30 june - 'the end/final'

the last challenge of the month, phew! i've enjoyed most of them, and we have had some hard ones, let me tell you! i have learned a few things about my camera (that's a good thing) and how to use it other than automatic all of the time, but i must admit it's just easier most of the time! ;) ruth gave us the last challenge and it was such a busy day and i just couldn't come up with anything else other than a dead flower, so i figured the end of our month of challenges deserved a spot in my photos, so to capture that, i took pics of my calenadar and the last day of the month and made a 'diptych', another one of our challenges! check out ruth's and here's julie's too!

29 june - 'blue'

my last challenge and it was 'blue', and i was hoping to get a shot of the moon tonight in a very blue sky, NOT! what is with this awful weather! grrr...anyways we brought elki home after going over for birthday cake for lisa's birthday yesterday and she was very 'blue' this morning when she looked out the window and saw ALL the rain. ;)



then just before lunch reg suggested that i take a shot of her from the outside, but she would not co-operate, so i took a photo of him being blue not being able to go play golf today and he had a blue shirt on!



you can check out ruth's and julie's here!

28 june - 'black and white'

when julie first told us our challenge was for 'black and white' i thought she meant the color black and white, but she then told us no, a black and white photo. i actually went with my first idea of something black and white and just made it a black and white photo also! check out ruth's here.

27 june - 'fresh'

ruth's challenge to julie and i today was 'fresh'! here is a photo of my painted daisies fresh from a recent downpour! as a matter of fact it was still drizzling when i was shooting them!



i love the fact that the whole frame is pretty much orange which makes it that much fresher! ;)

26 june - my challenge...

was for a 'ghetto lighting' shot! in case you don't know what that is, it's a photo shot in the dark with only lighting from either a flashlight, candle, desk lamp etc... of course i didn't know what it was either until i signed up on a photography site! ;) i was babysitting elki & zoe last night so we had some fun trying it with a flashlight that wasn't very strong and the girls kept moving, but i finally got this shot of elki trying so desperately not to move and i like it! she has been such a good little helper on a few of my shots this month, thank you sweetie! here is what julie came up with.

25 june - 'heat'

julie's challenge today was 'heat' and didn't say we had to interpret any certain way, so since justin was here and the only way to beat the heat was in the pool, here is my shot of him enjoying his day in the pool! ruth's will be here.



plus i loved this shot of him with the collection of the hail that he had collected after the storm that came through here fast and furious just when we sat down for supper. i guess i was kinda excited too since the hail is not in focus, but i just loved justin's face because it was so cold!

24 june - 'diptych' challenge

it's a good job that ruth added some examples of what the heck that was, because i had never heard of it before!!! anyways, here is my interpretation of it and it celebrates our national day at the same time.

you can check out julie's cute one here!

23 june - 'red and white'

my list of 14 challenges had run out but had to come up with something last minute last night, so it was a 'red and white' challenge today. julie's cool lane markers are here and check out ruth's here. i realized while laying on the ground taking this impatient photo that i love flowers backlit, so even though i did the backlit/silhouette challenge yesterday with a silhouette, today's could be a comination backlit and red and white challenge. here is ruth's photo of the same flowers! ;)

22 june - 'backlit/silhouette'

well julie did not let us off the hook, we had to do her challenge that she changed the other day because of lack of sun! it was to do a 'backlit/silhouette' shot and we could have it any way we wanted, so i used this opportunity to do another of my own challenges which i think fit julie's to a 't', i think anyway. here it is and ruth went a completely different route, check it out here.

21 june - 'male' challenge

since it was father's day today, ruth challenged us to take an anything 'male' photo. so the gang was here today and of course only one male co-operated for my shot. i had an idea that the 3 guys would be in the shot, but only one part of their body, so you wouldn't know who was who, but 'ain't goin to happen' was the replies i got! and julie, get your mind out of the gutter! :) it was going to be a leg each from knee to ankle! anywho this is the shot i ended up with. check out julie's brother!

20 june - 'water'

ruth asked for an easy one today, because she only had her point and shoot camera, so i made 'water' our subject any which way. i had my little helper, elki, here again today and she wanted to wash her dolls clothes, so that she could hang them on her line, because i had bought these pretty colored plastic clothespegs yesterday. what better way to get some water in the photo with my little cutiepie!!! julie's water shot is here!

