Day Nine: (Title to be determined)

Today is one of those days where I have  a million things to do and not nearly enough time to do them.  I would like to write a lot about this picture, but I simply don't have time to do so right now.   I also want to stick with my promise of posting the day's picture by noon, so here you go! Check back later...there will probably be a runner up picture and commentary tomorrow.  Until then, enjoy this Lawrence classic.

Day Eight: Stairway to....the fourth floor

Compared to Wednesday, today seemed to bring an abundance of picture opportunities. The picture above is my favorite. I work in a building that is relatively old, and used to be the State of Kansas's Historical Museum. Because of that, there is a lot of delightful architecture and embellishments; craftsmanship, skill and time not often put into modern architecture are abundant. Unfortunately, much of what I assume was the building's "glory" has been minimized by the addition of walls and structures that allow for offices, and budget cuts that prohibit the spending of funds on things like polishing railings. But, the railings of the stairs, and the stairs themselves for that matter, have survived the transition to modern day office space, and they are the subject of my photo today.

I love the different "parts" of this photo: the sunlight leaking through the window highlighting the upper part of the railing, the shadow the sunlight creates on the elevator door behind the railing, the part of the rail where no sunlight hits which allows you to see the intricacy of the iron. Mmm...I could soak this one in for a while. :) Pete suggested taking this again some time with a wide angle lens. I'm not sure how all of the lenses work quite yet, but I may just have to try it.

I have to admit that I've manipulated the photo a bit; the posts probably haven't been polished in at least 10 years, and the colors aren't nearly as vibrant in real life. But that is the glory of the digital photo process. While changing the brightness and saturation levels, I had a feeling that have to imagine is somewhat reminiscent of what James Cameron felt when he was laying the shots of the "new" Titanic over the shots of the underwater sunken Titanic...everything just magically comes to life.

The other pictures are also quite tasty, but I didn't find as much about them that I liked. The one of the capitol was taken from an office inside my building. Some of the other pictures I took at that time made the capitol seem like a painting through the window...the sky was just so blue (and that's not manipulated), and the clouds so poofy and white that they were surreal. It's nice to have a reminder every once in a while that paintings and drawings aren't always how we wish things may be...the world really is that beautiful. The soup can has obviously been manipulated with some of the fun filters in photoshop. My thought was to try and re-create the iconic Andy Warhol piece, but this is what I came up with instead...and I'm pretty statisfied.

Happy Friday, everyone! Thanks again for your comments and checking up on me!

Day Seven: Roadblocks

Well, one week of the 52 week adventure is complete. The first six days went rather swimmingly; I always ended up with a(t least one) shot that I really liked and was more than excited to post it. But, as life goes, there are always little bumps along the way, and I hit my first one in this project yesterday. I brought my camera to work because I noticed a spectacular shot opportunity for several consecutive days, and wanted to seize it. That shot, however, requires the sun, and requires the sun at a certain time of day. Unfortunately, when that time of day rolled around yesterday, the Kansas winter sky was covered in a blanket of clouds that precluded me from getting my desired picture. I wondered around the area for a little bit, hoping to find something else delicious I could sink my photo hungry teeth into, but my hunger was not satisfied. While I took some "okay" shots, nothing really jumped out at me, and I found myself sinking into my usual rack focus shot.

With that little hiccup, I was on the lookout for another opportunity to capture the day. Last night I started studying for the Iowa bar. For those of you not familiar with the process, admission into one state's bar (not go in and get a drink type bar, but the legal bar) admits you into that state's bar only; typically, you must take and pass each state's exam before you may practice in that jurisdiction. The bar exam, and the preparation, are as close to hell as I have ever come. (If you would like to journey back in time and "experience" that anguish first hand, click on nearly any of the entries from June or July 2008, located in my archived entries.) Since I have little siblings, I'm taking the Iowa bar as a precautionary measure so that I may move back to Iowa on a moment's notice if, God-forbid, something should happen to my parents.

How does this relate to my picture taking quest, you ask? One of my two favorite coffee shops in town is Signs of Life down on Mass(achusetts) St. It's a nice clean place that is usually is pretty quiet. Often you see people you know, which provides a nice break. Lastly, it's connected to a Christian bookstore, and usually employs people who are strong in their faith, which is a nice underlying presence. The "usually pretty quiet" however, is not the case on Wednesday nights when the Lawrence Folk Band Jam Society (or some name like that) gets together. They play lots of different songs and usually provide some very nice background music for studying. I took a variety of pictures of the group last night, but this one seemed to work the best. The colors are warm (albeit a little bright), the lights create a nice patter, there is a lot--but not too much--going on, and I think it captures one of the great things about Lawrence-- the good hearted people. It's not a photographic masterpiece by any stretch of the imagination, but in writing this entry, I realize it's looking for the little things, such as a quartet of guitars in a small-town kansas coffee shop, that makes life sweet and reminds us that God is good. The leader of the band asked me to e-mail her some of the pictures, so if you'd like to see the others, I'll post a link when I upload those to a photo sharing site.

Those of you who know me know I can be extremly long winded. In an effort not to bore you any longer, I'll finish up in a sentence or two. THANK YOU to everyone who is leaving comments. I LOVE to hear what you think and your encouraging words! Please continue to do so, and if you haven't left a comment yet...START! :) Second, I don't think I've mentioned it yet, but Pete is also taking 365 days worth of pictures. A link to his blog is on the left and is called "One Click, One Pic a Day." I know some of you have already found your way there, but I wanted to tell everyone. He has a little more picture taking expereince, has a fresh perspective on some seemingly ordinary things, and is much more eloquent and entertaining in his writing than I. Finally, feel free to share this blog with anyone and everyone you think may enjoy random thoughts and pictures from a fun loving, big hearted, pretty ridiculous midwestern girl.

