Day 9. Frosty morning.

A glorious frost greeted me first thing this morning.  My first chance this season to get some true winter shots.  I scurried into the ditch at work, and to the farm across the road, to take advantage of some beautiful views.

(Side note, my almost brand new HP desktop computer broke - won't start - got the blue screen of death when I turned it on tonight.  The computer is less than 6 months old, doggone it.  And I pretty much only use it for photos.  No kids or wild adults surfing sights where I could have gotten a virus, plus I have virus protection.  But after the blue screen of death showed up, the computer said it could repair itself.  Yeah, right.  It spent a while 'fixing' itself, and now told me I'd better backup my files.  So I suspect a visit to the computer shop will be in order.  Luckily, my 8-year-old laptop is still hanging in there.  Although it has a mysterious whirring noise that gets awfully loud sometimes.  Hopefully it can hold out until my desktop is back up and running.  But if I disappear, or start posting only middling shots taken with just my smartphone, you'll know the worst has happened and I'm computerless.)

Should I have gotten a Mac?

Well, enjoy the brilliant frost.  The beauty of ice.  (So long as it's not on the roads.  But that's a long, sad story for another time, a story about my new car and a big rock.)  Beauty for now.  That's what I'll focus on.

The Lone Frozen Weed

Evergreen in white.

Natural monochrome.

(These pictures were all taken in full color, but showed up completely colorless. Weird.  I had to double check my camera since I was not expecting the shots I got.  Neat though huh?)

Day 8. Colors, colors, colors.

My first posting from my smartphone.  We will see if I manage without lots of spelling errors. I still find the tiny keyboard a bit of a challenge.  But I totally love the DROID RAZR Maxx word suggest system. It almost always has the word I want and I don't have to type but like the first two letters of a word.   Plus I don't have to think about spelling.   Totally cool.

My picture today, taken of part of my fabric stash.  I love walking through a fabric store. All the bright colors, muted colors, shimmery colors, bold patterns,  holiday patterns...
I rarely leave without at least a fat quarter that caught my eye and made my brain feel happy.  Unfortunately, I rarely do anything creative with them. Maybe a topic for my next 365 day challenge.

Enjoy the color bouquet.
Julee

Day 7. Waiting for snow.

It's the end of November, and yet measurable snow has yet to find its way to us.  However, I found snowblowers, all in a row, like soldiers standing at attention, patiently waiting for their chance to shine.

(Finding this bit of gorgeous yellow, like liquid gold, gleaming and new, certainly brightened my day.  For a few brief minutes I forgot all about the piles of data analysis work stacked high on my desk.)

I couldn't decide which picture I liked better, so figured I'd post them both.  The head on shot gave me the brightest yellow, and the least disruptive background, but their steely toughness comes across better from an angle.

Or

I figured a year from now I will recognize which one is the better picture.  (Or my Photoshop skills will have improved enough that I can get rid of the background I don't want, and create the picture I want despite interferences.) 

"Everything has beauty, but not everyone sees it."  Confusious.

See on...
Julee

Day 6. Night Photo Try 1.

In my few attempts at taking a night photo, I've ended up with either all blackness, or with a photo that looks like it was taken in daylight.  (This was always from my use of the all powerful 'auto' mode.  Obviously auto wasn't working for me.) 

I have now read about manual mode, and thought that if I played with shutter priority and used a tripod, that I should get a usable picture. So since I felt strong and refreshed from a relaxing holiday weekend, I decided I would head to the top of hospital hill and tackle the darkness.  With the lack of snow, one might not know that it was a brisk 25 degrees out, however I donned a winter hat and gloves this trek out, and barely even noticed the cold.   (A far cry from how I felt during my photographing expedition on Friday when I went sans hat and gloves - brrrrr.  Lesson learned. Hat = Heat = Patience during photographing.)

Photograph was a moderate success! 

My tripod is my husband's old tripod, and I could not get it to stay locked in the tallest position.  The camera would wobble a bit and the tripod slipped down as I pressed the shutter button.  I also had trouble figuring out which of the knobs would tilt the camera to a slight upward angle.  I ended up decreasing the length of the back legs on the tripod, which seemed to help, although there has to be a better way.  It was pretty awkward, lots of messing around to get the view I wanted in my viewfinder.

But since I actually achieved a picture where you can tell it is nighttime, and I can pick out a few trees and the street below, I'm calling it a success. 

Watertown, SD, looking northwest from the highest view I've found so far in the city (the hospital).  Not as spectacular as the night skyline in big cities probably, but it's what I've got in my backyard. 

 

 

 

 

Day 5. Shadow on glass.

I drove around town for a bit yesterday looking for inspiration.  I drove by the hospital, which is right on a huge hill with a great landscape view, but I was kind of feeling like finding neat architecture, so was looking at the hospital instead of the valley below.

Low and behold, a series of beautiful stained glass windows surrounded the hospital chapel.  Plus, with the late day sun there was a neat shadow falling on one of the windows.

My picture does not do the window justice.  In brighter, more direct sun, the colors of the glass could probably be more vibrant.  I'll have to visit this spot more often to see what different kinds of pictures I can get.  A picture of several of the stained glass windows in a row could be neat.  I also could use a step stool so this shot could be right on rather than at a slight upward angle.  (But it was cold, I'd been out for about a half hour, and my hands were starting to hurt.  So I rushed a little.)

