a year in pictures

New Blog

2010-10-07T12:33:00.001-04:00

I have finally started a new blog. Please visit me there.

365/365

2010-08-19T11:53:00.006-04:00

My last post!
It took me much longer than a year but I did it!
I had planned on a different photo as my last post, one with a for sale sign in front of our home. We are moving to Houston, Texas. Patrick has been promoted, he will have to go to work in an office everyday after years of working from home. BIG BIG changes! I am terribly excited and a little sad. I wish I could pack my kids and Oliver up and take them with me. Being far from the children in my life will be hard. I am hoping to throw myself into photography, quilting and exploring Houston.

Oliver eleven months.

The past 20 months I have learned so much about photography. I hope with more study and practice that I will continue to grow as a photographer. I really love it. Thank you so much for following me on this journey. I am going to begin a new blog, one that follows Patrick and I as we start this next stage of our lives. I will post a link as soon as it is up and running.

364/365

2010-07-25T21:05:00.004-04:00

This weekend we had big plans to attend Great Grapes. Unfortunately it has been one hundred degrees with a heat index making of one hundred ten. Definitely too hot to be outdoors drinking. We chose instead to do a little gift shopping, a little housekeeping and some reading. Around four o'clock a big storm blew in and cooled things down to a muggy eighty degrees. Patrick and I headed to Kinder Farm Park for a walk. I love to walk there. The trail is just hilly enough to feel like you are working a bit and the scenery is beautiful.

Some parts of the trail are out in the open.

Some parts are wooded and shady. (You can see all the debris from the storm.)

The farm as seen from the far side of the park.

363/365

2010-07-23T17:36:00.004-04:00

I have not been taking as many photos as I usually do. It is too hot to do much outside. With temperatures and humidity in the upper nineties Oliver and I are spending much of our day indoors. The room we hang out in is small and not well suited to photography. I have also been a little bored with the same old shots. Today however I found myself longing to take photos. Since the camera has not been out as much as it should Oliver was totally intrigued and kept racing towards it. My toy was much more interesting than his. I grabbed this shot just before he grabbed the camera.

Those eye just melt my heart!

362/365

2010-07-19T20:49:00.004-04:00

This weeks Digital Photography School assignment is "In The Kitchen". The assignment had been in the back of my mind but I just couldn't think of the shot I wanted. Then after making minestrone soup this afternoon I was cleaning up the cutting board and inspiration hit. The end of the celery was flower like so we had a quick photo shoot.

straight out of the camera

black and white

I submitted the black and white as my entry.

361/365

2010-07-17T21:17:00.006-04:00

We found out about a year ago that Max is allergic to almost everything. His dog food is make from herring, sweet potato and oats and that seems to be working well for him. If we add other ingredients to his diet he gets itchy and his ears and face swell. Finding treats is difficult. At first I spent a fortune buying dehydrated sweet potato treats, then I started dehydrating them myself. After dropping a piece of raw sweet potato on the floor we realized that he liked it and so did Sophie. So now that the outside temperatures are in the nineties (dehydrating requires running the oven at two hundred fifty degrees for six hours) we have been just giving them raw sweet potato. Last week I was out of sweet potato and Max really really wanted something. I looked in the veggie drawer and found carrots. It couldn't hurt them so we tried. Max loves them....

Sophie isn't quite sure.

Kate and Matt decided last week that they would adopt....

(photo by Kate, edited by me)

meet Luna Lovegood.

360/365

2010-07-09T13:22:00.003-04:00

On Sunday Oliver will be ten months old. It has been very hot here and we have not been able to be outside for very long. We braved the heat for a few minutes to get some ten month photos this morning. I am hoping to be able to got some "studio" shots next week.

Did you notice the post number? Only five more post to go!!

359/365

2010-07-07T06:45:00.003-04:00

My first attempt at photo restoration.

This photo was taken in 1954 (photographer unknown). It is of my father in law receiving an award for being the Soldier of the Year. He is the one in the center, shaking hands. The soldier to his right had been taped over and was missing an eye. There was tape residue in the lower left corner and staples in the bottom.

(If you click on the images you can see them larger.)

358/365

2010-07-03T21:57:00.004-04:00

While we were in Gainesville we visited the butterfly museum at the University of Florida. I could have spent hours there. It was magical to be in a huge room full of fluttering butterflies.