19 june - 'curves'

today, julie had given us a challenge that just didn't work without sunshine, so she changed it to 'curves'. here are my curved iris leaves which i thought would fill the bill! check out ruth's faucet!

18 june - 'white'

ruth has challenged us to a photo with white today, and it's a good job i took my photo this morning before we went to meet lisa downtown for lunch, otherwise i'd have had to take a inside photo of a white piece of paper or the white sheets i just took out of the dryer! julie what did you come up with! i thought a little color would make my photo look a little more interesting so there is a bit of my newly opened clematis in there too! check out julie's here.

17 june - a row of similar colorful things!

it's my turn again and i challenged julie and ruth to do a photo of a row of similar colorful things! can't wait to see what they come up with, here is mine!



since it's june and we are finally getting hot weather, i thought of using my flip flops, but i have too many of them, especially the way i wanted to present them, so i ended up using my collection of slippers hanging on the clothesline! here is julie's.

16 june - 'food'

today julie gave us a break after her really hard one on saturday, and mine which she didn't even do (boohoo :( )! we had to take a photo of 'food' which made it very easy, because we all met for lunch after dropping some cash at the store! so we could end up with the same kind of shot. i am really torn between this one of our sushi! hope to see ruth's version!



and this one of the keylime pie that julie brought home for mimi from rockaberrys which was absolutely delicious by the way!!!

a 'self portrait'

it's kinda hard to do a self portrait, since you really can't see yourself in the viewfinder! anywho i took about 15 photos and reg likes this one the best. i was torn between this, a 'come hither' look and a serious one. guess he likes the laugh lines!!! oh and i was in the era of b&w, so i'd rather have color! see ruth and julie here!

eureeeeeeka!!!

i think i finally got one right! it was my turn again and after that really hard one from julie yesterday, i challenged ruth and julie to do a 'night shot with movement of lights'. i went up on the remains of an overpass that they just demolished (one of those unsafe ones) and took 4 or 5 shots. i was all alone on top of this hill facing towards the champlain bridge which you can see in
the distance.

the toughest challenge so far!!!

julie challenged us to do a shot with either the moving object blurred and everything else in focus or the object in focus and everything else blurred. i completely flubbed this one!!! i am a complete newbie when it comes to using my camera in manual setting. i was going for the background in focus and the water blurry and i took photo after photo and got completely frustrated and almost gave up, but i finally realized that i had the iso set wrong and then got this shot. it's not exactly what i was hoping for but it's a start. i got some great shots of a canary through my screen though without you seeing the screen! i am sure ruth got as good a shot as julie's is!



i also got this shot which was kind of what i was aiming for, but i have come to the conclusion that it's just easier and more fun to use the camera on no flash automatic!!!

'small'

ruth challenged us to do a photo of 'small' today (open to our own interpretation) and i was stumped til i spotted my itty, bitty sand dollar that i found in florida this year. it would've been very hard to see how small it is, but beside the normal sized one i got in halifax quite a few years ago, you kinda get the picture. it is roughly the size of a dime, no kidding! here is julie's small!

11 june - my turn again!

i had to change my challenge today since they are calling for rain later on, so i chose one of the others on my list and that is 'a sign with no wording, but we all know what it means'. there is probably a word for this, but i can't come up with it, so here's mine, because i'll be out for the rest of the day! it was in our own backyard, can't wait to see what ruth and julie come up with!

10 june - girly/frilly/feminine

it was julie's turn and man i had to think about this one, i am not the girly, frilly, feminine type! i took a few shots this morning of my evening bags, which i've held onto even though we don't go out fancy any more. i even had my graduation one, phew that was a long time ago!!! but lucky me, this was wednesday and lisa has the day off and dom was playing somewhere tonight, so we went shopping and i got this cute shot of elki walking with her mother at dix30 with her pony tail and frilly skirt.

but my shot of the day has to be this one of zoe in her cute little flowered, pleated, puffy sleeved and ribbon tied around the chest blouse with her little white bear! how girly is that!!! check out ruth's girly hearts!

