Thomas and I participated in Scott Kelby’s World Wide Photo Walk on Saturday. Groups of photographers, amateur and professional, gathered in 236 locations around the world to photograph their surroundings on the same day. We joined up with the Buckhead (near downtown Atlanta) group, led by Judith Pishnery, and took some urban architecture and night photography.

This is not our typical subject matter for photography, but I had a good time learning about long exposures. I downloaded the new Lightroom version to edit them, and so far, so good. I’m really enjoying the free presets offered by Lightroom Killer Tips.

This is my favorite shot that I took. My battery was running out, but when I turned around to see where Thomas was, I saw the bus passing in front of him as he was taking a photo of the sky and tried to quickly snap the shot. It feels a bit frozen but with a lot of motion to me.

Thomas and I have posted our photos online and submitted a few to the contest Flickr group. Check them out if you get a chance.

• My submitted PhotoWalk shots (7 photos)
• All of Thomas’ PhotoWalk shots (29 photos)
• Thomas’ Blog Entry on the PhotoWalk
• The Buckhead PhotoWalk submissions

I’m participating in another Fun Monday. This week, Mama Drama asked what funny trivial fact do you remember that you probably should have forgotten a long time ago?

I seem to remember activities we did or topics we studied, rather than facts.  Here’s a few from my early school years.

Pre-Kindergarten - There were pictures of different-colored cats on the wall that we would use to learn our Spanish colors. I also remember being tested on tying my shoes and memorizing my address.

Kindergarten - We had a show and tell guessing game one time. The shower held his object up behind a sheet with a light shining on it. The class could see the silhouette on the other side and had to guess the object. I had a horseshoe crab shell to show. I don’t remember if anyone guessed it, but I doubt it.

First Grade - I remember a lot of detail from this year.  One thing that stands out is that my class sent President Reagan a jar of jelly beans, and he sent us back thank you notes. I also remember watching the Challenger explode in the sky from the playground.

Second Grade - The first thing I remember from this year was getting caught cheating. We were taking a test on telling time and the answers were posted on a sheet of paper on the board. The teacher noticed that I stood next to the board - trying to memorize them - for too long after asking her a question. Whoops. It took me years, by the way, to be able to tell time on an analog clock.

Third Grade - I think this is the year that we made egg babies (blown out egg shells) and had to keep them alive (uncracked) for a week.  We carried them around with us everywhere, and if we went somewhere that we couldn’t bring them along, like Physical Education class, we had to find a babysitter to watch them.

Fourth Grade - This year, the cool thing to do was to color in marker on your desk, then spread Elmer’s glue over it and let it dry. We peeled off the dried, colored glue, but I’m not sure what we did with it.  Oh well. I also remember that my teacher had a different pair of earrings for every day of the year.

Fifth Grade - This year sticks out in my memory too. I remember reading about the Underground Railroad, and the Salem Witch Trials, and the Phantom Tollbooth. My teacher would sing Barney Google to us. This is also the year that we had DARE (Drug Abuse Resistance Education) and a police officer taught us to say no to drugs.

The photos in this post have nothing to do with the topic. They’re just some of the insects I found in the garden at our church. Thomas had a meeting there last week, so I entertained myself outside with my camera while I waited for him.

Here’s the whole set:

• Butterflies and Bees (10 photos)
  

I just wanted to share this quilt that I made last week for my friend Anna. She opened it at her baby shower Saturday, but since I haven’t finished the binding, I took it back and promised to return it before the baby shows up. I’m hoping to finish it this week.

The blocks are made from the Ginger Blossom fabric line by Sandi Henderson. Anna hinted that she didn’t want pastels, and only minimal pink for her baby girl. Green seemed to be her focus color, so hopefully this combination worked.

I kept seeing this quilt pattern, called Bento Boxes, online and wanted to try it out. I found the pattern and it was really easy to follow. It’s basically made up of different lengths of 3 inch strips.

With Thomas’ help cutting and ironing, I was able to finish this up in just a couple of days. I used my machine to sew the quilt top, but I hand-tied the layers together because machine quilting layers still scares me. I was pleased with how it turned out though. I would definately try this pattern again, but I advise going with contrasty colors that have simple designs to see the square on a square pattern clearly.

