11/03/09 - Colorful Stars This is a string of lights I bought at Target in the after Christmas sale last year. They are acrylic with LED lights. They were on my mantle for several months earlier this year. I had wanted to play with them and the camera when they were up but never got to it. With the cloudy weather again yesterday, I found it nearly bedtime wtih no good picture of the day. So... If I could darken the tip of the closest green star a bit, I'd be happier with this. Some filters applied, but don't ask me exactly what I did because I don't remember...was experimenting. Another that I experimented with is here: http://fotomom.smugmug.com/Art/Colorful-Stars/10190074_XCny2#701952933_2FfmC At first I thought absolutely don't show the light within the star...just shoot the edges, but then I did shoot some like this one with the light, and I ended up mostly liking those better. We had an opossum visit us for dinner last night. He was drinking on the porch rail bird bath I have right outside my kitchen sink window during dinner last night. Lucky for him, I'd just made chicken soup, so I quickly went and threw all the scraps out for him. The boys and I delighted at watching him twitch his nose searching for just exactly where the chicken was. I took a short video (dark) and a blurred picture (he would not be still) that are also in my star gallery for now. HAGD, Maryann Note to self: You do not type well in the morning when you haven't had coffee yet!

Thanks for stopping by to view my daily photo! I will post a new photo each day to this gallery. Typically, I will post early morning, and the photo will have been taken the day before. Sometimes the photo may be from sometime earlier in the week, but all the pictures posted will be relatively new. I hope you see something that makes you smile. Feel free to leave professionally appropriate comments or to hover over any of the images and give them a thumbs up or down.

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fotomom > 11/6/09 - Yates Mill Revisited
A heartfelt thanks goes out from me to everyone that took a minute to look at my POTD yesterday and leave a comment whether you just enjoyed the reflection or threw in some helpful hints.

In the spirit of trying to improve, I went back to Yates Mill yesterday and took some more pictures. This was before most of the comments! I turned on bracketing (takes 3 shots on my camera) hoping to catch a good image. I figured I might launch the trial version of PhotoMatrix that I loaded up a while ago and know virtually nothing about. Today's POTD is the result of running the 3 bracketed pictures through PhotoMatrix and basically accepting what it wanted to do. I guess this is not the HDR output but just a tonal color mapping. I have a lot more to read up on!

The 'middle' original for today's POTD:
http://fotomom.smugmug.com/Yates-Mill-Pond/Yates-Mill-110409/10211182_2RaVN#704217195_Favig

That said, today's POTD was taken at 9:30AM vs. 5:30PM for yesterday's POTD. The crop is different. It's somewhat an apples and oranges comparison.

No doubt the color in today's POTD is better sooc and processed. But there is shade on the mill that I don't like that takes away from this one. I think that keeps this shot from being a real winner too. If only I could have waited out the sun, but I couldn't:-(

I like the water reflection and detail of the mill better in yesterday's POTD, but that's just a personal preference.

I typically shoot in AV mode. I do go to M or TV or something else when it seems to work. I have histogram, but I've not read up on how to use it. Always more to learn.

Maybe if I'm lucky, persistent, and the moon and stars line up just right, I'll get THE shot. There's a photo contest in February for the mill that I'll enter with whatever is the best shot I can manage.

If any of you all are ever in Raleigh, I'd love to meet up with you at the mill and take a few shots. Photo ops abound there.

More pictures of my two most recent trips to the mill are here:
http://fotomom.smugmug.com/Yates-Mill-Pond/Yates-Mill-110409/10211182_2RaVN#704204378_dE4yv
There are a few gems in there among the rest.

HAGD,
Maryann

fotomom > 11/05/09 - Historic Yates Mill Pond at Sunset
I posted a picture of the actual water wheel in my gallery earlier this year. In this picture, you can't see the wheel, but you get this lovely reflection instead. After Joey's flu shot, I decided to make the best of a wonderful afternoon and go for a quick hike around the mill pond. Unfortunately, we were really there a good 30-60 minutes too late to be taking good pictures. I had to bump up the saturation on this one to improve the color.