Day Six: Underrated

Whenever I go to baseball games, I always cheer for the mustard in the ketchup, mustard relish race.  I think mustard is an underrated condiment.  It's tangy, yet not over-powering.  It add just the right amount of "umph" to a hot dog or sandwich to take it from mediocre to memorable.  Yet, not everyone thinks so highly of my friend mustard. Lots of people, including myself, enjoy mustard's brothers: honey mustard, dijon mustard, etc.  But they don't always appreciate the original-- accept no substitutes.

For several Tuesdays since Pete and I started dating, I've been able to join he and his friends for their weekly burger night.  I'm not sure how long burger night has been going on--possibly years--but it's one night a week (most weeks...sometimes its just not possible) that they stop what they're doing and get together.  Every week they have the same waitress, who has 

subsequently become their friend. I brought my camera

 to burger night tonight to see if anything would pop up as my picture for the day.  After the meal had concluded and while the KU game was still on, I broke out my camera and just started playing.  This is what I ended up with. I suppose the title to this entry could really be "An Ode to Mustard", but I think "underrated" expresses more of what I feel about, well, mustard. The picture to the left is the picture I thought was going to be my selection today as we were leaving the restaurant, but in reviewing the pictures, the solo mustard bottle won out.  

I could philosophize more about mustard's greatness and how people just don't give it enough of a chance, but that's another story for another day.  Rather, the next time you are at a restaurant and the mustard bottle is standing there right next to the dominant ketchup, I encourage you to take a risk and try a dollop on your food.  Don't forget, if the faith of a mustard seed can move mountains, imagine what faith the size of a bottle can do.  Savoring the yellow deliciousness is just a start. :)

Day Five: So close, but so far

Scrabble has recently become one of my favorite games. It started with playing the facebook version last spring and has evolved to laying as many tiles as possible. Unfortunately, I have yet to be victorious in a game of actual scrabble; I often pull ahead by taking calculated risks that always seem to end up falling on the wrong side of my calculation. Last night, I played the word "walker", scoring 30 some points, but leaving the "w" to be the fourth letter of a triple word score. Normally, I would not have made this move, but it was near the end of the game and there aren't THAT many words that the fourth letter is "w". Much to my chagrin, Pete had the letters "V" "I" and "E", played them to earn about 30 points and once again take the lead, quashing my dreams of Scrabble victory for about the 7th or 8th time.

This is the first picture where I've used the flash. Normally I don't like to use the flash...it creates a sort of "un-natural" look about photos (I'm talking more artsy photos like these, not necssarily snapshots of people. The flash definitely has it's place...I just dont' like to use it a lot), but this one turned out pretty all right. It may be clear by now on the fifth day (or at least clear to me becuase I see ALL the pictures I take, and not just the ones that I post) that this sort of rack focus shot-- where either the foreground is clear and the background fuzzy, or vice versa -- is one of my favorite shots. Two thoughts immediately emerge from that statement: 1) you'll probably see that sort of shot a lot, and 2) I need to push myself to see things beyond the "rack focus world." So while some shots may not be as pretty as a rack focus shot, I'm going to use them to try and expand my abilities as a photographer.

Have a great day!

Day Four: Signed, Sealed, Delivered....

Last year while studying in England, I took a weekend trip to see Kristen Cunningham in Leicester.  Leicester is a small(er) town, north of London where she was studying.  Leicester is also not too far from the town of Nottingham...the famed town from the Robin Hood tales.  The weekend I visited happened to be the weekend of the Official Robin Hood Festival at Nottingham Castle, so Kristen and I ventured over to check it out. (Here's a link to my blog entry from that weekend if you want more info on the event.  Links to the pictures from the festival are on the left hand side, or just clicking here. :) ) I purchased one of my favorite souvenirs of my time abroad at this event: a wax seal.  Kristen also purchased one, and I have to admit, we spent a fair amount of time that evening/ next day simply using our seals. 

Tonight, I was getting to send out a few cards and used the seal to secure the backs of the envelopes and came upon these pictures. There isn't really a whole lot to say beyond that except that I really like them. :)

Day Three: A common (?) problem

Yesterday, Pete and I took Farley (his dog) to the dog park. While we were out there, we also spent some time taking pictures. He got some really neat pictures of a little-bitty "waterfall", but I wasn't quite happy with really anything that came out of my camera. Except for this one. Pete loves his dog, and I just think this is an adorable picture of the two of them. I also love the camera angle.

But, I didn't really start to enjoy this picture until I looked at them on the computer. Because of that, I left the dog park a little frustrated and still looking for the day's perfect shot. As we were driving home, we passed the Corner Bank (Literally, the name of the bank is "Corner Bank") which had this neat statute with a light on it that projected and even cooler shadow. That is what is below. The statute turns on that little platform, so the picture isn't quite clear, but it certainly will do. (I accidentally held the shutter button down and got about 10 of these pictures. When you view them really quickly,
you can see the statute turning....pretty neat!)

Anyway, my "common problem" is that I have TWO pictures I really like and can't decide which one should actually be the picture of the day. I like the one of Pete and Farley because it tells more about my life and the people and places are in it. But I really like the way the statute picture is composed, and I love the way the shadow dances on the building wall.

So, I'm making BOTH pictures my picture of the day for January 3. I know this is kind of breaking my rule, but I figure OVER committing it probably okay.