The butterflies loved Andrew. While I was busy taking pictures else where he had as many as four butterflies on him at one time.

I tried and tried to get a photo of the big blue butterflies that just never seemed to sit still. I had given up when Patrick told me he found one just sitting with its wings spread wide. It was on me! I slowly handed him the camera and he snapped this shot. Not really flattering for me but the butterfly looks great!

357/365

2010-06-30T16:27:00.002-04:00

The convention Patrick had to attend was held at the Gaylord Palms Hotel. It is a huge hotel with an atrium covering four and a half acres of gardens and paths.

The Atrium

The Convention Center

The rooms and atrium are divided into three Florida themed areas...

St. Augustine,

Key West,

and the Everglades.
I got to put faces with the names of people I have been hearing about for years. The food was great. The hotel was beautiful and best of all I got to see my husband every day instead of waiting at home missing him.

356/365

2010-06-29T16:21:00.003-04:00

Patrick had to attend a convention in Florida this week, mom and I tagged along. The first leg of our trip was spent in Lakeland visiting Mom's siblings.

Lillian, Donald, Mom (Eileen) and Maureen

Joe, Lillian, Donald, Trish (holding Quincy), Mom, Dennis and Maureen

Three years is way too long between visits.

355/365

2010-06-28T09:09:00.003-04:00

Ego Alley, Annapolis, Maryland

354/365

2010-06-24T15:12:00.002-04:00

Matt's new tattoo.

353/365

2010-06-21T19:47:00.004-04:00

My hydrangea is fuller this year than it has ever been. It is as tall as I am and is covered with beautiful blue blooms the size of dinner plates. Except near the bottom on one side where there are two pink ones.

352/365

2010-06-20T20:29:00.003-04:00

This beautiful flower is called Tequila Sunrise and inside it holds a surprise.....

a tiny little flower.

351/365

2010-06-17T21:06:00.004-04:00

Tonight I decided to dust off my macro lens and take a walk around the yard. I was hoping to find something unusual to photograph. I got lucky but I wasn't the only one...

Love bugs

350/365

2010-06-13T20:27:00.004-04:00

Oliver in his happy place.

349/365

2010-06-13T13:51:00.002-04:00

Yesterday morning Lilly came for a play date while Chloe was at swimming lessons. Lilly and I worked in the veggie garden weeding and planting more peas. Last summer Lil loved eating peas straight from the garden. She worked really hard but I think she had a lot of fun too. After swim class Chloe came to play too. We had lunch and spent time picking clover and making crowns in the backyard. I hope they had as much fun as I did. Of course I took a lot of pictures. Chloe played shy and wouldn't look at the camera and Lilly has mastered the fake cheesy grin.

I am really having fun playing with black and white photos.

348/365

2010-06-12T14:25:00.003-04:00

Oliver quietly celebrated his 9 month birthday yesterday. He is getting so big. He is crawling and cruising. He loves to swing and lunges towards it when he sees it. I am so head over heels in love with this little man.

347/365

2010-06-07T22:05:00.004-04:00

I spent the weekend in Texas with Patrick. Saturday morning we drove out to the Kemah Boardwalk . It was nothing like an East Coast boardwalk. There was no beach. Lots of nice restaurants, rides and boardwalk games but the sound of the crashing waves was missed.

I had never seen a double decker carousel.

The wooden roller coaster was neat.

It was a nice way to spend a part of our day. After lunch in Kemah we headed back to Houston and drove around looking at different communities. I am still shocked when I see how inexpensive the homes are compared to Maryland.

346/365

2010-06-04T10:47:00.003-04:00

Last fall Kate and Matt bought two pumpkins, one orange and the other white. They didn't carve either of them for Halloween. They sat on the patio until after Thanksgiving until they got squishy. Thinking the squirrels and chipmunks would enjoy them I moved them off of the patio table and into one of the gardens. The first blizzard came in December then two more in January and the pumpkins were forgotten by me and the wildlife. After the snow melted there sat two pumpkins remarkable still in their original shape. The outside shell had hardened kind of like a gourd. I had been thinking about growing pumpkins in our veggie garden this summer and decided instead to just let them grow in one of our decorative flower beds. I got out a shovel and turned the soil over where the pumpkins sat and wait to see if they would grow. They are flourishing. The orange pumpkin plant is much larger but both already have flowers on them. In the morning and late in the evening the flowers are closed up tight...