This is the same shot taken on 10/26 last year when the sun was better and the tree closest to the mill still had yellow leaves on it. http://fotomom.smugmug.com/Yates-Mill-Pond/Yates-Mill-Photo-Contest-2009/7088136_34LZC#454338880_TdGL2
In both cases, the sky looks better in the reflection than in the final shot. I'm not sure how to get around that...especially in last night's picture when the sky really didn't have much blue in it.

We still have not had a frost or freeze at my house, but it look like it's coming Friday night into Saturday. I am storing ceramic bird baths and pots and taking in fragile plants that I can save.

I sure wish today was Friday...
HAGD,
Maryann

fotomom > 11/04/09 - Leaves Dancing in the Sun
Yesterday was one of those days where no amount of caffeine was going to truly get me over the 'I'm tired' feeling. I took a walk around the buildings at work midafternoon hoping some exercise would help. I got a few neat pictures, but when I got back to my desk I was still sleepy. Anyway, it was nice to feel the sun on my face and breath in the smell of fresh air that only falling leaves can produce. Plus, I got this nifty POTD on my walk too.

Thanks for all the feedback on the star shot:-) I suspect you'll be seeing lots of things like that over the holiday season. I love mood lighting while I'm at the computer/watcihng TV at night. To John, I will definitely buy some black foam board and give it a try.

HAGD,
Maryann

fotomom > 11/03/09 - Colorful Stars
This is a string of lights I bought at Target in the after Christmas sale last year. They are acrylic with LED lights. They were on my mantle for several months earlier this year. I had wanted to play with them and the camera when they were up but never got to it. With the cloudy weather again yesterday, I found it nearly bedtime wtih no good picture of the day. So... If I could darken the tip of the closest green star a bit, I'd be happier with this. Some filters applied, but don't ask me exactly what I did because I don't remember...was experimenting. Another that I experimented with is here:
http://fotomom.smugmug.com/Art/Colorful-Stars/10190074_XCny2#701952933_2FfmC
At first I thought absolutely don't show the light within the star...just shoot the edges, but then I did shoot some like this one with the light, and I ended up mostly liking those better.

We had an opossum visit us for dinner last night. He was drinking on the porch rail bird bath I have right outside my kitchen sink window during dinner last night. Lucky for him, I'd just made chicken soup, so I quickly went and threw all the scraps out for him. The boys and I delighted at watching him twitch his nose searching for just exactly where the chicken was. I took a short video (dark) and a blurred picture (he would not be still) that are also in my star gallery for now.

HAGD,
Maryann
Note to self: You do not type well in the morning when you haven't had coffee yet!

fotomom > 11/02/09 - Sparkling Fall Color
I took this picture last Wednesday when the sun was out, and we've only had a few minutes of sun since then. Today...cloudy and cooler with a chance of rain. Dontcha think for a Monday we need something colorful like this?!?

One of the hardest things I do each day is pick with picture to post for my POTD. Here's is today's alternate:

http://fotomom.smugmug.com/Children/Joey-Johnny-Friends/8602366_itiXh#700721274_SLx3u
That's Johnny trying to drink from two straws and two different Icee cups at the same time:-) The ones of Joey cooking and wearing sunglasses to protect his eyes from the onion smell are pretty darn cute too. I'll be looking at these pictures a lot during the day because I'll be missing my kids something terrible after 4 wonderful days with them. Back to work for me, back to school for them, and to top it off I have to work tonight during what is usually our normal evening time together:-(

HAGD,
Maryann

fotomom > 11/1/09 - Trick-Or-Treat!
Here are the kids that made my Halloween so special this year. From left to right is Sophie, Sienna, Joey, Grayson, Johnny, Madi, Eli, and Celeste. Sienna's baby sister Mira is not pictured, but otherwise, this is 5 households of kids. A great bunch, and they had a great time as did us parents walking with them. 75 degrees at dark. We were SO hot!

If you'd like to see a picture of the haunted garage, go here:

http://fotomom.smugmug.com/Children/Halloween-Fun-2009/9845761_KK5Lt#699269432_Fnfhj
It was a big hit with all the kids...spooky but not too spooky;-)

Rain here...AGAIN. So much for a hike in the woods today:-( Too wet to put up the outdoor decorations too. Beats a work day though!!!

