328: Happy New Year!

Experimenting with shutter speed for my first attempt at photographing fireworks. Didn't get long to try as the noise frightened the two year old and we were forced to retreat. I like how the first one in the upper left looks like a scene captured by the Hubble space telescope.

327: Back in the River City

 

I wonder how many US cities on rivers share the nickname "River City"?

326: Snow

Last day in Ohio. Another 500 miles tonight as we head for home.

325: Photography

We visited the Cleveland Art Museum today, where I was introduced to the work of photographer Brian Ulrich. Now this is a photographer after my own heart. In his artistic statement, he describes his work as an "examination of the peculiarities and complexities of the consumer-dominated culture in which we live." What draws me to Ulrich's work is his ability to document everyday scenes in a way that is rich in both visual interest and narrative value. Take a look at the images of the project featured at the CAM on his website. Truly a fascinating project.

Another factor that appeals to me in Ulrich's photography is our shared interest in the decay of the built world, a theme I have turned to several times over the course of my own project. Like my recent discovery of William Eggleston, this is work that validates my own interests as a photographer. It seems fitting that as the calendar year and soon my year-long project draw to a close, I am finding not only my voice as a photographer but also the existing tradition of the style in which I tend to work.

324: Room and board

My husband and children and I traveled almost 500 miles through rain and snow on narrow, twisty mountain highways to visit family this week to celebrate the holidays, including two birthdays. What a welcome sight were these cool blue sheets and pillows after a long day in the car.

323: Marble maze

My talented and material-efficient husband made marble maze tracks for the kids from scraps at work.

322: Merry merry!

321: Compressor

320: New wallet

 

I have a sort of policy that if I do something creative, photographing that project counts as my YIB effort for the day. Sometimes it's a mosaic, today it's a wallet. I have been in search of the perfect wallet for years, to no avail. I want one that will hold several cards AND fit in my front pocket. Crazy, or at least that's the feeling I get from the total lack of a wallet that fits those specifications out in the world. 

So I decided to make my own, from the beautiful red packaging of an Equal Exchange coffee bag and a roll of Duck Tape. I followed the general instructions for a duct tape wallet but reduced the dimensions a bit as even the duct tape wallet is huge compared to my ideal. The best part is that I get a whiff of delicious coffee beans every time I pull it out.

319: Adventures in 365 Photography Projects

I've been pushing myself more during the second half of my project to get into the nitty gritty of SLR photography: shutter speed and aperture. This was the scene from my back window this morning, the darkest image I've ever attempted to capture. The resulting shutter speed was dramatically slower than I imagined it would be.

Later in the day, I drove through a rough neighborhood with my children on the way from one errand to another and stopped to capture this image. Early  on in the project, I considered a few themes that are important to me that I might cover in my project as an attempt to affect those situations. The poverty in my city, and this neighborhood in particular, was one area I strongly considered. As a stay-at-home mother with two very young children, I decided this was not the year to tackle such a project, but I'm storing the idea away for possible future use.

318: Rain

317: Photo albums

The photography habit is in truth an extension of my photo album habit. Not scrapbooking, but collections of my favorite photographs from my life, a habit I started in middle school. In the early days I would physically trim a photo to remove distractions or otherwise improve the composition. From this I learned to get the composition right when I snapped the image in the first place. Now I like to think I am taking it to the next level with an improvement in focus and creative point-of-view. In the end, when I am old and grey, I want to be able to look back through the years with my children and truly enjoy, on every level, each photographic moment of their lives.

316: Ready for the holidays

Very excited to have discovered William Eggleston earlier this week. His photographic aesthetic appeals greatly to me, and lends some validity, I feel, to images such as these.

315: Cookies

314: Drawing

 

Started on a new project today, literally on top of the last, not yet fully completed project. This one will be a coffee table, the base built by the metalsmithing and woodworking talent in our business, my husband.

Speaking of the business, have you seen our new website?? phoenixhandcraft.com We're so excited and thrilled with the results.

313: In the window

312: Soup pot

311: Out of season

310: Game night

This game, a standard in many homes, represents an interesting generational difference. My son learned to play it online and then tried his hand at the real-world version. I, of course, learned it the other way around completely.

309: Ingredient

For pad thai (ish), if you're wondering.

308: Miniature

  

307: Memories

306: Circles

305: Alignment of games

304: To Do

My lists are piling up on me lately.

303: Spacesuit

 

Considering that space is one of my son's favorite topics at the moment, I was pretty excited when we came upon this exhibit of astronaut-wear today. He liked the video games about asteroids and comets.

302: Heart

That's me in fourth grade. It's quite possible that reminiscing over each and every single one of our tree ornaments is my favorite part of the holiday.

301: Diamond, reprise

Other than the sky, I couldn't tell you if there is any blue in either of these shots. The morning light was so beautiful, so warm and striking, that I couldn't pass it up.

Here's another view, from over the summer.

300: Christmas Parade

We took the kids to their first parade this weekend. By happy coincidence, the parade happened to fall on the 300th day of my project.

These first three images are the crowd milling about, waiting for the parade to reach our section of the route.

Neither my husband nor I had been to a parade in many, many years. I think I was marching in the high school band at my last parade.

The Star Wars 501st Legion and the Rebel Legion were, of course, the family favorite.

More here if you like.

299: Lights