365:88 - Heartache

Eric collects old postcards of different places that mean something to him (local towns, Sky Lake, Henderson Settlement, etc). This one is from the town he grew up in.

I like to read the backs of the cards. This one has a postmark from 1919, and as you can see, there's quite a bit of writing on the card. The last part of it, though, is what broke my heart: "...come & go when I please but I have the heartache all the time."

365:87 - Rebecca

My uncle from Ohio came in for the weekend, so I got to go to dinner with some family. This is my cousin's daughter, Rebecca. She's smart and independent and fantastic. And apparently, she also enjoys chocolate chip mint ice cream.

colors adjusted using Picnik

365:86 - Last Drop

I was trying to take a picture through the bottom of the glass, but I kept getting distracted by the last drop of water left.

I'm apparently obsessed with drops of water.

365:85 - Rainy Day

I do love the rain. I also love taking pictures of water dripping off of tree branches. Since I have a cold, I figured it wasn't a good idea to go traipsing outside through the rain, so I settled for some raindrops on the windowpane and some bokeh headlights.

365:84 - Elephant Eye

My sister got this tapestry for us while she was in Europe on her honeymoon. It's got elephants all over it--this is a closeup of one of them.

365:83 - Haircut

I got my hair cut.

365:82 - Winter

I had to break out my long johns again.

contrast increased and cross processed using Picnik

365:81 - Tim's Expressions

Like my sister, my brother-in-law has a very expressive face. He showed it off for me while we were waiting for church to start this morning.

edited with Picnik

Spring is Officially Here

I decided to celebrate the first full day of spring (yesterday) by hanging a load of laundry on the line. It was a perfect drying day.

Mini Waterfall

The runoff from the melting snow and rain a couple weeks ago proved to be the perfect subject for me to experiment with creative exposure.

Technologically Minded Chickadees

As I was wandering around the yard the other day, I looked up and saw these chickadees perched on the antennae. I like how this exposure made an otherwise beautiful afternoon look ominous.

Rusty Gate

Sky Lake was once the hunting estate of Willis Sharpe Kilmer. Most of the original structures are gone, but the massive stone and iron gates remain. This is part of the gates to the East Shore.

365:80 - Jellyfish

While I was visiting Christie and Tim in Baltimore, we took a trip into DC to the zoo. There were lots of cute and fuzzy animals, but this jellyfish in its tank of blue water was really eyecatching.

365:79 - Thums Up

No, that's not a typo--that's really the name of the soda!

I visited my sister in Baltimore this weekend, and her husband bought us some Coca-Cola from the Indian grocery store down the street.

It's so great to spend time with my sister. Besides being so photogenic, she's so much fun to hang out with. I wish we lived closer so that we could spend more time together....

edited with Picnik

365:78 - Ball and Glove

Tonight Eric's alma mater plays in the NCAA basketball tournament. I don't have a basketball around to photograph, but an old softball and glove were handy, so I got a shot of them. (Baseball is Eric's true love, anyhow.)

edited with Picnik

365:77 - Clementine

I just like the color combination here.

365:76 - Wires

It was such a beautiful day that we decided to walk the few blocks to Agway to pick up some more birdseed.

I'd never walked this direction (I usually gravitate right to the park), so I had a lot of things to notice. One of them was this NYSEG substation surrounded by a barbed-wire-topped fence.

365:75 - Bedside Lamp

This lamp sits on the endtable on my side of the bed.

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365:74 - Hand Silhouette

I typically have put off taking my pictures until the end of the day, and Sunday was no exception. I was ready to go to bed when I realized I hadn't taken my picture. I picked up the camera and sat on the bed, looking around for inspiration. Since I found none, I flopped onto my back and ended up looking up at the lights. I put the camera in front of my face, and I stretched my hand out in front of me, and surprisingly, I liked what I saw, so I snapped several frames, playing around with white balance and such.

