CY365 Oct15-19 2019

I decided to take this to a weekly blog rather than daily and highlight each week’s photo prompts as a collection. I am also looking at the site canvas to create a digital photobook to link the weekly collections to. Partially to keep them as a unit, but also because there is limited media space here and I will quickly run out of room for more than just a featured image.

If I were to use a word to sum up this week, it would be orange as the majority of the photos have that color as a constant theme. As most of my weekly shooting is being done inside the house, I have been working a lot with still shot photography using a light box. It’s a style that like flat lay, I have discovered that I really enjoy.

The prompts that are featured here are: falling leaves, orange glow, home made and pumpkins. It was fun finding some creativity to make the shots happen. With falling leaves, what I had in my mind isn’t anything close to what actually ended up being the final project, but like a lot of times, what I see in my mind’s eye doesn’t translate to photo the way I hoped, so I end up letting the shot set itself. The one prompt that didn’t make it into the set was Emotions as I was unable to find time to even pick up the camera that day.

When I look back at my week in photos, I feel a sense of joy in what was produced.  I am also seeing that I am starting to discover my own sense of style and a cohesiveness that tells the story of my week from a photographic standpoint. If I were to shoot separate from the prompts, you would see an entirely different story. A story of a 2 year old girl’s adventure of the alphabet and numbers as we are working on one letter and number a week doing different crafts and projects.  One of those projects actually made it into this set of photos. The apple stamping shot for the Home Made prompt was one of our letter A projects.

I am looking forward to seeing how the weekly photo stories present themselves and where the journey leads.

October 14, 2019 CY365

Smells of Orange was a prompt I had to sit and ponder for a bit. I wanted to find some potpourri that had dried orange slices in it and figure out a creative way to use that, but when I went to find some, I was unable to find any. This forced me to think about what I could do that went somewhat outside of the box and didn’t utilize “orange” in the predictable way.

I started looking around the house to get inspired by orange, and realized I had cinnamon sticks in the cabinet and as I love the smell of cinnamon, I knew it would be a perfect representation as a smell of orange as it is beautifully aromatic. The teacup used in the photos was an object that I’ve been wanting to really utilize in a creative way, and I knew this would be the perfect opportunity. The shape of the sticks, and the fiery look of the tinsel provided a fun, fall bonfire theme and you can almost smell the essence of cinnamon just looking at it.

 

October 13, 2019 CY365

Orange. When you think of fall, you think of orange. While I used it as the base of the prompt “Warmth” a while back, I was able to go in a different direction focusing on the color and not the symbolism.

I have a hat that is a Lilly B. Haven creation that is made with large, macaw feathers. These beautiful, orange feathers are so large that I have to duck to make it through doorways, and be aware of who is to the side of me so that I don’t poke people in the face with them. It is a fantastic piece of art named Polly that I love beyond words. Her feathers were the perfect choice to make orange come to life. The hat itself is interwoven with oranges and blues and simply makes me smile every time I look at it. Orange is fall, warmth and joy.

October 12, 2019 CY365

As it would have it, the day that I take on the Capture Your 365 prompts, today’s is actually “Prompt Free”, giving me the chance to ease into this new round of daily photography. A good thing, really, because when I looked at the different prompts for the rest of the month, some of them are going to pose a challenge or be simply challenging. I am however, looking forward to meeting it head on.

Today’s photos were taken with very little pre-planning. It was more of an, “oh I could do this” type of inspiration.  They taking of the photos differed in that the leaf took a matter of minutes, while the fairy took quite a bit longer to set up the shot, and to shoot her from multiple angles to catch the best view.

No matter where I am at when I’m outside, two things will always capture my attention, mushrooms and leaves. Of course, not every leaf yells, “Hey! Take my picture!” at me. But there are those that have, well, personality for lack of a better way of putting it, that lights up my photographer eye. This particular leaf, I spotted when I had gone out to my garage. It was covered with rain, lying under a tree and I knew I wanted to catch it with a brown on brown feel.  I also wanted to highlight both sides of the leaf as the details and color were different. In total I think I only took about 8 to 10 shots in total, and was pleased with the final outcome.

The idea for the fairy in the teacup exploded in my mind like a bomb going off. While I haven’t actively added to the collection in the last few years, I still have a rather large ensemble of winged ladies. This one in particular has always been one of my favorites. Her winged companion, who seems to have just gotten in trouble by the way she is looking at him, embodies my cat Bast who died from health complications in 2014. For that reason alone, I will never get rid of this fairy, even when I pass down the rest to my granddaughter, if she wants them.

The tea cup is part of the china set that was my Little Grandma’s and the fairy is the perfect size to balance on the rim with her wings, as well as the perfect color of pink to match the pink in the china’s pattern.  When looking at the photos after they were taken, I couldn’t help but think that it looks like the cat was being mischievous and the fairy had to rescue him. All in all, it was a fun set of photos to capture, and will always remind me of my old man, Bast.