I don’t know what was in the water this past winter, but I have about 5 friends due all within a month of each other. It’s crazy! Babies spilling out everywhere.

I got to go to two showers for my friend Anna - the first one was thrown by her family, and the second one was thrown David’s (the dad) family. The second one had an interesting twist — our guys were invited too. Thomas posted his thoughts on it on his website.

I took my camera with the 18-200mm lens to the first party but unfortunately, my flash started running out of battery early on. Here’s two shots that I was happy with, however.

This is Anna, her Mom, and her grandmother. They said they’ll get another similar shot once the baby is here, so they can have 4 generations together.

This is my favorite photo from the party. One of my other friends brought her little boy and he entertained us with his huge smiles and attempts to crawl.  She makes it looks so easy - this little guy didn’t fuss at all.

At the second party, I had the 50mm lens on my camera, and Thomas had the 18-70mm. We were on the porch of a restaurant, so we got some really great lighting without flashes. Here’s some of my favorites:

The restaurant we were at, Flying Biscuit, is a brunch place that is famous for it’s biscuits. They were delicious.

This is the Mom and Dad-to be. Don’t they look like they’re going to be fun parents? I’m hoping Anna can teach me all about it since she’s getting a head-start. I already learned at the shower about cloth diapers and all kinds of breastfeeding tools (special shirts, shields, pads, etc.).

Both parties were great, and we had a lot of extra laughs with the guys at the second one. If you’d like to see the rest of the photos, they’re on Flickr:

• Anna’s Baby Shower (14 photos)
• Anna and Dave’s Baby Shower (51 photos)

I haven’t participated in Fun Monday in a while, but when I saw that Lisa asked for a Bird Show and Tell as one of her options, I had to participate. Thomas and I spotted a few new birds for our yearly bird list while we were in Belgium last month.  These were all shot in various parks around Brussels.

Here’s some of my favorites:

This is a Eurasian Coot. He was hard to photograph because he’s so dark, but he had a black body with a red eye. The white shield on his head looked more smooth, than like feathers. We also saw some baby coots (plain gray and fuzzy), and a nest (a pile of sticks in the middle of a lake).

This is an Egyptian Goose. He had beautiful colors. You can’t see in this shot, but he had a bright green under his wings. We saw these, and some goslings, at the same lakes as we saw the Coots.

I wish I got a better shot of this guy because he was really beautiful. This is a Eurasian Magpie. They seemed as common as a Robin or Blue Jay is in the US, but a little bit bigger.

This is a Common Moorhen. We watched a male and female (not as colorful) eat algae in the water. Again, he was hard to photograph because he was so dark, but his feet are bright yellow, and his beak is red and yellow.  It kind of reminds me of candy corn.

And finally, I was very excited to see this bird in the wild. There was a flock of them in a tree in a park. It’s a Rose-ringed Parakeet.  I have never seen a wild parrot before, but these were very pretty.

If you’d like to see the rest of the bird photos we took in Belgium, they’re posted on Flickr:

• Birds in Belgium (13 photos)

Recently, Thomas decided that he really wanted a pair of sandals, so we checked out a few stores and he finally settled on Birkenstocks. He’s become more hippie by the minute. :) After staring at feet all afternoon, I realized that my toes weren’t so pretty after all the walking we did in Belgium last month, so I suggested we get a pedicure.

I don’t know why, but Thomas actually agreed…without putting up a fight. He claims that he just viewed it as exploring another culture, like an anthropologist. His rule was no paint, but he seemed to enjoy the foot soak, massage chair, and nail trimming. And he questioned the nail lady what she was doing/using every step.

Since Thomas was bravely trying something new, I thought I’d try something new too. I got a funky color with a design, and they even put a little bling on there too. We had fun, but I doubt I could get Thomas to go again. Next time will just have to be with my girlfriends. :)

I was being grumpy this weekend, so Thomas suggested we go for a walk - it works for Clover, at least. Despite being way behind in my photo processing, I suggested we check out what photos we could find at the Leita Thompson garden. There’s a small area with flowers, where we found many moths, butterflies, and bees. These were some of my favorite shots:

And in response to Thomas posting this photo of me, here’s a lovely one of him…

The rest of our photos are posted on our photo sites:

• Dallas’ LT Garden Photos (16 photos)
• Thomas’ LT Garden Photos (17 photos)