January 1, 2013, it's a new year!

I hope everyone enjoyed New Year's eve, the parties, the fun, family and friends.  Now is the time to start the first day of a new year.  My wish for everyone is the hope that you all make the best of the upcoming year, that each day is filled with love, peace, joy, and happiness.  May you all find your groove! 

I'm also hoping that you'll join me on a new adventure.  It's a new take on New Year's resolutions.  I'm starting my own project.  Follow me on my journey, join me if you wish and show me what you create.  I'd love to share this journey with you.  Here are my thoughts on the beginning of this project.

Today I'm starting a 365 day photo project for the purpose of documenting all that one year holds in my life, to improve my photographic experience and abilities and
to see myself, my thoughts, my joys and fears, and my world through the lens. I also want to leave my family this legacy as a tribute to them.

How do I plan to do this??? Well I plan to :

1. Bring my camera everywhere with me (ugh!  camera phones and point  &shoots work too)
2. Choose a theme a month (make it easy, like: morning, mother nature, etc..)
3. Make the theme broad so that it encompasses everything including, things, moments and emotions.
4. Create a monthly calendar and add the pics to it.
5. Use my blog to document the pics on a daily basis. (well maybe weekly if daily is too hard)
6. Add to each pic: the day, the reason, the feeling, all in 3 lines or less.
7. Try to plan some of the ideas for the month.
8. Take one self-portrait each month.
9. Hopefully get you to do the same or some version of it that you can share with us or with your family and friends or just do it for yourself. 

This is not for the faint of heart.  It's a commitment and I'm hopefully up for the challenge.  I'm pretty sure I'll learn a lot from this project.  If the thought of trying this is too much for you, do it on a smaller scale.  You could try a theme on a monthly or weekly basis or even a yearly thing. 

Follow me on this trek and I'll share with you some other projects that you can easily try.  One step forward....and on we go!  Are you coming?

January 2013....

Theme: Morning

Good luck, have fun and share....

Well, January is done.  When I started this project, I expected to have all kinds of ideas and inspirations, but it's not as easy as it looks.  Every morning, I woke up thinking about what I wanted to show, what I would say about it, and it forced me to look at my mornings in a different light.  I can't believe it but I do so much in the morning....and all that before I go to work.  I love mornings, and because of this project, I know why...it's my chance to start new everyday...It doesn't matter anymore what happened yesterday because I can't change yesterday...it's over. And tomorrow is not here yet. I can plan for tomorrow but I can't start fresh tomorrow...I can only start fresh today....and the morning is where it all starts.  I hope you are enjoying some of the posts.  I welcome any thoughts or ideas you might have...by the way, tomorrow is the first day of February...any ideas on a theme? 
Love what you shoot!

Jan 31, 2013
Wow, my last day in January.  Again it had to be a picture of the weather.  It's now blowing snow but there's not that much of it.  Hopefully it's not pure ice underneath.  This picture was taken at 5am...I'll put this picture up bigger so you can see my last one.  Tonight, I'll also put up the calendar of all the pictures from January.  It's been fun sharing this month with you.  Now on to February.  I'll let you know about February in my next entry. 
Love what you shoot!

---

Jan 30, 2013
I'm sorry I didn't get this one up yesterday....too hectic with the weather.  But I did take this picture of the tree in my front yard.  It was covered in ice.  What a day.  There was no way in or out of town, the major highways were closed.  The schools were all closed and basically, it was a snow day for a lot of people...but the snow didn't come until later.  Most of the day, it was ice rain.  Another day in the North....love it!
Love what you shoot!

---

Jan 29, 2013
More snow...my DH was out there at 6am this morning shoveling so that I could get out.  The snow is so heavy and the plow went by at 3am filling the end of the driveway with more than I'd seen to date...and later today, it all turns to ice rain....This has been quite a winter.  If you don't have to go outside today, don't...bundle up with a good book.
Love what you shoot!

