Project 52 - Things On Chairs

This week's them is Things On Chairs.  If you're anything like me, things get left in all sorts of places.  However, for this project, one where you are supposed to photograph the odds and ends things that have been left on chairs, I found all my chairs to be empty.  Except for my recliner which always has a heating pad and a blanket.  :)  But there was one chair that I did find something on.  My cat.  She likes to take naps in this one particular chair under our dining room table.  I had some great light coming in through the glass doors so I figured she would make a good subject for this week's theme.  

In case you don't know, her name is Baby Cat.  Cute story about her name...we found her when she was just a tiny kitten and decided to take her in.  Andrew asked me why I kept calling her kitty so I had to explain kitty is short for kitten (he was not quite 2 at the time). He then asked what a kitten was b/c clearly, this looked like a cat to him.  So then I explained a kitten is a baby cat.  Rather than call her "Kitty" like was doing, he decided to call her baby cat.  So it stuck.  Baby Cat.  

Here, she had just jumped up into the chair to take herself a little cat nap.  She seemed to be a little leery of me pointing a big ol' camera at her, unsure of whether she was about to be in trouble or not.  There are some places we don't allow her to be, our bed for instance.  But the chair was fine.  :0)

I had to get a pull back shot to show that she really was on a chair.  Kind of hard to tell in the first picture.  (P.S. I know the table and chairs are ugly, but we still have not upgraded from our early marriage hand me downs).  ;)

I walked by a little later to see she had turned around.  So I grabbed the camera and took another shot.  I love when she sleeps with one paw over her eyes.  Not the greatest angle but she was half way under the table.  

I hope you have enjoyed my weekly blog posts.  

Next week's post will be "I'm seein' red".  

Will it be a color or an emotion/angry type of red?  

Who knows!  At this point, I'm not even sure.  ;)

Project 52 - Patterns

This week's theme was a bit tough for me.  I literally thought about it all week.  Patterns.  How and what should I use for this week's theme?  I suppose, that possibly, the one who thought up the themes for this project probably intended for the patterns to be a patterned backdrop, or perhaps a subject that was wearing patterned clothing such as stripes, plaids or polka dots.  But I was feeling inspired by none of those things. AND, she did, in fact, encourage us to interpret the themes however we wanted to. So, I thought that maybe I would get a bag of pink and red starbursts (partly b/c I just wanted to eat some pink and red starbursts) and make patterns.  You know, like pink, pink, red, pink pink red and so on.  But I wasn't 100% satisfied with that concept.  And then it dawned on me.  Why not use sewing patterns?  I love vintage things and my mom has an old Singer sewing machine as well as some old patterns.  I then got excited about shooting for this week's theme, even though I am 2 days late in posting.  Better late than never though, right?  ;) 

So here is what I came up with.  

Thanks, Mom, for allowing me to use these!  

Project 52 - Blue

This week's theme is all about the color blue and how we interpret it.  Is it a color?  Is it a feeling, an emotion?  The past several years, I most likely would've interpreted it as a feeling.  I've struggled with low iron and for some reason, it loves to bottom out in the month of January.  Extreme fatigue, depression, irritability, and inability to focus are just a few of the symptoms.  Yep, that describes the feeling of blue to me.  But!  I have learned to stay on top of my iron levels now so that didn't happen this year. So for this blog post, I am interpreting blue as a color.  It could have something to do with the fact that I have a baby boy and there's been an explosion of blue in my house.  But I would be dishonest if I didn't admit that it really had to do with the fact that I LOVE coordinating outfits and I just so happened to have some coordinating outfits for 3 adorable kids that just so happen to call me mommy.  :)

Now this session was no easy task!  Taking pictures of my own 3 kids...well, lets just say I REALLY worked for every smile.  Okay, okay.  My fantastic husband helped out a lot.  Especially with baby Jack.  

Andrew, my oldest, is not a fan of cooperating for pictures.  Let's just say he's a little on the hyperactive side and he'd much rather be playing.  That's why when I nail that perfect shot with him, I feel like I've won the lottery!

Now, my Katie is a natural.  She loves being in front of the camera!  She often comes up with her own poses.  

Last, but not least, I couldn't resist posting one of these cute baby feet.  :)

So how do YOU interpret blue?  :)  

Project 52 - Week 1/Breaking Rules

So, if you are a fan of mine on FB, you may have read my status update where I mentioned being challenged by some photographer friends.  One of them came up with the idea to post a photo each week with a different theme.  I needed this challenge to get me moving again, so I "signed up".  I failed horribly at the attempt to blog once a month last year, but I had a good excuse...one that lasted about 9 months (and then some).  :)  While my "excuse" has now arrived and keeps me plenty busy, I am now at a place where I want to break out the ol' camera again and challenge my creative thinking.  The challenge was also to blow the dust off the keyboard and get to blogging again!  I was reading through some previous posts, and while I may never win a Pulitzer Prize or anything, I do a pretty decent job with the written word.  At least my little brother makes me think I do.  (Holla, Josh!)
This first week (which should've been posted 2 weeks ago, but in my defense, I didn't know about it then), the challenge was to break the rules of composition.  There are a lot of rules of composition.  The one most people are familiar with is the rule of thirds.  Since it is most common, I didn't want to focus on that one. I chose to break a couple rules. One rule of composition is to not have your background cluttered.  It could potentially distract the eye of the viewer.  Well, since I have clutter everywhere, I broke that rule.  It was hard not to.  Unless I wanted to throw a background up and shoot something on that.  But that would take up too much time.  Or if I wanted to go shoot a subject outside.  But it's too cold for that.
I got the idea for my "subject" when my daughter asked for some Pez.  She loves Pez.  I hate Pez.  But, I love Pez dispensers.  My sister once accused me of potentially becoming a hoarder b/c I told her I like to "collect" Pez dispensers.  Whatever.  But now I'm getting off subject.  So I lined up all the Pez dispensers I could find on my counter...and I left all the stuff behind them.  The coffee pot, the blender, the can of life savers, etc.  But really, in this case, I think all the "clutter" just adds to the image.  Some rules are meant to be broken.  With photography, there are "rules", but often we are challenged to break those rules.  To think outside the box.  To get creative behind the lens.  Now, I'm not claiming this image is going to blow your mind with it's creativity, but it is just to show you that rules can be broken (in photography) and it can still work.

Ok, this picture might be a tad bit lame, but I had to start somewhere.  You did read the part where I've been shutter finger has had a LONG break, right?  ;)
If you have read my post, not to beg or anything, but, please, please, please leave me some love.  I love to hear people's thoughts and comments.  I like to know when a post has been read.  I'd love to hear from you and I hope you'll follow me through this weekly challenge.  Feel free to encourage me on!  ;)