But I guess I was content enough that my eye found something neat, even if I didn't capture a fabulous shot.  (And I played a bit in Photoshop, but wasn't able to make any major improvements, so shot as taken is posted.)

Day 4. Thanksgiving (mini) blizzard.

Thanksgiving day.  Family celebrations fell on the surrounding weekends, so the day was mine and my husband's.  He decided that even though we would be having turkey two weekends in a row, that one more day of turkey would be fabulous.  Lucky for me, he's happy with somebody else doing the cooking.  (He hates dishes as much as I do, plus it would be more expensive to cook a big meal for two than it was to have Thanksgiving buffet at Hy-Vee, our local grocery store.)

As we ate, the most awesome blizzard started.  Awesome because there was no way snow would stick around after a week of 50 degree weather, so driving wouldn't get hazardous.   We arrived back home at the tail end of this hour long 'storm' and I was able to get a nice shot of our house in the snow.

By the time I took the picture, the wind had died down and the snow had lightened up, but I still liked the picture I ended up with.

Oh, and in the picture of the house you can also see the brand new, front steps that my husband built just a few weeks ago.  (They're almost finished.)  We needed new steps since the old steps had been painted with some super slippery paint, and also because some wood at the very top was rotted enough that I was afraid someday one of the wonderful men who deliver my Amazon packages would fall through, and then Amazon would take away my delivery privileges.

That would be a tragedy.

A neat view down the street too.

Happy start to winter.

Day 3. Dusk.

Darn this season of short days.  I had not anticipated how challenging it would be to find time to create a picture when there was so little sun.  (And we've got a whole two months left of short days, oh dear.)  I guess it is time for me to browse the internet looking at neat indoor pictures and then my goal could be to work recreating some favorite images that I find.

But I was able to escape from work a bit early yesterday and to get to the Redlin Art Center right at dusk.  Terry Redlin made beautiful paintings, and in the town where I live there is a gorgeous campus surrounding his museum.

I took lots of pictures from various angles, but there was this neat bridge that really caught my eye.  Below is my favorite from the shots I got.  (My husband liked it best too.  Although possibly that says more about our combined inability to identify a good photo than it says about my ability to take a skillful picture.)

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!  (I'm axiously awaiting seeing the Punkin Chunkin championships.)

Day 2. Cheater. Cheater.

So, I am totally cheating today.  Since I'm going to be taking pictures every day, and really should update my blog with said picture every day to keep up with the spirit of the challenge, I needed (wanted) to venture into the world of smartphones.  I haven't been in the dark ages with technology, I have an Ipod, and Ipad, which I love with a passon.  It's just up until now, I was happy keeping my cell phone bill under $50 a month.

But with all of the holidays coming up, and the corresponding traveling and family galas to attend, I wanted to be able to keep up my blog on the go.  The purchase is totally justified since it will increase my ability to fullfill my 365 day challenge.  (And I wouldn't want to let myself down by making completion of the challenge less feasible by not having access to the internet ALLTHE TIME!)

Today's picture is how I spent my free hour of daylight - getting my new Droid Razr Maxx HD.  He is pretty awesome.  Although I've already proved my ineptness with my first text - to my mom.  It felt like quite a success managing a text just five minutes into ownership.  The joy was short-lived, however, when my mom responded that I hadn't actually sent a text, I sent an email.  WTF?

Still awesome. 

Picture:  My cat, Bailey, appropriately impressed with the new phone.  ("Look at me, I can knock this new toy on the floor.  What fun, let's do it again!")

Day 1. Midwest Ethanol Plant

I work in Brookings, SD, right on the east end of town.  From work I have an excellent view of countryside.   And while I often think the rural views are a bit more bland than the brightly colored, chaotic crowdedness, and constantly changing views in a big city, nothing quite compares to a peaceful, earthy scene that goes on for 10 miles.  On stressful days at work, a step outside and a mile walk along the edge of farmland does wonders for calming an anxious mind.

This fall has been a particularly spectacular year for colorful sunrises and sunsets.  Unfortunately, my limited photography skills keep me from getting pictures that truly do them justice, but I did get this neat pictures of the local ethanol plant right at sunrise from the parking lot at work.

(Those of you with a better eye than me, or with more practice framing pictures could share with me how I could better crop this photo.  I wasn't sure what to do.  I tried making a print of a photograph similar to this one and it printed really poorly.  Not enough contrast in the dark areas?  How can I take the picture differently to get a better result?)

A 365 challenge begins.

I am a scientist.  I thrive on understanding how things work and on how changes affect processes and results.  In my daily work, I deal with lots of numbers, and statistics, and math, and life can feel pretty gray sometimes. 

I've found I love photos.  I take lots of pictures, although am just in the beginning stages of learning concepts like 'exposure' and 'balance'.  Auto mode on my camera has been my friend.  But my daily journeys to National Geographic Picture of the day, and DPChallenge.com, are leading me to want to expand my skills and create beautiful pictures.

So my goal for the next 365 days, is to take a picture a day showing something about life that is bright, or unique, something that reminds me life is interesting, beautiful, exciting, and vivid.   

St. Louis Botanical Gardens