HAGD,
Maryann

fotomom > 10/31/09 - This Is Halloween!
Johnny had the day off from preschool yesterday. In the morning, we carved pumpkins. He got all the guts out of this one, picked a spooky face, and kept me company while I carved:-)

Later in the day, we went to a kids party at my place of work. The kids trick or treat going conference room to conference room. Various groups at work have fun decorating the rooms. The scariest was a mad scientists lab complete with microscopes and all sorts of experiments. But, I liked the graveyard room better:-)

Haunted Garage party starts here at 11! I need to get busy!!! To bed late, up late, posting late. I hope I can recover...

My jack-o-lantern picture needed a bit of help, so I added a poster filter. This is Johnny's pumpkin.

Have a great Halloween whatever you find yourself doing!
Maryann

fotomom > 10/30/09 - Nightmare on My Street

Nightmare on My Street Song
A popular song around the house this time of year because a very similar version is on our Kidz Bop Halloween CD. That and Ghostbusters!

First, thank you so much for the response to my leaf photo from yesterday. Wow! That shot is now in my top 10 most popular pictures. Thank you again.

Second, I have another leaf shot that I think you would really like, but the picture I'm showing just had to trump it. If you'd like to see a 'real' photo today, it's here:
http://fotomom.smugmug.com/Nature/October-2009/9831230_NeVMB#696214517_TMXoC

Pictured in this shot left to right is Joey, Johnny, Madi, and Madi's mom Christine. I had some help putting out some of my other Halloween decorations yesterday afternoon. This is dead center (pun intende) in the middle of my front yard. Christine came up with the idea for the picture, and I was as quick with the camera as I could be!

Johnny's preschool Halloween party was a ton of fun. The jack-o-lantern painting station that ran was a success...cute pictures produced and no paint messes. The rest of the stations went well too.

The clouds are back here. At least on Wednesday for 5 hours we had sun and I got 3 pictures I really liked of the fall color.

HAGD,
Maryann

fotomom > 10/29/09 - Walking on Sunshine
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xmxSL6H2QEg
The sun came out yesterday, and it was glorious. This is a sooc shot taken in the parking lot at work around 10:30AM just after the storm clouds cleared.

Thank you so much for the comments and enouragement with the mummy shot:-)

I'm off for a 4 day weekend. Can you tell I am so happy I am about skipping across the house this morning? I'll be in Johnny's classroom today for their Halloween party. He's going to be Mr. Incredible today then back to Mario Saturday night. Then, after the party, we'll kick into high gear here finishing up our spooky decorations and doing party prep for the party we're having here at the house for the kids Saturday. When do I get to sit down again? Oh, maybe when Monday rolls around;-) But, I like it like that!

HAGD,
Maryann

11/03/09 - Colorful Stars
This is a string of lights I bought at Target in the after Christmas sale last year. They are acrylic with LED lights. They were on my mantle for several months earlier this year. I had wanted to play with them and the camera when they were up but never got to it. With the cloudy weather again yesterday, I found it nearly bedtime wtih no good picture of the day. So... If I could darken the tip of the closest green star a bit, I'd be happier with this. Some filters applied, but don't ask me exactly what I did because I don't remember...was experimenting. Another that I experimented with is here:
http://fotomom.smugmug.com/Art/Colorful-Stars/10190074_XCny2#701952933_2FfmC
At first I thought absolutely don't show the light within the star...just shoot the edges, but then I did shoot some like this one with the light, and I ended up mostly liking those better.

We had an opossum visit us for dinner last night. He was drinking on the porch rail bird bath I have right outside my kitchen sink window during dinner last night. Lucky for him, I'd just made chicken soup, so I quickly went and threw all the scraps out for him. The boys and I delighted at watching him twitch his nose searching for just exactly where the chicken was. I took a short video (dark) and a blurred picture (he would not be still) that are also in my star gallery for now.

HAGD,
Maryann
Note to self: You do not type well in the morning when you haven't had coffee yet!