 

Day 30: Getting Creative

This set of photos was a lot of fun for me. I had started collecting Pop! action figures before my granddaughter was born, and she essentially commandeered the majority of them from me over the last year. She loves the things, so we will buy here a new one to go with them every now and again.  There are endless ways you can use them for creative photo shoots, so while she and her Paws were at the park, I snagged a few of them to do this prompt.

The Walking Dead pops were the first that I started collecting, and Bicycle Girl was the first I bought, so I knew I wanted to take her and Rick out into the yard and feature them in a series of shots as a nod to the very first episode of the show. While Rick hangs out with all the other pops in Rory’s room, Bicycle Girl is one of a handful that I haven’t let her take. This is one of the very few times she has ever been out of her box, and it was fun freeing her for a little bit.

The second set of photos I shot feature Princess Aurora (my granddaughter’s name sake) from Sleeping Beauty and Clara and the Sugar Plum Fairy from The Nutcracker. It was a Toy Story type of moment thinking about the things that toys might do when their owner isn’t home. In this case, it was princess bungee jumping as they used Rory’s bed for their thrill seeking.  After Rory got home from the park, she caught me trying to capture a final shot with Bob Dashboard Zombie for his Instagram page, and she grabbed up Aurora and Clara, so the shot ended up being just Bob and the Sugar Plum Fairy. Rory wasn’t too keen on the idea of me using her toys for these shots and let me know that she wasn’t interested in sharing right then.

The final shot that I took didn’t hold quite the creativity as the first sets, but gets the point across without question. Pokémon battles take place when the kids aren’t home, and in this case it was giant Pikachu vs. tiny Squirtle. You can just imagine the look on little Squirtle’s face because it looks like ole’ Pikachu is fixing to let loose a lightning bolt in his direction at any second.

Spending so much time on serious subjects and prompts, it was refreshing fun to wrap up this 30 day photo challenge with toys in a creative twist. I can’t help but smile, not just because I got to be a kid on this last day, but because I have completed the entire journey of “Photograph Your Days in 30 Different Ways”.  Now, I am moving on to the prompts of Capture Your 365 to continue with my daily photography journey. Thank you for following the first part of this trip through photos.

Day 29: Your Products, Let’s Talk About Macular Degeneration

The original idea behind this prompt was to get your own personal products out on social media, be it paintings, drawings or the like. I don’t do anything like that besides photography, so I decided to take this a completely different direction. I know, I’ve done that quite a bit with this challenge, but as it reflects who I am and my life, it works for me.

The products I am choosing to highlight for today’s prompt were inspired by the fact that I just got home from the eye doctor. 6 months ago, I was diagnosed with pre-macular degeneration, which simply means that I am in the extreme early stages of the disease. I have drusen, small yellowish white deposits of proteins that are building up on my retina beneath the macula of my eye. Over time, the drusen can build up enough that central vision can be lost. My optometrist has given me good news that over the last 6 months, my eyes have not show very much change in the amount of drusen build up and my vision is still very good.

The key things that can lead to AMD are smoking or being exposed to secondhand smoke, high blood pressure, having light colored eyes as they are more sensitive to UV rays, and heredity. Lucky me, I have blue eyes and my father has been diagnosed with AMD as well. They important and mandatory steps that I need to take to possibly reverse my condition are to:

1.  Wear sunglasses every time that I am outside.
2.  Take a very good vitamin, such as the one he has offered at his office, which has been proven to reverse the signs of AMD.

The first step is a little bit hard to do all the time as when I’m taking pictures outside, I can’t wear them as I can’t get the shot with them on.  I try to remember to keep them on me so that when I’m not actually taking a picture I can keep them on, but as I have never been a sunglasses wearer, it’s been a hard habit to get into and stick with. The second step, is as simple as opening up a bottle, when I remember to. It’s easy for such an easy thing to do to slip your mind when you get caught up chasing a 2 year old around all day.  There comes a point where I have to make my eyes a priority and make myself take the necessary steps to protect my vision. That being said, I do take them often, just not consistently and that will be changing.

I have a great support system in my husband who is good at reminding me to do what I need to in the times I forget, even suggesting that I put alerts on my phone to make sure that I remember to take the vitamins like I should. He has held my hand when the fear of not knowing what I was looking at was in front of me. He has been my optimism when I haven’t felt it. He is my chauffer for each appointment since they dilate my eyes  for the scans. He is as invested in preserving my eyesight as I am.

Vision is something that none of us should ever take for granted. My whole life I have never suffered from any type of problems with my eyes. It was when I got into my 40’s and started going through the normal age related eyesight changes that this issue was even discovered. I have gone from not worrying at all about my eyes, to always wondering in the back of my mind if I will eventually go blind. Not a pretty thought when you spend a lot of time behind a camera, but I also have that reassurance that right now, I don’t have anything to worry about.

