up and workout after school in my classroom. But, the fun part was that one of my friend's at work joined me, and two others said they want to start shredding with us too! Yay for fun times exercising! lol

A friend recommended writing down my feelings/thoughts about each day's workout, so when I'm feeling like giving up or wondering if I've even made any progress I can look back and see how far I've come. What a great idea! So here I go...

Day One
Oh.My.God. Seriously, I thought the workout would never end and I basically wanted to die the entire time. The three pound weights felt like 30 pounds, my legs felt like lead and I swear they were only coming milimeters off the floor every time we did jumping jacks, butt kicked, or fake jump roped. I was whining and on the verge of tears during the last circuit, wanting to give up with every fiber of my being. The icing on the cake? I threw up after we cooled down. ::gross::

Day Two
Ugh, my legs were so stiff and sore. Today's workout was still killer, but surprisingly, also felt a tab bit easier. In the words of the husband, "it was 10% easier today." I tried to push myself harder than yesterday, which while I'm sure is good in the long run, I wound up walking like Frankenstein the rest of the day. I even had to use the handicap stall in the pool restroom while coaching, so I could use the hand bar on the wall. ::embarrassing::

Day Three
That's today! I was SO stiff and sore when I woke up this morning, I could barely get out of bed. If I thought I was Frankenstein yesterday, I was even worse today. Standing at the top of the stairs this morning, wondering how I was going to actually walk down them, I contemplated just throwing myself down them and rolling to the bottom. It would probably hurt less than the pain of walking down after two days of lunges and squats. But, alas, I manned up and hobbled down, only to realize I left my wallet upstairs and needed to go back and get it. ugh.
I was bummed not to workout in the morning today, but having a friend to work out with and keep me accountable after school was awesome and I actually found myself looking forward to our 3:30pm exercise session! I was horribly embarrassed to workout with someone besides the husband (or random strangers at the gym...), but that embarrassment pushed me to work harder and I felt stronger today than day one or two. I didn't want to cry at all! :) Squatting down to talk to my swimmers in the pool afterwards was still a bitch tonight, but it's getting better. I almost feel into the water last night trying to get down to talk to them; tonight was just painful, but on balance.
I also took my measurements today, though let's just say, no one needs to know those numbers!

Welcome, 2012

Happy New Year everyone!!! So it's a new year, which means new year's resolutions, right? Well here are 11 of my resolutions/goals for this year, in no particular order:

1. Participate in Project 365 and take a photo every day this year. My goal is to take at least 75% of those pictures with my DSLR. I love playing with the Instagram app on my iPhone, so the other 25% will come from there.

2. Participate in Photo 52- ABCs. One photo a week, going through the alphabet twice this year. I've already posted my A picture on the Facebook page, but here it is for you to see too. :)



3. Finish my thesis by March and graduate with my Master's degree at the end of Spring Quarter. This will be a big accomplishment and one I MUST do this year. No more slacking, time to get it done.

4. Commit to being healthier. This starts Monday, with the 30 Day Shred. My goal is to do the shred 6 days a week (resting on Sundays) in the hours I have between teaching and coaching. And yay for me, another teacher-friend at my school wants to do it with me!

5. Buy the 24-70L. Enough said.

6. Consistently nail exposure in landscape photos.

7. Pick a new color for the main living room wall and paint it already. I'm thinking a gray would look nice.

8. Repaint and decorate our bedroom and guest room. I want to use the same color in the master bedroom ("sharkloop" a blue-grey) and just repaint the walls that need it, then hang shelves, pictures, decor, etc. The bright blue wall in the guest room will stay, but the three white walls will probably be painted a misty gray. Again, hang some shelves, pictures, decorations, etc.

9. Learn how to home brew my own beer. This will be my "reward" for graduating with my Master's degree.

10. Another healthy goal: re-commit to eating less carbs (notice I said less and not none) and taking my metformin 3 times a day, every day. (I *really* wanted this goal to say "Make homemade bagels". *sigh*)

11. Finally learn how to edit in PSE9.