2013 Project 52
HDR River
Week 49 {empty}We've nearly walked the complete Canal Path loop. This path will curve around to the right, following the edge of the river. Just a little further, beyond where you can see the river, is the parking lot. Follow blog circle at http://michelekendzie.com/2013-week-49-empty-path/
". . . that dream he had had, just before he had awoken with his scar hurting. . . "
Week 48 {dream} Harry Potter is bothered by a dream he had at the beginning of Goblet of Fire. We're reading this series yet again (I've lost count) because my youngest has asked for it. I don't mind. I love it.
Newly Re-tied
Week 47 {thankful} I was tired of my boot laces flopping around, so I re-tied threaded them and made the extra length go back down and up the boot again so there was just barely enough to tie a bow! As I was processing these, too, I remembered that this week's Project 52 theme is "thankful" and I thought about how grateful I am for warm boots during these cold days. It's particularly blustery this weekend!
Running in the Wind
Week 42 {wind} This was a tough theme. I was considering pronouncing the word differently and finding a clock or toy one of my kids could wind up for a photo. But we attended a wedding yesterday, where you can see there was a slight wind. It was just right for the kids to enjoy running around during the reception.
Week 39 {time} This man, James, lived a good long time in 19th century Fredericksburg. I love walking through my historic city and imagining the many changes over time.
Week 38 {from below} I'm on the sand. He's framed by the beautiful blue sky . . . mostly. :)
FAHAbeachfriendsgobbledygookkendzie2013outsidewater2013aquialanding004
Week 37 {loud} Robert being loud for this week's Project 52 theme. Not only was he vacuuming under the sofa cushions but he was also listening to music playing loudly. :)
Week 36 {peace} I didn’t actually get a picture of peace or silence for this week’s Project 52 theme. But this picture reminds me of one of my most peaceful moments in a busy week. That was when we went to the lake on Tuesday for our Not Back To School fun (we homeschool!) and I spent fifteen minutes swimming laps out in the deep water beyond where the kids were playing. I was swimming for exercise, but I also spent some time swimming relaxedly on my back. When I do that, my ears are below the water and all I can see is beautiful blue sky with wispy white clouds, so it’s very quiet and peaceful.
Under Route 1
Week 35 {shadows} This is where the Canal Path in Fredericksburg goes underneath Route 1. The reflection of the pattern of the bridge in the water below is what caught my eye. Unfortunately, with my 50mm lens and the thick pillars it was a challenge to capture the reflection. There was plenty of shadow for this week's theme though!
canal pathfredericksburgbridgegobbledygookkendzie2013outsideshadowswalkweb2013under
Week 34 {water} bubbling over hands
Nature Photo Walk in My Own Yard
Week 28 {nature} I enjoyed some time further out in nature this week, including a trip to the river on Tuesday, but I forgot about the theme until the end of the week, so I just took a photowalk in my own yard on Saturday.
We have some vines growing from underneath our front porch. They bother my husband and he’s soon going to remove them, but I find them to be a photo opportunity. I like how these two tendrils are linked together.
Passionate for Music, Passionate for Photography
Week 26 {music} I’m floundering with my photography projects. I have continued to make photographs nearly every day, but am struggling to establish a workflow that includes all the things I want to do with my pictures. So sometimes I work long on the creation of the photos, but neglect to process and post them. Usually I do process most of them — though that is taking longer since I’ve been working hard learning Lightroom over the last couple of months — but I’m not posting to my photography blog every day as I’d like.
This week I even failed at my Project 52 — the one at which I’ve been most consistent! And it really surprised me. You’d think with a passionate singer in the family and a whole family who enjoys music in general it would have been such an easy theme for me. But somehow this whole week went by without me making a good photograph of anyone making music.
However, I recalled that I shared a series of photos of my daughter at the piano on June 10.
Week 24 {bad habit} I'm in a bad habit of neglecting to exercise daily. I intend to walk every morning around my neighborhood, something I began a few years ago. Sometimes I do it quite faithfully for weeks, and other times I let it slide for weeks. I hadn't walked for a few weeks when I pushed myself out the door Thursday morning. I decided to bring my camera along to document the occasion. I was glad I did because there were some dramatic clouds and animal encounters along the way. Here's to replacing my bad habit of neglecting to exercise with the good habit of daily brisk walks!
Want to see more bad habits? Continue on our Project 52 blog circle. Up next is Jessica of The Gaggle Photography.
Week 23 {SOOC} Straight Out Of Camera | I’m just coming out of a badly timed photography slump, so I thought this week’s theme would be wonderfully easy for me. I’ve made a point of learning to expose well first and not rely on post processing, so most of my pictures come out of the camera looking okay, even though I shoot RAW. But of course, this week I’m not super happy with any of my pictures and I’ve been clicking through them for a while trying to make up my mind which one to share.