 

Day 28: Mystery

Today’s prompt is actually from the Capture Your 365 prompt list for October.  I decided to go with this over the Skillshare prompt as it is Mystery. The Skillshare prompt is Your Friends, which is one that I’m not able to actually do since most of my friends don’t live in the same place as I do. Mystery is a little more doable as I have an entire bookshelf full of it.

Mystery  novels have been a favorite genre of mine as far back as I can remember. I remember as a child going to our public library, picking up a Nancy Drew novel, pulling up a dinosaur chair and getting lost while my mom browsed the shelves looking for a book for herself.  From Nancy Drew, I moved on to the Sherlock Holmes novels, and those were the stories that hooked me as a mystery genre fan. I have multiple copies and sets of these novels, one a pop up version of A Scandal In Bohemia and The Blue Carbuncle that was given to me as a gift.

As an adult, I started working at the public library for the town we lived in, and it was there I discovered the novels of Sue Grafton. The first book in the series, A Is For Alibi was released in 1982, the latest, Y Is For Yesterday came out in 2017. I have every novel in the alphabet series. As she passed away in December of 2017,  the alphabet ends with Y.  A couple of shelves below beloved Sue, is the ever popular James Patterson, and I have enough of his novels to take up multiple shelves. His writing is so detailed and intriguing, it’s hard to put down one of his books once you’ve started it.

I could go on and on about the different mystery novels I have and authors I enjoy, but instead I will recommend that you take some time and go to your library or local bookstore and spend some time among the shelves and discover some of the brilliant and ingenious books and authors that will leave you on the edge of your seat, hooking your chapter after chapter. I will forever be a fan and lover of great mysteries and spend time in their pages whenever I get the chance.

 

Day 26: Cozy With Family

As a family we don’t really get snuggly on the couch, under the blankets or the like. Our “cozy” moments in the normal sense of the phrase are few and between. We do more “Crash and Eddie” moments.

Day 25: Random

Today’s prompt is actually titled “Full Body Shot/Selfie”. I’m not a selfie person. I’m not really big on having pictures taken of myself, but will with family and friends in different situations when it calls for it.  Instead of shooting a pic of myself, I spent some time wandering from room to room in my house shooting random things, as well some rainy day shots.

 

 

Like most people when they pick up a camera, not matter what they are shooting they want to get the sharpest possible picture, and so when it doesn’t happen for me, I can’t help but get frustrated, adjust settings and if it’s a still shot, take multiple snaps until I get one that I’m happy with.  However, I am also learning to accept that while a photo may not have that professional looking quality and have some grain and noise to it, like the shot of my granddaughter looking into the camera with that look of pure happiness and joy, it’s still a great photo. It captured a moment in her life that she had no care in the world. Everything was right as rain, literally as it was raining.  Every day, when I pick up my camera, I couple hope and work with trying to be the best photographer that I can be. I don’t do this as a profession, but it is a passion and a skill that I want to cultivate to the best of my ability.  As I get better lenses and equipment, I hope that my shots will improve as well.

Days 23 & 24: Your Office/Your Desk

I decided to combine two days of prompt into one post as they essentially cover the same topic. I don’t have an office or studio, so my desk is in a corner of my living room. there is nothing that really stands out about it. A paper tray, file holder, letter tray, computers and a couple of my Halloween decorative items are all that really grace the top of it.

Working with the few items at hand, one stood out that was sitting in the letter tray. My Craic Show/Clockwork Knotwork combination CD was the non-obvious thing that jumped out at me to photograph, and it gives me an opportunity to briefly talk about this energetic pipes and drums group.

I first saw the Craic Show at OKRF a few years ago. A very high energy group that gets the crowd on their feet in a hurry, they are everything you want in a pipe and drum band. Great sound, great rhythm, and if you have Irish blood in you, they will get it up in the first few measures. While at one of their shows, I discovered their alter ego band, Clockwork Knotwork, who takes you in a completely different direction which is all steampunk and for lack of a better word, BRILLIANT! No matter which personality, 4 individuals, making up 2 bands, they are sure to show you a good time through music!

My husband and I DJ’d a reception for some friends of ours who got married a few years ago, and their thank you gift to us was something right up our alley. They knew that we were doing a spider wedding theme for Halloween that year, so they created a flower girl spider for us to be in the wedding. Her little basket hold glow in the dark maggots. We named her Ophelia and she hangs in the corner over my desk and has since we brought her home.

This little corner of the room isn’t much, but you can tell without a doubt that it holds a little of my personality in it.  It’s where I can turn my back on the world for brief periods of time and have some “me moments” working on photos.