But during the day they are open, big beautiful orange stars.

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2010-05-31T21:24:00.003-04:00

The perfect way to end the holiday weekend.

344/365

2010-05-26T12:58:00.006-04:00

After doing a lot of reading and talking to others who have used them I decided to buy Oliver a string of Baltic amber beads. The succinic acid in the beads, which is released when the beads are worn against the skin, acts as an analgesic. I am also going to buy a bracelet and anklet for myself to see if it helps with my chronic pain.

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2010-05-25T19:32:00.004-04:00

My Final Project

I am a bit disappointed in myself. While the photos were technically good they lacked interest. I am hoping that if I continue to work on it it will become a stronger body of work. The following is the first paragraph of my artist statement, the paper we were required to write explaining our work...

The focus of my final project is mailboxes. It is such a common place object that it is often overlooked. Everyone has one. Some are personalized; statement pieces adorning the front yard of their owners. Others, old and rusty, are purely utilitarian. I chose my subject after two separate conversations with college students who both needed assistance in addressing and placing stamps on envelopes. The way we think of mail today is changing. When someone says they have sent you mail they usually mean email. Where the traditional mailboxes use to be the inbox of choice for conversations and news from friends and family it is now a receptacle for junk mail and bills. The mail that we look forward to comes instantly over the internet. What does this mean for the future of the mailbox? My goal is to document the many different mailboxes that we drive by each day; objects so familiar that despite the owner’s attempts to make theirs unique have become all but invisible.

This is not all of them but you get the idea.

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2010-05-24T14:44:00.004-04:00

Happy twenty-first birthday Matt!
Now you can have your cake and a beer too!

341/365

2010-05-20T08:23:00.003-04:00

Look who is pulling himself up.

Oliver eight and a half months old.

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2010-05-17T09:04:00.002-04:00

Yesterday afternoon Lilly had her first dance recital. It was absolutely adorable. Her dance school does a smaller scale recital for the little girls instead of having them dance at the large (and much longer) full scale recital with the entire school. It worked out really well.

Photographing the recital was a new challenge for me. No flash, limited room, lots of movement and low lighting.

Chloe is ready to dance too.

339/365

2010-05-13T14:24:00.005-04:00

For many years now Mother's Day weekend has been when we plant our annuals in the flower beds and pots. I use to be able to do it all in one day. Now it takes a little longer and a bit more help. Now almost a week later everything is planted. The rhododendrons that my mother and grandmother planted bloomed just in time for Mother's Day. After years of wanting them I got three Knock-out Roses. I also added a Columbine and some Black-eyed Susans to my perennials.

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2010-05-09T17:43:00.003-04:00

Lilly was also invited to Meghan's ear piercing. I hadn't seen her in weeks. It was so wonderful to get a great big Lilly hug. While we waited for Meghan's turn to have her ears done Lilly played with the hats and sunglasses at Claire's.

337/365

2010-05-09T07:45:00.008-04:00

My little friend Meghan has been asking for earring for over a year now. She is about to turn six years old and for her birthday she got her wish. I was so happy to have been invited to the big event.

waiting excitedly for her turn

a big hug from Mom for courage

getting ready, ears are cleaned and dots are placed

the big moment

There were tears but in the end she seemed to really love them.

Crazy glasses, beautiful earrings and the promise of ice cream made it all worth while.

336/365

2010-05-05T16:31:00.003-04:00

Monday night's overcast skies provided some dramatic clouds and very little traffic in Annapolis.

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2010-05-03T21:48:00.006-04:00

Sunday afternoon was spent celebrating little Miss K's second birthday. I was pleased that her mom decided she should wear the shirt and skirt I made her as her party outfit.

Lilly and Chloe were also invited. Lilly was unfortunately not feeling well but I got to spend the afternoon Chloe and Paige. Chloe has grown a lot in the past seven weeks. I was afraid she might be forgetting me. I was wrong. She seemed just as excited as I was when we saw each other.

Ian, Christy and Oliver were also there. I was able to get some shots of him with his Mom and Dad.

