Day Sixteen

My guys on my weekly photo walk...

Lookin' at the ducks in Bend

Day Fifteen

We finally got the kid a real Bible- not just the book with Bible stories in it.

He hasn't put it down (well, now he's playing Wii, but before that)

He keeps saying things like, "Did you know...?"

He giggles every time Adam and Eve are referred to as "naked".

He insisted on starting with the Old Testament... even though we tried to tell him that the New Testament might  be a bit less confusing. But the boy is curious about all of it.

I love this guy and the desire he has to learn. Really, this is the first time he's put down his "Diary of a Wimpy Kid" series since he completed the collection with his Christmas money.

Day Fourteen

Sunrise...

Are words really necessary here?

Day Thirteen

I have always loved this necklace...

My oldest daughter wore it to one of her formal dances (her first, I believe).

Well, she left for college this past Fall and I was really thinking about her today.

Photographically speaking, I'm still having a blast in Lightroom and still having trouble on the focusing on more than just where the spot focus frame on my camera wants to focus. That said, I really have had fun with this shot. 

Day Twelve

I love this book. I went to college to study it.

After a lifetime of ministry positions, I still love it, though we are readjusting our relationship.

This Word never changes, but our lives do.

This scripture (Psalm 90) has been my prayer for much of my adult life... I just want, in the end, to know that my life's work mattered; that every experience was for a reason.

And that, now, God would bring us to a place where we can bless others.

There's always a hunger for Truth...

Day Eleven

So far, my theme for Mondays is "something blue".

My favorite color is blue and has been for most of my life with little deviations for pink when I was five and purple in the early eighties. Of course. I was in middle school. It's expected.

This is a photo of one of my very favorite blue things. However, in this DARK winter, I had to add light in the room which made it not at all blue... not even with a full on assault in Lightroom.

That's okay.

I know that my incredibly soft (if just a bit nappy) fuzzy throw is a beautiful grey- inspired blue. I like to think of it as the color of our ocean waters here in Oregon (when the water is blue and not green). I'm convinced. Are you?

Day Ten

This day (Sunday) is set aside for a weekly self portrait. Well, don't we all have those days when we're not suited for public consumption? I mean, at all? 

That was this day. So I put my toes in as a stand- in for me. It's all I had! The day was extra dark. No good light anywhere. We were exhausted from a big week. Nothing's in focus, but that, also, is fitting for the day...

I know I am trying to grow as a person and an artist, but this will have to do!

Day Nine

Saturdays are set aside for a photo walk.

There's a group for this on Facebook that I've joined.  I love this idea. 

Today, we were in Bend and we ended up at Farewell Bend Park. Brennan climbed a rock or two, we saw a brown, fluffy Newfoundland puppy, who was bigger than our lab/beagle- and he was only four months old! The ducks and the sun were out and Gracie and I had this assignment to do. I LOVE that we are doing it together...

 (I really need to work on focus in a situation like this...how to get everyone in there clearly!)

Day Eight

This is the thing...

Some days, it seems as though, in the middle of this winter, there are only a couple of hours of daylight. It may also seem as though there is nothing photo-worthy in my entire neighborhood that has gone unrecorded by me and my camera. I can only shoot so much yellow grass, so many dry evergreens. And I'm over snow.

This is where the stretching of this project comes in.

I was forced to find something in the low light inside my house to make a shot that is just a bit meaningful...

I really love Billy Graham.

He's one who has LIVED this walk in truth and true, Christ- like love for others. He hasn't lived running his own agenda or by marketing his own "Christian" brand. He really has been a true servant to God and man.

He's on my top five of those I'm most excited to look up in Heaven.

And, on this day, his words have lifted me up!

Day Seven

If you look closely, you can see a grove of evergreens in his right eye...

I'm in LOVE with these freckles!

Day Six

I love this expression on my baby girl. She's a photographer, too, and will very soon surpass me in skill and art. Maybe she'll let me work with her someday! So, like I said, the noise is there, but I'm going to choose to look at it as "film grain". *Smile*I will try this and the next shot next week with more appropriate settings. Hopefully, it will be warmer!

Day Five

Part of this project for me, in fact, a very large part, is to develop the discipline and experience to become a much better photographer. This means that there will be days when I think I have the shot- only to find in post processing that I missed some setting or focus issue. This will be good for me, but posting these will be hard for me. I like perfection. It's a good opportunity for me to get creative and work with what is.

The next three posts are a span of three days when I didn't bother to check my ISO. It was set at Hi 1 on my Nikon, and the noise is enormous. I worked them a bit in LR, but I'm just learning that program, as well. What I do know about Lightroom is that, if I use a preset, it is more than likely going to be "aged photo". I just really like it! And this is a beautiful piece of white chocolate! Next time, I will nail the focus! Yeah.

Day Four

Yeah, I know I need to reformat some things here and pretty it up a bit. I have plans for that. But for tonight, at the end of a very long day, I've decided to post and run. I had some fun with my son (and off-camera daughter) as we played one last evening of Beatles' Rock Band before we put it away until the next school break.

Shot's very noisy, but that fits the night...

Day Three

Self Portrait

I've never done this before. I'm not so much sad as concentrating...Ha!

I've got 51 more weeks to do something spectacular (in manual, too)

Days One and Two

This is it, 2010... you're up!

We are Duck football fans. In fact, the two older girls (my daughter and her roommate) AND my husband are all students at the University of Oregon. This is the fist time since 1995 that we were able to cheer for them as they played in the Rose Bowl! We didn't win. But, still...

Happy New Year!! 

Beautiful winter sunrise sky and some fun in LR. It really is not as spectacular here as it was in person.

... or "Leaving Prologue Behind and Living My Story"

Project 365...

The moment I became aware that people, all over the place, are part of a project in which they take one photo every day for 365 days, I knew it was something I wanted to do myself. I'm the girl who waited for school yearbooks with rich anticipation. I've always loved the recording of  time. It's proof, I guess, of memories shared and moments lived. This is why I love to write in my journal. And, yes, this is why I love photography.

Well, I gave it a go this past Fall, but I stopped when the family had a battle with that nasty but famous virus. Today the new year is rolling around and I can't think of a better time to start fresh.

I do better with structure, so I'm adding a couple of guidelines for myself. I may add to these over the next few days, but I want to keep some of my project spontaneous.

- Saturday will be a weekly photowalk. I will choose my image for that day from this walk.

- Sunday will be a self-portrait. Yep. Every week.

I'm sure I'll find other things to help structure the thing, but that's it for now. 

The scripture from Psalms keeps running through my head...the one about "teach us to number our days"...

Here it is. From The Message:

Oh! Teach us to live well!
      Teach us to live wisely and well!
   ... Surprise us with love at daybreak;
      then we'll skip and dance all the day long.
   Make up for the bad times with some good times;
      we've seen enough evil to last a lifetime.
   Let your servants see what you're best at—
      the ways you rule and bless your children.
   And let the loveliness of our Lord, our God, rest on us,
      confirming the work that we do.
      Oh, yes. Affirm the work that we do! 

-Psalm 90:12-17

These are some of my "days" since my last 365 attempt:

These are in no way perfect. In fact, most of them are during my photography class at Kilns' College while I was just learning to shoot manual. But I like, in particular, the ones I've included. I think, for me, what outweighs the technical perfection we all strive for is the "art" of the thing.

I suspect that will hold true for the duration of this project.

So, to say "goodbye" to 2009, I 'm adding a few of my original 365 beginnings:

 You get the idea. On to greater things!