Random Photo Catch-up Post 2-- DONE!

I'VE FINALLY CAUGHT UP WITH MY EDITING! Kind of. At least for this challenge, anyway... -bites lip-
Okay, on to the randomness.

219/365; Aug 18, 2011; Playing with an angel statuette

220/365; Aug 19, 2011; Barely edited flower in a neighbor's yard

221/365; Aug 20, 2011; Gotta love restaurant signs.

222/365; Aug 21, 2011; Bee and wildflowers on a photo walk

232/365; Aug 31, 2011; Otherwise unedited HDR-style tomatoes given to us by a friend

233/365; Sept 1, 2011; Duck? Vintage duck? Taken from the car

234/365; Sept 2, 2011; "The Mile-High Club"

235/365; Sept 3, 2011; Weed in my dog's yard

236/365; Sept 4, 2011; "Think she can see me?"

237/365; Sept 5, 2011; Um... random neighbor's lawn ornament.

238/365; Sept 6; Really interesting texture on a bridge

239/365; Sept 7; Must have had a texture complex those days... Another *ahem* interesting texture

240/365; Sept 8; A wall that must have looked pretty cool to me at the time.

241/365; Sept 9; The view from my seat every night

242/365; Sept 10; I love my friends already. Even If I only met them within the past month. LOL

243/365; Sept 11; Speaking of people I love, these are my favorite people in the world!!! My grandparents. <3

244/365; Sept 12; Creepy little toy that my dog hates. (Small because it freaks me out.)

245/365; Sept 13; Speaking of my dog (LOL! Coincidence, I promise), this is her waiting for Gma to get home. So tyoot.

246/365; Sept 14 TODAY! YAY!; Awesomely distressed foam head in my bedroom.

Okay, hopefully I'll keep up with the editing a little better from now on. But I doubt it, so don't hold your breath... LOL

Catching up on the weekend

Thursday, May 19:
It was my grandfather's 62nd birthday, but I had to spend it going from classroom to therapy appointments to a sleep study. Still, I managed to grab a quick snapshot of the chocolate flowers on Grandpa's chocolate-frosted chocolate cake. Guess what grandpa's favorite food is. ;)

I also used my webcam to take a terrible snap of what I looked like at that lovely sleep study. Beautiful, yes? LOL

Friday, May 20:
Took a quick pic of the machine all those wires were plugged into. They didn't let me go home until 2!

Saturday, May 21:
I honestly only stepped outside that day to take one snapshot that wasn't even well thought out. I only took the picture because I was rather interested in all the conflicting lines.

Today, May 22:
Still not in the most photographic mood, and again I was noticing a conflict outside my house. This time, there was a conflict between the seasons. Some flowers in my garden looked as though they'd been dried out by the harsh winter, yet they were surrounded by the lush greenery brought about by spring. I just don't get it!

"WHERE'D YOU GO?!"

That's probably what you guys are asking. Well, I have almost literally gone nowhere, and I am now officially making my return to my 365 Challenge.

I owe you guys 32 photos, but today I will only post a few that I took over the long hiatus. Sandra and I have decided that it would be best to tack the days onto the end of the year instead of posting all of the photos I took or neglected to take since (1) I must definitely say I did NOT take a photo every single one of those days, though I did take one most of them, and (2) I have been extremely sick, and by the time I get well enough to make up for the missed photos, I will have a ridiculous amount of photoshoots to work on.

Let me catch you up a little.

Ursa has finally stopped looking for Roxy and now spends her time calling out to the other dogs on the block.

Daisy, my ironically named orchid, has passed on due to overheating.

I felt better for all of three days. Grandpa hit the shutter release for me because I have managed to lose my remote.

I learned how to draw with Soft Pastels for Drawing in Color class

I expressed myself in collage form for that same class using my photos and song lyrics. (Tears of a Clown and Mad World)

I finished a Drawing project in one class session, basing it off of Monet's style and JMW Turner's painting.

The friend whose maternity photos I took had her baby. Yay!!!

And, finally...

Today, I had a stalker. He watched me that intensely for over 5 minutes. The little creep.

Otherwise, I have attended more doctors' appointments than classes, begun physical therapy, gone through withdrawal from medications, come down with a sinus infection that's currently plaguing me, spent an entire day with my grandfather at the hospital, been told I am a carrier of a blood disorder, and (holy cow, GOOD news) been informed that I am an Honor student. Now I am going to be observed for two different sleep disorders this week. Life is... something. On the plus side, I've begun a tutorial that may very well become a small e-book for you all that explains (as thoroughly as I possibly can) the Photoshop toolkit.

Thank you for hanging in there with me. I pray I don't let you down again. :-(

A Beautiful Morning

Actually, it was an ugly gray day, which was perfect for my camera. I'm extremely pleased with my photos today. In fact, I'm just pleased today, period. It's been a nice day.

I woke up to my grandfather telling me he was leaving with or without me, so I threw on some clothes, grabbed my necessities (money, camera, laptop, let's go!), and headed out. We went to breakfast [aka lunch] at a Mexican restaurant that I love, then Grandpa decided to explore a bit. We went to the beautiful park pictured above, where I got to chase around two gorgeous ducks.

Then he found a covered bridge that was technically fenced off, but since there was a trail around the fence, we went anyway like the rebels we are. Grandma, on the other hand, waited in the car. "Mama didn't raise no fool!"

Today's challenge: Illustrate symmetry.

There should be more days like today. :D

The Greatest Day I Should Never Have Had

As you might have guessed, today was a great day. I woke up to my grandparents ready to walk out the door, so I slipped on some shoes and hurried after them, camera in hand and purse on my shoulder. We went out to breakfast (or lunch, seeing as we're an hour ahead of ourselves now) and then did some shopping all over the place. While I should have been writing that Art History paper, I was busy playing with photos. (Whoops.)

Of course, my grandfather is no better than I am. He kept finding awesome places for me to take photos. One of those locations was the river near the Y bridge.

  

Another was the same river quite a few miles away, behind his job. Where just last week was a small park, there was river. Geese were swimming in the parking lot!

            

The, after some running around, I bought my very first flash unit (for my DSLR, that is)-- a Promaster 7500 EDF--, some things I had been looking for last week but couldn't find, and an orchid for a project my friend asked me to take photos for. I love orchids! They're beautiful.

Know what else is beautiful? MY FLASH! I'm so excited!!! Um... now to get to that paper...

Worn

To be perfectly honest, I took this photo a few days ago, but never really got around to editing it. It wasn't until I came across this wonderful action that I knew what kind of look I wanted. Now the photograph is just how I feel today: Worn.

Class went great. I focused my attention on learning the things I needed most immediately, so I didn't get very many prints, but the few that I actually DID finish were "perfect" according to the professor. At least technically, anyway.

However, I have no photos to show for today until next week because every picture I took was with the SLRs. Lessons learned:

1.  Always wear two pairs of gloves when shooting outdoors with SLRs in the winter.

2.  Do not wear a cap in a darkroom.

3.  Always make sure that you have at least 1 frame left out of 24 GB worth of memory cards.

4.  Enjoy every minute of your learning experiences.

:D