334/365

2010-04-28T20:05:00.003-04:00

The biggest reason I took a photography class this semester was to learn a little about Photoshop CS4. I have had the program for a year now but have been completely intimidated by it. Our last homework assignment I made a simple dragonfly. The current assignment has been much more challenging.

Our assignment was to create an autobiographical photo montage or a photo collage. It must contain a minimum or two adjustment layers, two layer masks, and two clipping masks. I know, it sounds like a foreign language doesn't it. My finished project has more than twenty photos in it. Do you want to know what the most important thing I learned is... I need to find a better way to organize my photos then by the date taken. It took me forever to find the photos I wanted.

333/365

2010-04-25T20:54:00.003-04:00

I did a little baking this week. I had seen these adorable cake pops on someone's blog and decided I had to try them. I chose to make them as cake bites not pops since it was Earth Day and the sticks would just be thrown away. They were incredibly easy and yummy.

332/365

2010-04-23T14:36:00.002-04:00

Another beautiful day that the park....

We took our new Baby Jogger to the park to see how it handled the sand. It was wonderful. The sixteen inch wheels we perfect to walk along the beach with and Oliver is obviously well protected from the sun.

331/365

2010-04-19T20:52:00.003-04:00

Oliver is so close to crawling.
He gets the legs going he just has to figure out what to do with his arms.

330/365

2010-04-18T23:13:00.003-04:00

Seven months old!

329/365

2010-04-15T20:06:00.004-04:00

That's my godson grabbing the ground ball.

Here he is again running right through the other guy. A.T. plays football in the fall and uses some of those skills on the lacrosse field. The other guy was winded but not hurt.

328/365

2010-04-14T12:29:00.005-04:00

Sunday began with a nice run for Patrick, a bike ride for me...

and ended with Patrick, Kate and I watching A.T. play lacrosse. There were chores and errands in between. It was a productive but relaxing day.

327/365

2010-04-14T12:22:00.002-04:00

We have started learning Photoshop in my class. I have had this program for over a year and it has seriously intimidated me. Our current assignment was to create a "buddy"by cutting objects out of a photo and then place it in an environment. Rather than create something made up I made something that I love, a dragonfly. We were to use objects that we had photographed or scanned. Your buddy could not be made out of its normal components. I used a stem, a berry and a maple tree helicopter to make my dragonfly.

326/365

2010-04-09T20:50:00.003-04:00

One of the things we hoped would happen when I stopped working was that I would be able to accompany Patrick on an occasional business trip. He had to work on the Eastern Shore today and I can not pass up a trip to the beach, even if it is going to be cold and rainy. The beach was deserted with the exception of a few surfers. I much prefer it that way.

325/365

2010-04-07T21:10:00.003-04:00

The last two days temperatures in Maryland have topped ninety degrees. Ninety in April after a winter with seventy two inches of snow!!! It is so hot that last night I bought Oliver a little pool. I am sure that in a few days it will be put in the garage until May when it is warm enough to use it again but today it was a hit.

You know I just love those chubby toes!

324/365

2010-04-05T22:18:00.003-04:00

Are you tired of spring flower photos yet? I was a little late photographing the weeping cherry in my backyard. It is already starting to drop its petals.

One of last seasons flower pots is growing. The annuals from last year are returning. Yeah! one less pot to fill. I am not sure why one stem is white. These should have pink and white blooms on them soon.

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2010-03-30T22:25:00.003-04:00

Abstract attempts

flowers

reflections

window frame

322/365

2010-03-30T22:13:00.003-04:00

A little macro fun.

When Kate and I went to tea on Sunday I was pleasantly surprised to see that the flower vendor was back selling his beautiful bouquets in front of Reynolds Tavern. I bought some thinking I would use them in my abstract assignment. That didn't work out but I did have some macro fun.

321/365

2010-03-28T18:53:00.003-04:00

Kate and I went to tea today. The food was yummy but the company was better.

320/365

2010-03-27T21:11:00.003-04:00

Today was a little cloudy and much cooler but it was still a great day to get out of the house. Patrick and I went to Fredrick for the afternoon. We drove the marathon course that Patrick will be running on May 2 then walked around downtown a little bit so that I could work on my homework this week, abstract photography. I will share those photos later. The canal pictured above runs through downtown Fredrick and has a nice promenade on either side. After a little walk and a some shopping we had had a nice dinner at the Brewer's Alley. When we go back in May everything will be green.