I guess procrastination can sometimes lead to interesting and pleasing results....however, I don't think it's the very best way to go!

I increased the contrast in this one using Picnik

365:73 - Crow

In the photo class that Matt and I took, our instructor suggested that we try bracketing. This was a completely new concept to me, so I figured I'd give it a try. I took a correctly-exposed picture of this crow perched in the tree, and then I tried exposing it more than what was recommended by my camera. The trees got kind of blown out, but since the crow was so black, it stayed really dark, and I really like how it turned out.

Then I cropped, softened, and cross-processed this using Picnik.

365:72ish - Oops!

Well, I forgot to take a picture for Day 72...so I snapped this random one at 12:25am on Day 73 so I'd have something to fill the space.

Ooops!!

Photographer Matt

I thought it was appropriate to let y'all know what Matt looks like when he's taking photos.

365:71 - Pop Pop's Chair

The other night, I accidentally took a fuzzy picture of this chair. Then I realized that a fuzzy picture of this particular chair is appropriate, so I took another.

This chair belonged to my grandfather, whom we called Pop Pop. He passed away when I was only seven, so my memories of him are rather fuzzy. I remember him sitting in this chair, though, and giving me the candy that I only got at my grandparents' house. I remember his smile and his strength and the thousands of freckles on his arms.

I love the stories about things he did before I was born - how he was a plumber and how he once brought a monkey home for the family to have as a pet. My favorite story is how he started to win my grandmother's heart by scooping her up and carrying her across a giant puddle--like a scene right out of a movie.

This recliner was in my grandparents' home and then in my parents' home, and now it's in our home. Besides the fact that it's a comfortable chair, I'm glad to have it because it reminds me of my family and of the great amount of love that's been passed down through the generations.

edited with Picnik

365:70 - Blur

This is how our days have felt lately.

365:69 - Paranoid Self-Portrait

The medicine cabinet above the sink in our bathroom has three hinged panels, and the mirror spreads across all three, making it easy to take some pictures involving multiples.

So here I am, trying to figure out if somebody's watching me...

edited with Picnik

365:68 - Excitement on Bevier Street

One of the interesting things about living in a city is that there always seems to be something going on--for better or for worse.

On Monday night, we were in our living room, and I noticed flashing lights outside, so I peeked out to see that a guy had been pulled over--not an unusual occurrence, really. But as the evening progressed, additional police cars came and went, and eventually a tow truck came and took the guy's car away! I saw them pull him, handcuffed, out of one police car, and then they took the handcuffs off and put him in another police car.

I really have no idea what was going on, but I just needed to snap a picture (subtly, of course) out the window 'cause the lights were so bright, and it was fun to try to figure out what was happening with the situation!

A Kodak Moment

I used my dyi macro photo studio to capture a few shots of an old Kodak Duaflex IV camera (above), which belonged to my Grandma Williams.

I then tried a couple abstract techniques:


With my camera on the tripod, I increased the exposure time and zoomed in and out with my 18-55mm lens.


I thought it would be cool to take a photo of the Duaflex with something in its view finder. The outlet was the most handy object.

Let There Be Light

Knowing that the sanctuary of Sarah Jane Johnson UMC has some great architectural details, Sarah and I both showed up with cameras for the eccumenical prayer service held there last week. This light fixture played subject for a quick etude on exposure levels.

Sunset

Our photography class instructor recommended National Geographic’s The Ultimate Field Guide to Photography, and mentioned that it could be found in the bargain section at Barnes & Noble. I swung by there one evening last week and as I was walking out of the store this is what I saw. (If you look closely toward the upper right corner, you’ll also notice Venus shining brightly.)

Safety Matters

This is a somewhat collaborative piece… On our way out of photography class last week, Sarah spotted this super awesome container. I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve walked past something like this and thought, “if I only had my camera.” I had my camera!