This is one of my favorite images of the week. Above you can see the SOOC (straight out of camera) version. That means it’s exactly what my camera sensor recorded, with no processing whatsoever. It was a moment of good timing and quick thinking and luck. I had already shot several pictures of the kids at the park when I turned and found my daughter sitting here, nicely backlit. I don’t recall whether I even needed to call her name; she often likes posing for me and will do so automatically when I point the camera in her direction.fahaLee Hill Community CenterRhiannonfriendsplayplaygroundWEB2013familypotluck008
Week 23 -- the processed version
For comparison, you can see how I edited it. I didn’t do very much. I increased the highlights and shadows, cropped in a bit closer and straightened it. Apparently I can’t hold my camera straight because so often I need to straighten my pictures!fahaLee Hill Community CenterRhiannonfriendsplayplayground2013familypotluck008
Week 21 {togetherness} Making a Movie | My husband is a film-maker and he wanted me to photograph the cast and crew for the production he worked on this weekend. It definitely takes some good togetherness to create a good film.
Something new I did with this photo is cover up a sign that was attached to one of the trees in the background by copying some background from elsewhere and moving it over, blurring the edges. Can you find it?
Week 20 {close up} Rain interfered with our plans to attend the Renaissance Faire this weekend, but at least it gave me the opportunity to try photographing water drops on leaves. I don't feel inclined to do a lot of macro shots, so I probably won't get a macro lens for a long time, but when I try to take close-ups, it sure makes me wish I had one!
2013project52closeupleavesnatureoutsideplants2013leafraindrops005
Week 19 {mother} I actually took this on Mothers Day, the first day of week 19, but I almost didn't get anything for this week's theme, so I'm happy even though this is not fabulously posed! We had fun! I applied some of my learned from my current photography class, Mastering Natural Light Indoors, too. They are sitting approximately 45 degrees from the window, which is mostly covered, and all the other windows are covered as much as possible, to get directional light. Behind them the windows have half circle decorative windows above the regular windows, and those are still uncovered. But otherwise it was pretty dark except for the directional light from the east facing window. Nearly 2 p.m. f/4 1/200sec ISO6400 In Lightroom, slightly cropped, decreased the noise, and bumped up the contrast.
Week 18 {silhouette} Giant Battle Droid -- I didn't manage to get a silhouette of a person this week and had to resort to a toy on Saturday evening. I carefully posed the battle droid to make his silhouette interesting though, and put a bit of thought into the crop. Is there a way I could have eliminated the window screen in post-processing? I know now I should have just gone outside. An interesting thing about this is that what you probably perceived as blue sky is actually clouds. The sky was getting getting overcast. I raised the vibrancy to make the little lights on the droid stand out and I liked what it did to the sky, adding some color and texture.
Go on the blog circle at http://wp.me/pclGd-12v
Week 17 {motion blur} During this week that zoomed by I barely practiced catching motion blur and this is the best I got. Not that it’s hard to get blur. It’s really quite easy. But to make it look good I think faces should still be sharp while only moving things like bike wheels and swinging swords should be blurry. I will work more on it!
Go on the blog circle at http://michelepixels.com/2013/04/28/project-52-week-17-motion-blur-sword-battle/FAHAIanRyan Grayfriendsfront yardoutside2013readingbiking030
Week 16 {no faces} Sometimes I like to record what my kids are doing instead of their faces. Here they are playing Minecraft while waiting for their sister in the music studio.
Go on the blog circle at http://michelepixels.com/2013/04/21/project-52-week-16-no-faces/
Week 15 {from above} Ian bought this wire guy at the UMW Multicultural Fair on Saturday.
Go on the blog circle at http://michelepixels.com/2013/04/14/project-52-week-14-from-above/2013project52University of Mary Washingtoneventfair2013multicultural064
Week 14 {reflection} Still sick, I've been reading a lot. This is Divergent by Veronica Roth. The last sentence of the first paragraph on page 132 (Nook edition) reminded me of this week's theme. I need to learn how to edit with clarity and contrast without getting weird blurry color around the edges.
Go on the blog circle at http://michelepixels.com/2013/04/06/project-52-week-14-reflection/
Week 13 {colors} I have moved on to painting Ian's room. We've got some Mario decals and we're going to recreate a scene from the video game on his walls. So this is green grass and blue sky. I painted this first coat yesterday and will be painting the second coat and smoothing out the "hills" today. Happy Easter, Happy Spring, etc!