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2010-03-24T21:06:00.002-04:00

There were bees in the garden today.

318/365

2010-03-24T21:01:00.003-04:00

Here are a few more pictures of spring.

Forsythia

Lavender

Daffodil

Hydrangea leaves

317/365

2010-03-21T20:36:00.002-04:00

During the portrait assignment I contemplated doing self portraits as my project. The idea was short lived but here is one of the photos I took of myself.

316/365

2010-03-21T16:49:00.003-04:00

Spring has sprung. The maple tree in my front yard is budding. Most people notice the red tips on the maples in the spring but if you take a closer look the buds are as beautiful as the crocus or the daffodils that are also popping up.

315/365

2010-03-18T23:40:00.004-04:00

In my photography class we are working on portraits. My assignment was to turn in five portraits all of the same subject. My body of work is of Oliver. (click on the mosaic to see it larger)

314/365

2010-03-18T14:58:00.002-04:00

Even when he is angry he is cute!

313/365

2010-03-15T20:53:00.002-04:00

I love books! The smell, the feel, the places they take you, the things to learn. Our house is full of them. So where did Patrick and I find ourselves yesterday? The book store. I wanted a new cookbook, something with yummy appetizers.

312/365

2010-03-11T14:33:00.002-05:00

Happy half birthday baby boy!

311/365

2010-03-10T15:58:00.002-05:00

The daffodils are here!
Spring has arrived.

310/365

2010-03-09T12:50:00.003-05:00

Yesterday Lilly started at her new school. Chloe did well but by the end of the day she was looking for her sister.

309/365

2010-03-04T22:53:00.005-05:00

Tomorrow is going to be a hard day. It is my last full day with Lilly. One week from tomorrow I am retiring. On Monday my Lilly girl starts at her new school/daycare. Chloe and I will have one more week together. The hardest part about being a Nanny or a Daycare Provider is when you are done. You give your heart away. You fall in love with someone's children. You know from the very beginning how it will end, that the time will come when they will not be a part of your daily life but you can't help it, you fall anyway. As excited as I am to see where the next part of my life will lead I am sad, very sad that it means giving up my girls.

While playing with blocks today Lilly made the L-I-L-L you see in the photo. She tried to make the Y on her own but in the end I helped. Clever girl!

First pony tails.

308/365

2010-03-04T06:44:00.002-05:00

Thank you Melissa for taking this photo!

307/365

2010-03-01T23:05:00.005-05:00

Part of my homework assignment this week is to use shutter speed to show motion...

a fast shutter speed to stop action...

and a slow one to show blur.
(I can not decide which blurred pictured best shows movement. I would love some opinions)

A big thank you to Lilly for her help with my homework.

306/365

2010-02-28T21:57:00.004-05:00

This semester I am taking digital photography. I have had my camera for more than a year now and I want to learn to do more then I have been able to do thus far. Yesterday the instructor sent us out of the class room for an hour to take photos. We were to try to use some of the elements he had lectured on in the beginning of class. Several of the students, myself included, stumbled upon a storage closet that held lots of goodies used by art students as props for drawing and painting. You could have spent days in there and not run out of things to photograph.

Baskets full of old shoes,

knick knacks,

statues,

chairs,

bottles and jugs,

more statues,

and baskets of sea shells and star fish were just some of the interesting things stored in this little room that I hope to be able to visit again.

305/365

2010-02-23T23:40:00.002-05:00

pudgy baby toes

304/365

2010-02-21T23:08:00.002-05:00

When Ian and Katelyn were babies I bought them a set of teethers that were shaped like a hand and a foot. They loved them. When I saw a similar set in a local toy shop I had to buy them for Oliver. Like his Dad and his Aunt he loves them too.

303/365

2010-02-21T22:57:00.005-05:00

I am loving my macro lens. Focusing is a little trickier but it is definitely worth it. While the kids were sleeping one afternoon this week I grabbed some of the girls' crayons and some white paper and played with my new toy.

302/365

2010-02-21T22:50:00.003-05:00

Look who have returned!