Edited with Picasa

The Old Rugged Cross

I love the rustic feel of the cross at Lakeside Tryst (an outdoor chapel here at Sky Lake) and felt this photo of it deserved its own entry.

Edited with Picasa.

A Nature Walk

Okay, so it’s been awhile since I last contributed. Spending more time in the woods taking photos means less time writing about them… Here are a few shots from the walk I took the Sunday before last:


Trees begin to bud much earlier than most expect. This young tree has obviously been budding for quite some time already.


There is a lovely gazebo along the lake path between the two shores here at Sky Lake. I happened to look up and see this wasp nest. I actually used my flash (something which I do not always care to do.) Learning about exposure was very usefully in getting this shot.


One of my favorite spots at Sky Lake is the Lakeside Tryst. I have a lot of great memories of spending time at this location as a camper. Apparently one of our resident Pileated Woodpeckers likes visiting this spot too!

365:67 - Brown Field

I went for a walk today since it was warm. One of the places I like to wander is the walkway that takes you up over I-81. Between Front Street and I-81 is a field that's fenced off, but today when I walked there, the gate was open enough for me to point my camera through.

The field is all brown with dead plants, but somehow this brown-ness has been appealing to me lately.

In the photo class that Matt and I have been taking, the teacher is always mentioning how we can change the feel of our pictures by adjusting the white balance setting on the camera. I did that while snapping pictures of this field, and this is the one I liked the best.

cropped using Picnik

365:66 - Mist on the Lake

Matt and I had a photo field trip walk around Sky Lake today. As soon as we stepped outside, it started raining, which initally seemed disappointing, but between the rain and the ice that lingers on the lake, mist started to rise, and it made for some cool spooky-ish shots.

365:65 - Metal Bird

My awesome sister (Christie) sent me these great earrings for my birthday. She always knows just the right thing.

edited with Picnik

365:64 - Green Sweater

I was playing with depth of field here.

This sweater is one that I bought at the Salvation Army several years ago, and my sister and my mom thought it was the ugliest sweater ever. I agree that it is a stodgy librarian sweater, but I was kind of going for the irony of that. It turns out that this article of clothing is the one that I get the most compliments on of anything I wear.

So there. Hee hee!

I am determined that Friday's picture will be a good picture....or at least a more interesting picture than the last few have been.

365:63 - Church Window

I tried to take some cool photos at the Sarah Jane Johnson UM Church in Johnson City....clearly I was standing at some sort of weird angle to this one.

365:62 - Curtains

Eric's mom made us curtains for our bedroom [thank you, Linda!], and for some reason the colors really struck me. I know this isn't a stellar shot by any definition, but there's something about it that I like.

365:61 - Vinyl

A small fraction of the collection.

cropped using Picnik

365:60 - Smoke Stack

While we were driving to Doug's to drop off a couch, I thought I'd try to get some pictures out the truck windows.

I think it's interesting that the processing can take a bright sunny day and turn it into a dismal, ominous scene.

edited with Picnik

365:59 - Seedlings

Eric planted some lettuce in a pot in our living room, and the seedlings are starting to grow! Spring is on its way, right?

edited with Picnik

365:58 - Mikaela

Our friends have cute kids. Mikaela here is absorbed in her pizza and in her Tinkerbell movie.

edited with Picnik

365:57 - Big Win

Eric got tickets to Binghamton University's last home game for the season. I'm not a big sports person, but I went along 'cause I like to hang out with my husband. They won the game, allowing them to move on to some sort of play-off situation.

I had forgotten that my camera was on manual focus, so the first shot of the confetti was a complete blur, but when I saw these two, I actually couldn't pick which I like better. I like the feeling of the blurry one--it gives it a sort of magical feeling--but you can really tell more of the excitement of the win in the sharp picture.

diptych created with Picnik

365:56 - Traffic Light

While I was stopped at this red light, I thought I'd try to snap a picture since I was first in line and I knew it was a long light.

I love the color of the sky.