Sunshine

I was so happy to see the sun this week! I had a lot of great chances to get some fun sunshine pictures; and while there were lots of great sunny shots, none of them were jumping out at me for this week's theme. Instead, I decided to think outside the box and snap a few photos of the moon last night. After all, we wouldn't see the moon if it wasn't for the sun shining it's light onto it. So here is my take on sunshine for this week! -Dina 

I was concerned about getting this photo in on time! I knew I wanted to try this shot, but every day at around 8 p.m., it was rainy or cloudy, or I was busy. It was still overcast until about 6 p.m. Sunday night, when the sun finally broke through, just in time for this post. Although I'll take credit for the photo, my next door neighbor gets credit for the flower. There are some beautiful blooms just on the other side of the fence. I tried to shoot through the fence, but couldn't quite get the angle I wanted, so I sneaked into his backyard.  -Cort

Next Week's Theme: Once again I am relying on my friend Rachel Mindrup for some challenging theme ideas. She gave me three to choose from, and I'm going with something much less literal, and more open to interpretation than what we've typically done so far. It should be fun shooting A Hidden Agenda.

Falling

I chose a theme that would be relatively easy for me this week, since I knew at the time that I would be visiting Fallingwater (the house designed by Frank Lloyd Wright), as well as several nearby waterfalls in Ohiopyle State Park in Pennsylvania, and I really wanted to post a photo from there.
 
I loved Fallingwater, but it's hard to get a unique photo of that place that hasn't been taken hundreds of times before. So instead, I went with one from Cucumber Falls. It's a beautiful setting, as the waterfall cascades into a horseshoe-shaped cave. I spent at least an hour taking photos and just admiring the scenery.  -Cort

 

This weekend was the 89th annual Santa Lucia Festival. It is the city's largest ethnic festival and the Turco family has been going to it since it's beginning. It's also always perfect weather. Except for this weekend. They even postponed the main part of the festival: the bringing the Saint out of St. Francis Cabrini Church and processing down to the carnival (located for several years now at Lewis & Clark Landing). Due to the predicted stormy weather on Saturday night, they moved the procession to Sunday morning. 

As the Saint is brought out, someone sings over a loud speaker "Santa Lucia", and at the end of the song, they fire off a cannon full of confetti. It sounds corny but gives you goose bumps every time. At any rate, I had big plans to photograph the red, green and white confetti FALLING to the ground. The constant downpour cancelled the confetti (imagine a huge blob of wet confetti smacking someone in the head) so instead I'm settling for the rain falling down on St. Lucy. In the picture, it almost looks like snow. Despite the chilly, wet, rainy February like weather, we still had a wonderful time at our beloved Santa Lucia festival. -Dina

Next Week's Theme: Sunshine (I'm so sick of the rain and gray cloudy days!)

Double

When I chose this theme, I had this photo idea in mind and it turned out just as I had hoped. My friends Mike and Patti bought a tandem bicycle last year and went nuts. In a good way! :) They pedal all over town, ride all the bike trails and get out and about as often as they can on their bike. I thought it would make a perfect Double photo! And we had a lot of fun getting this shot. I made them ride back and forth and back and forth several times while an approaching storm made for a nice backdrop. And if you think turning a tandem bike around on a bike path is easy; well, it's not. :) So thanks to Mike and Patti for being such good sports!!!! And have fun on your double bike! -Dina 

I just got back from a trip to Pittsburgh, southwest Pennsylvania, and West Virginia (that's why I'm late with this post), and I absolutely love visiting new places and photographing new things. As we were traveling on the interstate through Pittsburgh, my traveling companion noted the beautiful blue spires poking above the other buildings. I glanced over and immediately thought of this theme. I rapidly moved over two lanes to the off ramp so I could find and photograph these landmarks. It was a fortunate coincidence that the half moon was positioned perfectly behind them. By the way, these spires belong to an Orthodox Ukrainian church.  -Cort

Next Week's Theme: Falling

22

I think this is the most fun I've had doing this blog so far, both determining my concept, and then executing this idea. As I mentioned in the previous post, I asked my friend Rachel to give me three theme ideas, and I would select my favorite. When I picked 22, several concepts came to mind - shooting 22 of something, shooting the sunrise on the morning of May 22, finding an object that was shaped like 2's.

I finally settled on "painting" light in the shape of 22. The perfect source for this was the tail lights of a car. So I parked myself on a bench by a busy road at night, set the shutter speed for 1/4 sec., and clicked away at passing cars. I would intentionally jiggle the camera while pressing the shutter. I took 164 exposures, and of course most of them turned out as random squiggle shapes, but I ended up with a couple that were shaped like 2's, and this was my favorite.   -Cort

 

This was a fun theme. I too, pondered over all things 22 during the week. I even found myself counting the light bulbs on the carousal mirror at the zoo (and darn it, there were 23). I have always enjoyed reading, especially in the summer:  it seems like there is more time to read. So I grabbed 22 of my favorite books. Of course, I have so many favorites, that it was hard to just pick 22. But these 22 are some of the ones that I love and many of them are ones that I've read several times. And plan to read again!  I've also had the honor of meeting David Sedaris and Billy Collins and they signed their books for me...how cool is that?!  -Dina

Next week's theme: Double

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