The past few years I have noticed the robins returning in February not March. I usually get a flock of them in the front yard feasting on the berries of my holly tree. I was very happy to see them this year. It may still be February but their return means spring is soon to be here.

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2010-02-14T22:17:00.003-05:00

Fun with food.

I got a 60mm macro lens for Valentine's day. These are my first attempts at macro photography.

300/365

2010-02-14T22:04:00.003-05:00

Since my hospitalization in 2008 I have been crocheting little tiny hats for the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU). I love doing it. it is a way of giving back to the hospital for the great care I received. Matt asked me if I could make an adult sized hat for him to wear on his upcoming ski trip. I told him I would try. He picked out yarn from my yarn basket but most of it is baby weight. Matt is over six feet tall. He definitely needed a heavier yarn. Yesterday I bought two skeins of chunky wool yarn. Last night I gave it a try. Matt wasn't here but Patrick kindly lent me his head so that I could get the sizing correct. Two and a half hours later I had made both Matt and Kate a hat. The pattern is my own and I am pretty pleased with the results. I think Matt and Kate are too.

299/365

2010-02-14T22:02:00.003-05:00

Oliver, five months old.

298/365

2010-02-11T10:24:00.002-05:00

Sophie is the only one who is still enjoying the snow.

She is blazing a trail through thirty four inches of snow. (click to see it larger)

The snow is so deep we don't have to leash her. She can only go so far so fast. She is loving every minute of it. Yesterday when I ventured out for more wood she came with me and would not come back in. Every time I called her she just laid down and looked at me. Crazy dog won't go out in the rain but loves the snow.

297/365

2010-02-11T10:17:00.004-05:00

More snow! The storm last weekend dumped thirty four inches of snow here in Maryland. Yesterday's storm brought about eighteen more inches, maybe more, it is hard to tell with all the drifting. The news is reporting the snowiest winter in history with accumulations since December topping seventy seven inches. I am so done with snow.

296/365

2010-02-10T23:12:00.004-05:00

Here are a few pictures from last Sunday. On Saturday it snowed thirty four inches!

The view from our back deck.

We had to dig a path to Mom's apartment and for the dogs to get to the backyard.

Our fence is four feet tall.

Two out of three cars cleared, the parking pad shoveled and we were able to get down the driveway. Thank you to Matt and Lori for their help shoveling and to Fred for making enough room on the driveway for them to get here.

295/365

2010-02-06T09:25:00.003-05:00

5:00 PM Friday February 5, 2010

7:00 AM Saturday February 6, 2010

It has definitely snowed. I woke up this morning and had to head straight out side to shovel a place for the dogs to go out. The snow is as high as they are tall. Kate came out and helped. The two of us managed to shovel a path to Mom's house and a small area for our dogs and hers to go potty. I measured between twenty six and thirty inches of snow and it is still coming down. Patrick is stuck in Brazil and even when his flight leaves there he can not get a connecting flight from Houston. The airport is closed. Kate and I plan on keeping our path cleared and that's about it. This snow is too wet and heavy to try to shovel the long driveway.

294/365

2010-02-02T22:02:00.004-05:00

There is a website called Digital Photography School that I visit. They have a weekly photo assignment/contest. I try to participate when I can. It forces me to look at things differently and to take pictures with a goal in mind. This week's assignment was Centered Composition. Usually when taking a photo you offset the subject to add interest. We could take a photo of anything as long as the subject was centered. It is dark out when I get off work, last Saturday it snowed all day and Sunday was spent running errands so outdoor shots were out of the question. I always photograph the kids so I wanted to do something different this time. I remembered a seemingly simple assignment from my B&W film photography class (see those here), we made a simple sculpture out of white paper and photographed it on a dark background. It was a project that involved light manipulation and camera angle. I decided to try it again. I spent the last 2 evenings playing with the sculpture and lighting. Above are some of the shots I liked. The last one is the one I submitted to DPS. It is the only one without post production white balance help. The only editing I did to the last photo was a slight cropping and a bump up in the contrast a little to make the background darker.

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2010-01-28T20:14:00.003-05:00

Today I am cold and tired and I have had a terrible headache since I woke this morning. Several times today the thought of sitting on a warm beach listening to the waves crash and the gulls squawk has popped into my head. So I am posting a photo I wish I had taken today but actually took last June.

