September 13 - 256/365

50mm lens, f/3.5, 1/20, ISO 800

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June 8 - 159/365

50mm lens, f/3.2, 1/8, ISO 400

I don't remember where I got the idea for this photo, but I had seen another photo that had a vintage-like feel to a pair of jeans, and somehow I came up with this idea. It took a lot of tweaking with the tripod to get it right, and then I still had to crop the image to get it the way I wanted, but it is pretty close to what I had envisioned.

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April 20 - 110/365

28 - 135mm lens @ 122mm, f/8, 1/10, ISO 400

Another flower photo, but I couldn't help myself. These beautiful little bluebells called to be photographed. I added a soft focus effect and a burgundy color layer to enhance the blue color, as well as lightened the photo. I love the ethereal feel in the end result.

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April 15 - 105/365

28-135mm lens @ 50mm, f/7.1, 1/100, ISO 200

So at least I took a photograph of something other than a flower today, although this wasn't the shot that I had envisioned taking. Today is Tax Day in the US, so I had this grand idea of taking a photo of the post office with a huge line of people, all anxious to get their taxes postmarked before the end of the day. I drove by the post office, but there was no line. And there were too many cars because of an accident. And the people were.... boring. And uninspiring. Bummer. So I figured I would take a shot of the mailboxes that also probably saw a LOT of action today.

I also tried some new color layering effects on this image described on iffles, using additional dark red and black layers. I'm not sure what I initially knew what these layers would do to my photo, but I love the end result. It makes the blue of the mailbox pop so much more than just sliding the saturation bar. Definitely something I will be playing around with more in the future.

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March 5 - 64/365

28-135mm lens @ 60mm, f/4.5, 1/25, ISO 1600

I've been struggling with my inspiration for photos lately. Mostly because I've been at home every night taking care of a sick husband. And being at home each night staring at the same stuff can drain your inspiration. I chose to try taking a photo of my husband's guitar effects rack because it is kind of interesting [and super complicated!] but also because I was hoping it would be an easy photo to transition to black and white. One of the Project 365 groups I belong to is incorporating themes into each month's photos, and March is monochrome month! While I love color, I like that this will help encourage me to try looking at what photos will transition well to monochrome which means they need to look like they have good contrast to begin with so that the features will jump out. I thought this effects rack would provide good contrast, and it did, but I think I am going to need to refine and adjust my monochrome transition in the photo editing software to maximize the final result.

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March 3 - 62/365

28-135mm lens @ 135mm, f/5.6, 1/50, ISO 800

Lacking inspiration tonight. The dinner menu included homemade pizza [so yummy...] and of course you can't have pizza without beer. Well, you can, but it's not the same. :-) And one of my favorite beers is Yuengling, manufactured in Pennsylvania at America's oldest brewery. To make the image a bit more interesting, I added a little bit of texture, adjusted the coloring for a warmer feel [counter top was off-white] and added a lite vignette.

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February 25 - 56/365

28-135mm lens @ 60mm, f/4.5, 1/30, ISO 1600

This was a busy day. Actually, it has been an insanely busy week. I am currently working hard on making a cake for my friend's baby shower on Saturday, and thus have been spending almost every night this week after work making and decorating the cake. But tonight I had to take a quick break to pick up my husband at the airport. Sensing this might be my only chance to take a picture that didn't involve icing or cake, I brought the camera along. And of course I had to stay in the car in the pick-up lane at the airport, so I took this photo while I was waiting in the car. After making some adjustments in brightness and contrast, I'm loving the way this turned out, especially the little bits of reflecting color coming from inside the airport.

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February 16 - 47/365

28-135mm lens @ 127mm, f/13, 1/50 +1, ISO 200

I've always been one who loves all the seasons. I like the variety and the fact that you always have something to look forward to. Right about now, I am soooo looking forward to spring. I'm loving all the snow we've been having, but I'm starting to long for the vibrant colors and greenery that comes with the start of spring. I'm getting a little bored of feeling like all I have are monochromatic-like scenes in front of me to photograph - white snow, brown trees, black pavement. So while I was editing today's image, I started playing around with those "hue" and "color" and "saturation" options in Paint Shop... and my yellowish bush turned into a beautiful, vibrant red! Yea for color! While I do have a goal of doing less post-processing with my photos, I couldn't help myself this time. And I have to admit, I love the result!

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January 20 - 20/365

I don't have any personal stories to attach to this photo. Instead, I will just briefly comment on the editing I did to my photo to achieve the final result. These flowers were initially pure white, but I played with the hue and saturation of the flowers and added a textured layer to make the photo (hopefully) look a little more aged. The pure white flowers were just as pretty as they were, but I figured I would try something different this time around.

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