Detail

I love the Joslyn Art Museum's architecture. The style is Art Deco and the main part of the building was completed in 1931. The new addition was added in 1994. I love the details on the outside of the museum, especially the sculptural panels that can be found on all sides of the building. This is a photo of the "Dissemination of Intelligence (or, Distribution of News)." It was the first of the panels to be carved; more information can be found here: http://www.joslyn.org/collections-and-exhibitions/the-building/details.aspx?ID=2.  I'm also very excited that soon, admission to the Museum will be free 7 days a week. What a great gem we have in Omaha! -Dina 

When I think of a photo with detail, I think of one with a tight crop that removes the extraneous clutter and allows the viewer to focus just on the most visually interesting part(s). In this particular photo, I think the interesting details are the beautiful pattern of the girl's head scarf, and also the colored squares of her art project. By the way, she was very focused on the details of this bird feeder - despite the seeming randomness of the pattern, she had a very specific plan for what colors went in what squares.  -Cort

Next Week's Theme: I'm trying something new this time for the theme. I asked my friend Rachel Mindrup to come up with three ideas, and I would select my favorite. She's very creative, and I knew that she would bring challenging, off-the-wall ideas that Dina and I may not think of ourselves. She succeeded. Without further delay, next week's theme is: 22

Crowded

I went to a Kansas City Royals baseball game against the Yankees this week, so that gave me plenty of opportunity to experience "crowded." The height of my frustration with the crowds during an event like this is the traffic on the way there, finding a parking spot, and the traffic on the way out. I got a good vantage point from the upper tier of the stadium and then I strapped on the telephoto lens and zoomed in on this crowded space. -Cort

The only major crowd I encountered this weekend was the one at Menards on the first nice Saturday in Omaha since last summer. I didn't have my camera to capture the chaos in the garden center (shame on me!) so instead, I looked up the definition of crowded: 

crowded  past participle, past tense of crowd (Verb)

Verb

1. (of a number of people) Fill (a space) almost completely, leaving little or no room for movement.   ............I liked the idea of finding something that fit the description, and even though they aren't people, the crayons fill their space in a very organized, complete and crowded way. -Dina

Next week's theme: Detail

Broken

I love my new mini globe for my garden that is made up of broken pieces of glass. If only it would warm up enough to actually garden. -Dina 

Aren't we all broken in one way or another? I tried a self portrait this week. I bought a cheap mirror at Goodwill and broke it on purpose (let's hope the 7 years of bad luck thing is just an old wives' tale). I then positioned the camera, the mirror, and myself so that my image was reflected. It took a long time and a lot of clicks to get the positioning, focus, and exposure settings just right, but I finally ended up with an image I'm happy with.  -Cort

Next Week's Theme: Crowded

Zig Zag

If you want to take a photo with sunlight and strong shadows, this has been a challenging spring so far. It seems like we have sun for only a couple days a week, so you better be ready when the clouds finally part. This is the shadow of a handrail on the granite staircase outside of the building where I work.  -Cort

 

Pinking shears...cutting zig zag patterns in cloth material (and grass apparently) since roughly 1931.  -Dina

Next week's theme: Broken

 

Brave

The land of the free and the home of the brave. -Dina 

The Liberty Memorial and National WWI Museum is a beautiful and touching tribute to the brave soldiers who fought in that horrific war. It should be a must-see destination on your next visit to Kansas City. -Cort

Next Week's Theme: Zigzag

Loneliness

When I first moved to Kansas City, I lived in an apartment complex across the street from a big park, that included a huge empty field with this one tree at the top of the hill. I always thought of it as a lonely tree, and it's the first thing that came to mind when I decided upon this theme. When I lived there, I took many photos of this tree, usually with a beautiful sky behind it. But this is the first time I've returned to this park since I moved away from there about 7 years ago, and the dark gray sky only adds to the feeling of loneliness. -Cort

Driving by a neighborhood park this week, I realized that a playground on a cold, rainy April day is a very lonely place. It should be filled with the sounds of children laughing and having a good time. On this day there was only silence and in this case, the sound of silence was the sound of loneliness. -Dina

Next Week's Theme: Brave

Blue

My sister and I collect vintage pyrex bowls. And it all started with the smallest bowl in this picture. My mom had this blue Americana set when we were growing up. I can remember her using the biggest dark blue bowl to make bread or serve spaghetti out of. And I recently came across pictures from Thanksgiving and Christmas and you can see the bowls on our table. However, the only bowl left out of my Mom's set is the first bowl in the picture, the small light blue one. I have since purchased the other two to make my own set, but knowing that I have a bowl that was one my Mom used in her everyday baking and cooking makes it very special and one of my favorites. And in looking for the bowls to complete the set, my sister and I discovered the fun world of vintage pyrex.   -Dina

When I was in the midst of my last photography project - a photo every day for a year - I learned very quickly that I needed to look beyond sunsets, cute babies, and flower blooms. Those things can make for interesting photographs when they come along, but they don't come every day, and you need to closely examine the more mundane things in your everyday life for compelling images. I love interesting textures, and this is a hard water stain on the inside wall of a drained fountain. It's something that most people overlook, and thus don't really appreciate it's unique beauty unless I help bring it to their attention through photography.   -Cort

Next Week's Theme: Loneliness