This week on Exposaroonie, the challenge is Rule of Thirds - basically the idea that a photo can be more interesting if the subject, or focus, is not smack-dab in the middle. I tend to center my bird photography, because I want to fill the frame to get as much detail as possible. Thomas and I headed over to the park this evening to practice Rule of Thirds. I haven’t decided which shot I’m going to submit as my entry this week, but these are my favorites. Which one do you like?
The whole set is posted on Flickr - Rule of Thirds (15 photos)
I’m leaning toward the first one (b&w baseball), and Thomas is rooting for the second one (out of focus goose).
We finally got our photos posted from the last birding class field trip to Newman Wetlands
This park has a beautiful boardwalk trail that is maintained by the Atlanta Audubon Society. We didn’t see as many birds as we’ve seen in the past, but we saw a lot of reptiles and amphibians - turtles, snakes, lizards, and frogs.
We also saw a few Ruby Throated Hummingbirds, a Common Yellowthroat, and Purple Martins. That’s a Barn Swallow in this photo - I found out how pretty they were at the last field trip, but I couldn’t get a decent photo with them flying. This little guy sat still for quite a while though.
Afterward, we headed over to the water maintenance facility and looked for waterbirds. We saw a few sandpiper-sort, but they were too far for our cameras. The land around that area was gorgeous though, with purple and yellow flowers.
Saturday, we picked fresh strawberries at a farm.
Sunday night, we had fresh strawberry shortcake. Yum!
The rest of the photos are on Flickr.
I embroidered a swatch of linen, using an embroidery hoop to hold it tight, and then used a Cover Button Kit to make it into a button. Easy-peasey! Check out some of the fancy buttons that other participants have posted on Flickr.
Happy Mother’s Day, Mom! I love you.
Of course I don’t remember any of these photos being taken, but my Mom was just a couple of years older than I am now. She’s a strong, intelligent woman, a great mom, and I am proud to have as a role model.
And Happy Mother’s Day, Mama C! I love you too.
Mama C is my Mom’s mom, and we share a birthday. She’s in her 80s (I hope you don’t mind me saying that online, Mama C) and she volunteers regularly, has the same passion for travel and learning that I do, and she’s internet savvy - she emails, instant messages, and reads my blog. Again, another amazing woman in my life.
Today was our last field trip from our Birding class. If you’re interested in birds, and in the Atlanta area, I totally recommend it. I learned a ton, saw a bunch of new birds, and discovered some really great locations. I’ll post the photos from today’s trip later this weekend.
I haven’t posted any crafts recently, but I quickly made this last night to give to our birding teacher as a small thank you. It’s a bookmark with some favorite photos that Thomas and I took on the class trips. It was pretty easy to make - here’s how:
- Arrange your photos in a photo editing program to be a 6×3 inch graphic. (I used Photoshop Elements.)
- Print the photo at 6×4 inches. (I used the instant printer at Target.)
- Trim the photo down to 6×3 inches.
- Spray-glue some paper to the back to make sturdier. (This is a great place to write a brief note.)
- Hole-punch the top and thread some ribbon through it.
It took me two hours and most of that was at Target - of course, I had to browse a bit. :) Anyway, it was quick, easy, and cheap, and would be a great craft if you need to make something small for a large group.
On another note, I just went upstairs and this is what I found - Thomas is napping on Clover’s birdwatching bench, so she just climbed right over him to keep watching.
If you watch my Flickr Photostream, you might have seen some funky-looking photos in the middle of all the bird shots I’ve been posting recently. Ashley and Emily recently started a very cool photography website called Exposaroonie.com. They have great articles, inspiration, and a weekly challenge contest. And my favorite part of it all is that they’re young, hip folks like me…well, I’m not really hip, but maybe I can learn through them. :)
Most of the blogs that I read are mommy blogs, and since I don’t have kids yet, and I’m not around kids regularly, I’m looking forward to sharing and learning photography with a group of 20 and 30 year olds with lifestyles similar to mine. Note: There is no age limit to use their site - I’m just basing it on this week’s challenge which is a self portrait.
So on to the challenges…
As I said, this week’s challenge is Self Portrait. I wanted to do something a little different, and finally, I decided to play with some mirrors and came up with some funny faces. It was challenging to balance the mirror and the camera at the same time, but I got a few shots I liked. I turned the shots that showed a lot of blemishes into black and white. You can click on any of these to see the full size, or click on the album to see the whole set. I submitted the second one to the contest.
Next week’s challenge is Bad Habits. Because I don’t have any bad habits, I had to photograph one of Thomas’ - leaving the toilet seat up. And just for fun, I explored different saturations and contrasts. Check out the whole album to see the set, but I only submitted the middle photo on the bottom row. The entries for this one don’t show up until Friday, but check back then because there are some really talented and creative photographers in this group.