292/365

2010-01-26T23:17:00.003-05:00

I haven't posted photos of the girls in a while. I have not been carrying my camera to work as often since Oliver started. His diaper bag has taken the shoulder the camera bag usually rests on. My new camera backpack arrived today so hopefully that will make carrying multiple bags easier but that is a post for another day.

Lilly is looking so grown up.

Chloe has another ear infection but is still smiling.

And of course we need one of Oliver...

He loves his pirate doll.

291/365

2010-01-25T21:07:00.003-05:00

After dress shopping Kate and I went over the bridge to the Kent Manor Inn. My sister Merri was married there. Kate has remembered it all this time and wanted to look at it as a possible venue for her wedding. Since she and Matt are planning to have a January wedding in the evening we timed our visit just right.

The back of the Inn.

The Garden House.

Thompson Creek runs behind the Inn. It was so still it was like glass.

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2010-01-23T23:46:00.003-05:00

Today Kate and I went to Priscilla of Boston to look at wedding dresses. We found THE ONE!

This was a picture of her in THE dress. I of course had to crop the dress out of the photo but the smile and the sparkle in her eyes says it all.

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2010-01-23T23:36:00.004-05:00

The convention center about an hour before the start of the marathon.

About thirty minutes after the start of the race.

The window on the second floor where I was able watch the goings on in the convention center hall.

I am not sure why but very few people were in the second floor lobby. That was fine with me. It gave me a nice place to grab some shots of the crowd and a quiet place to sit and read a bit during the race.

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2010-01-23T23:32:00.002-05:00

The quilter in me loved this building in Discovery Green Park in downtown Houston. It is the entrance to the underground parking at the GRB Convention Center. There was another at the opposite end of the park that was done in red tones.

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2010-01-22T23:37:00.006-05:00

Tonight Patrick and I watched the Hope for Haiti Now concert/telethon. I clicked the guide button on the remote trying to find another station broadcasting this program hoping they would be showing the names of the performers on the screen. It was amazing how many television stations the show was on. Patrick encouraged me to grab the camera. He said, "There is your picture." He was right. I don't think I have ever seen anything like it; not even a Presidential speech gets this many stations. It is awe inspiring to see people come together to help the victims of this disaster. It is an important and worthwhile thing to do. I wonder though why we didn't come together to help this impoverished nation before the earthquake? Why does it take a natural disaster to open our eyes to the needs others? How many of us, myself included, thought about Haiti and her starving peoples before their homes fell?

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2010-01-22T23:31:00.005-05:00

This photo was taken about a quarter of a mile from the finish line. He was still smiling when he passed me.

Patrick ran the Houston Marathon in 4:19:19.

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2010-01-20T22:57:00.004-05:00

Race day! Of course we have to be there before the sun even rises. Patrick went to the area designated for runners and I wandered towards the start.

On the way to the start I passed a viewing stand and grabbed this photo of a photographer at work. Yes, I do have a bit of lens envy.

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2010-01-20T22:39:00.006-05:00

Friday in Houston was rainy and chilly. Saturday was warmer but still rainy in the morning. This is my first look at downtown Houston. It is not like an east coast city. By all appearance the city was a place to go to work and then leave nearly empty at the end of the day. There didn't seem to be a lot of night life like you would find in Baltimore or DC. In my brief tour of downtown I didn't even see a grocery store.

taken from a moving car

Notice the lack of people on the street.

The reason for my visit was to support Patrick as he ran the Houston marathon. Above is a picture of the George R. Brown Convention Center and the Avenida de las Americas. We spent Saturday morning picking up Patrick's race packet and visiting the marathon expo.

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2010-01-20T22:31:00.003-05:00

Last Thursday morning, as the sun was coming up Patrick and I sat on Pier D at the airport. I was finally going to Houston. Patrick goes often but this was my first time. For eight years I have dropped him off at the airport kissed him goodbye and wondered what Houston was like. I was about to see the cooler winter time version. It is not lost on me that my husband is in sales and that seeing Houston for the first time in the dead of summer might make me never want to live there if the opportunity ever presented itself.

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2010-01-12T23:35:00.003-05:00

A few beach shots.

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2010-01-12T23:30:00.003-05:00

A glimpse of my New Year's Eve mystery quilt focus fabric.