9 june - routine!!!

today ruth had us photograph 'routine' which could entail anything really. i took a few as soon as i got up this morning, since that's when i mostly have routines, like making coffee, opening up all the blinds, having breakfast and then dropping in on my scrap table to see what i can add to whatever layout i'm working on at the moment. after that there is not that much routine going on other than my walk in the afternoon!



this is another routine which i do each morning to keep that old gray matter upstairs a working!
i'm sure julie and ruth have come up with good ones.

8 june - it's a bug's life!


since we looked up the other day, i decided to look down for our next challenge into the 'bug' world. i got a nice shot of a mosquito just about to plunge his stinger into my leg, before i squished him, but my skin looked so dry and yucky i decided to dump that one. i also took some ants on a peony bud, because they are always there, but i've had enough of ants for awhile since they were getting into our house. this nice little bee was going around making love to all the geraniums centers and so he will have to do for today! see julie's and ruth's here.

7 june - a reflection shot


julie came up with the great idea for a reflection shot challenge for today and i was hoping for a nice clear day so that the full moon could come up as big and bright as it did last night. i was coming home from bringing lisa and the girls home after a day of garage sale-ing and swimming and sushi, YUM, and when i turned onto victoria, there it was, big and low and beautiful and me with no camera, grrr!!! but it doesn't look like it's going to clear up for that tonight, so i thought i better get a shot this afternoon just in case, so here it is. you will be able to see julie's and ruth's shots here!

6 june - looking up!

ruth's challenge for us today was to 'look up'. what did i see today when i looked up, i saw nice white clouds, the chimney and the top of the fir tree in the front and i took photos of them all, but after we got out of the pool laura gave me an idea. by that time though, the girls would not co-operate and we had to bribe justin with a candy for him to do it, but he loves that he ended up looking like a giant!!! julie's is here and ruth's is here.

5 june - texture

ok it was my turn again today, and i chose a challenge of a full photo of 'texture'. i was up very early this morning, because i was going over to mind the girls and thought i would not be back til after dark and this was taken of the solar cover at 7:30 this morning! our plans changed with the nice weather and i brought the girls back home for a swim this afternoon! check out ruth's and julie's here!

4th june - an extreme close-up

it was julie's turn again and this was a fun one and a lot easier than her last challenge! i took 76 photos of my flowers today trying all kinds of different angles and finally decided on this one, which i will let you decide what variety it is! here is julie's cute one of jack and here is ruth's!





if you guessed dandelion, you would be right, isn't it gorgeous, so there is even beauty in weeds! click to see it larger and more beautiful if you want! :) oh and btw, this is in my neighbor's front yard, not ours!!! ;)

3rd june and it's ruth's turn

and her challenge is 'numbers' which we could interpret any which way we wanted. when i first read it, i thought, oooo another hard one, but then i remembered that it was our anniversary today and so i went down to make reg a card and ended up using thickers, and so now i can kill 2 birds with one stone, as they saw. with this card, it will be my photo of the day and i can enter it into the a.c. blog challenge! :) yeah!!! ruth's is here and this is julie's.

oh crap, i was just going to link this card on the a.c. blog and re-read the challenge and it had to be a birthday card, oh well next time!!! :(

second day of challenges...

and i was up! hmmmm, my list was very easy, but since miss julie gave us such a hard one yesterday i added a few words to most of my challenges to make them a bit more difficult. today i challenged ruth and julie to 'a bird in flight' photo! man oh man, it was harder than i thought, and i even had an accomplice helping me. i went to the dentist this morning and since i was so close to elki & zoe's house, i popped in and elki wanted to come home with me, so i got set up with my camera and then told elki when to chase the birds!!! easier said than done, i took maybe 70 photos, but most either had a tail and some feet, were way too blurry or nothing at all. it wasn't til my last photo did i get a good shot, well i think it's pretty good, but i will let you be the judge! and instead of trying to get a bird flying in into the air, i waited for this dove that was up on the wire to fly down, much easier!!! :)

photo-a-day challenge month


julie has decided to join ruth and myself for a photo-a-day challenge this month. when ruth and i did the april photo-a-day, we did a few challenges towards the end of the month and found them fun, so we are trying a whole month of them, and julie has decided to join us. each of us have come up with 10 ideas which we will post only the night before the actual challenge day! julie was up first with a challenge of a landscape photo with something in the foreground. after seeing ruth's and julie's, i've decided that mine sucks, but here it is anyway and i hope i do better in the days to come!