Go on the blog circle at http://michelepixels.com/2013/03/31/project-52-week-13-colors-paint-colors/
Week 12 {happy} My busy week ended with the VaHomeschoolers conference, always an inspiring event. I've been attending since my 11 year old was a toddler and every year it gets better. This year, one of the featured speakers was The Happy Scientist, Robert Krampf. Here he is getting audience feedback in one of the family programs he gave, called Energy Transformation. Go on the blog circle at http://michelepixels.com/2013/03/24/project-52-week-12-happy-the-happy-scientist/
Robert KrampfThe Happy Scientisthomeschoolsciencevahomeschoolers2013conference0172013slideshow
Week 11 {green}
I was at the grocery store when I saw something green that I would like to photograph. Or maybe I just like to eat frosted sugar cookies. So I bought this cute little cookie frog. I nearly forgot to shoot him, busy with the spackling and painting, but that turned out to be good perhaps, because I photographed him on my front porch in the light of the setting sun.
Go on the blog circle http://michelepixels.com/2013/03/17/project-52-week-11-green/
Week 10 {monochrome} For Project 52 this week, we explored monochromatic photography. I found this interesting article with examples in every color and was inspired to go further than black and white, which was my first inclination. I used the photography style presets in Photoshop Elements to experiment with several pictures. This was the best, although I was amused by the purple tinted photo of my son eating a grilled cheese sandwich. :D This is a close to Cuvier Bowl in La Jolla, a circular lawn on the cliffs that's popular for wedding ceremonies. My husband and I considered it for our own wedding back in 1996. In the hour or two we were near this spot last week, we saw one wedding end and another begin. Go on the blog circle at http://michelepixels.com/2013/03/10/project-52-week-10-monochromatic/
Week 09 {framing} Gnarly Trees
My kids were climbing and framed by this gnarly tree in Ellen Browning Scripps Park, La Jolla, CA.
Go on the blog circle at http://michelepixels.com/2013/03/02/project-52-week-09-framing-gnarly-trees/
Week 08 {wide angle}
My six year old played Munchkin with his dad Saturday afternoon and he created a very very very complicated character. He chose all these cards to represent him. :D
I practiced wide angle photography this week for my Project 52. I had to dust off my kit lens for it because I only have that and the 50mm 1.8 that is always on my camera. And then I forgot to decrease the focal length as small as it will go (18mm)! This is 28mm.
Go to the blog circle at http://michelepixels.com/2013/02/24/week-08-wide-angle-complicated-character/
Week 07 {love} Twue Wuv | The theme for this week was love of course! On Sunday we watched The Princess Bride and then my girls and I began reading the book. It started out as read aloud at bedtime, but both girls have since continued reading it on their own. I don’t get to read aloud as much as I used to anymore, and I miss it.
Note the book light acting as a bookmark and my sleeping daughter in the background. This was taken the morning after we began reading the book.
Go on the blog circle at http://michelepixels.com/2013/02/17/project-52-love-twue-wuv/CarolineThe Princess Bridebedtimebookread aloudreading2013thirteenth010
Week 06 {Grain} Playing Munchkin with Friends Grain is the appearance of texture in photos. In film it's due to particles during the processing. In digital photography it's related to the sensitivity of the sensor in the camera. You can read all about it here if you want. Since I have not really practiced being creative with photographic grain before, I considered photographing food grain instead, but then I realized that I shoot grainy pictures all the time with my little Rebel, especially in the winter when the the light of day lasts such a short time. The Rebel is an entry level camera, so it produces a lot of grain at high ISO. So I just turned my ISO all the way up and embraced the grain while photographing our game of Munchkin with friends Saturday evening. Go on the blog circle at http://michelepixels.com/2013/02/10/project-52-week-06-grain/
Week 05 {animals}
The only live animals I saw this week are birds and squirrels, too fast or faraway to photograph, so stuffed animals will have to do. These are my daughter’s stuffed animals, all lined up in the hall, sitting on sheets of paper on which she has written names. She has named each one of them after a character in Harry Potter.
Go on the blog circle at http://michelepixels.com/2013/02/03/project-52-week-05-animals/
Week 04 {low light} Videos in Bed
My daughter enjoys falling asleep watching videos. I think I’m starting to get the hang of low light photography. What do you think?
Go on the blog circle at http://michelepixels.com/2013/01/27/project-52-week-04-low-light/Carolinebedtimecomputerlow light2013lowlightreading0022013slideshow
Abacus
Week 02 {Depth of Field}
I probably should have experimented with large depth of field because that would have been new. More often than not, I have my camera aperture wide open and therefore take many photos with shallow depth of field, like this one. This is a wooden abacus we’ve had for many years. Ian has been enjoying creating this stair step design a lot recently.
A New Endeavor
Week 01 {new} We just added this calendar to our Blue Room. I had it up when the girls were young and I think it’s a great learning tool, so now that Ian is 6, I want him to have the opportunity too. The special day on the calendar is the first day of Kendzie Notschool, which is a club for homeschooling families with the purpose of providing social learning experiences, a homeschool resource center, and community. It’s starting very small, but we have exciting big plans!
I love my family.
He did rest a few times in the inflatable, until the guy shouted, "Jump or get out!"