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2010-01-12T23:26:00.003-05:00

This past weekend Connie and I packed up our sewing machines and headed to the beach. We spend a weekend every January at her beach house sewing, watching chick flicks and eating way too much. This year we worked on the 2009 New Year's Eve mystery quilt that we were unable to do on December 31.

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2010-01-11T20:45:00.004-05:00

When babies make faces like this one don't you wish they could tell you what they were thinking about? Oliver sat in the exersaucer for about 20 minutes talking. It wasn't the usual jabber. His tone was more serious and the faces he was making were wonderful. I just know he was contemplating something great.

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2010-01-11T20:41:00.004-05:00

Miss Chloe has joined the "don't take my picture" club.
Last week Chloe and Oliver were both sick. The days were long and I was never without one or the other, even sometimes both of them in my arms. I didn't get many opportunities to play with my camera and when I did no one else wanted to play.

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2010-01-11T20:40:00.002-05:00

I just love those cheeks!

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2010-01-06T06:31:00.003-05:00

Well it has been just over a year since I started this blog and unfortunately I have not reached my goal of a photo a day. I am still learning a great deal about taking photos and I am going to continue until I reach 365 posts.

Monday I went back to work after ten days off. Oliver has a cold, Chloe has a fever and Lilly doesn't want her picture taken.

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2010-01-03T20:58:00.004-05:00

I am working on cutting the fabric for the 2009 New Years Eve Mystery Quilt. I had intended to do the Mystery on New Year's Eve but with a house full of company that could not happen. Instead Connie and I are planning to complete this quilt top on our annual trip to the beach next weekend. I have my pieces all cut out I just have to sew two hundred eighty eight half square triangles and trim them before we go.

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2010-01-03T20:45:00.002-05:00

We had an incredibly busy week. My sister Monica and her family as well as my sister Pam's kids were all able to come from North Carolina to celebrate the New Year with us. Usually it is just Patrick and I on New Year's Eve but this year we had about twenty two people over for the evening. Twelve of those woke up in our home the next morning. Friday afternoon my sister Mindy and her family came back over after taking all the kids to the mall. Ian, Christy and Oliver also joined the fun. I think I cooked for nineteen that evening. I did not manage to take very many pictures and the ones I did were definitely snap shots but here is a mosaic of of shots. I am sorry not everyone who attended is included. I wish I was better at hosting and clicking at the same time.

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2009-12-29T22:28:00.003-05:00

Still not completely happy about tummy time.

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2009-12-29T22:23:00.003-05:00

Last night Patrick and I drove out to Ikea to buy this adorable play gym for Oliver. I had seen it on another blog and just had to have it. I think Oliver likes it too.

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2009-12-29T22:15:00.004-05:00

I am off work this week so Oliver and I are hanging out at home with Grandpa, Aunt Kate and Uncle Matt. This means we also have access to our toys. Although he is only three and a half months old I decided to try Oliver in the exersaucer. As you can see from the photos it is a hit.

© Michelle Hines

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2009-12-26T11:15:00.004-05:00

Sadly I did not have my camera in my hand as much as I would have liked the past two days. I too only a few shots Christmas Eve and fewer Christmas Day. As you can see in the photo above we live in an old house that has small rooms. Add fifteen people and a very large tree and there isn't much room to move about and take pictures. We had a lovely Christmas Eve with family and a quiet Christmas day.

( I had to stand in the corner almost behind the woodstove to grab this snapshot.)

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2009-12-20T14:50:00.004-05:00

I have not looked to see what the official snow fall amount for our area was but in our yard it is about two feet deep. Patrick, with just a little help from me, shoveled the driveway today. That's one hundred sixty five feet from the street to the back door. Then he shoveled all the snow in front of all four cars and completely dug my car out. I am pretty sure a snow blower or a plow for the front of the lawn tractor is in our future.

Patrick also shovel from our back door to his mother's back door so that we can visit with her and get the dogs out to the back yard.

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2009-12-19T22:40:00.002-05:00

My first attempts at bokeh . I used a snowflake whole punch and got this effect. I think it would be striking with white lights and snowman.

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2009-12-19T22:29:00.002-05:00

Matt help Patrick clear the driveway and Kate pushed the snow off of our cars.
I took pictures from the window.