---

Jan 28, 2013
This morning I was playing with this beautiful vase my daughter-in-law gave me for Christmas and I was hoping to get some neat reflection in the granite on my kitchen counter.  After trying different lighting situations 19 times, I finally came up with this one.  This project is difficult but I'm sure learning a lot from it.  1/30th (on tripod), f3.5 iso 2500.  It's more about how the lights were positioned on this one.  I like the way it reclects the colored light in the granite.  Happy Monday!
Love what you shoot! 

---

Jan 27, 2013

Laundry day!  Every Sunday....because it's a mundane laughable sujbect (meaning I do not enjoy doing laundry), I decided to turn into a comic type picture.  Photoshop has these great settings that I like to play with every once in a while.  This one is very stylized....almost HDR type...
The best thing about laundry...clean clothes to start off a new week...have a good week everyone!
Love what you shoot!

---

Jan 26, 2013

Such a beautifull morning...it took me a while to upload...had a hard time coming back in.  These are the kind of days that I just love to be out there with my camera...This tree had so much character and the light was just like a halo on everything.  I loved the soft look it gave to this tree.  My settings: 1/500sec, f5, iso 200.  Get out there and take your camera, go for a walk, it's a great day!  Love what you shoot!

---

Jan 25, 2013
6 more days to go to complete January's theme. Time just flies....
My bar soap, my liquid soap and my hairbrush....things I couldn't live without.  Try to make these things look artistic in a picture...I've decided that I'm not a product photographer...it's hard.  I have a lot of respect for photographers who can put the most inocuous items in a photo and make them look like there's nothing more beautiful on earth....I should take some lessons....so on to tomorrow....maybe I'll find something more creative....like snow....'cause I think it's going to start snowing again.....have a great day!

---

Jan 24, 2013her

It's just too cold to get out of bed so I'll see you all tomorrow...

---

Jan 23, 2013
10,000 steps a day...for our health and our bones.  We apparently have to walk 10,000 steps every day....wow! that's 5 miles everyday...well, it's too cold out there and I don't like the idea of walking alone at 5am in the dark....so I bought a treadmill...great deals right now at Canadian Tire. This one has a lot of bells and whistles but heh!  I'm just walking.  I hope to be able to do about 3 miles a day on it....that's about an hour on that thing. That's ok...I can listen to music or photography webinars...that's a cool bauble....it plugs into my treadmill. Now to stay motivated....are you doing this?  Let me know what keeps you going.   

---

Jan 22, 2013
The morning sun showing itself against one half of the building. It was very cool.  Soon after, there were no more clouds and it was a cold sunny day. 
Stay warm

---

Jan 21, 2013
The challenge is finding morning theme subjects to photograph and I still have 10 days to go....so I've decided to visit the challenge in a different way.  Instead of recording my morning events, I'm going to see if I can take a picture every morning in a different way...This one for instance is of my clothes hanging on a rack...I took a few pictures of the rack and well...boring...so I decided to change the angle.  I faced the rack straight on, got down low and started shooting.  Then I played with the contrast the color and tried to make it fun....'cause "yes", I have to get dressed in the morning...Try it..even mundane things get a different look.

---

Jan 20, 2013
Wow! pretty soon we will be stranded in our homes....so much snow and it keeps on falling.  It is beautiful though. When taking pictures of snow in daylight, the exposure is crucial.  Depending on what you're looking for, you might want to expose for correct snow exposure or correct subject exposure.  Here, I was more interested in the red canoe but I also wanted the snow to look like snow and not some blown out light so I had to expose for a mid ground. 
I hope I'm not boring you all with this project...Is anyone doing it with me????
Have a nice peaceful Sunday.

---

Jan 19, 2013
So this was the time on my clock this morning when I got up.  It's now nearly 8am and I'm just getting back in the house from shovelling the mountain of snow that dumped last night.  My original plan was to just relax this morning and edit some photos but no...I had to shovel...
Oh well, good exercise.  Did you do your excercise this morning?
Enjoy your day!

---

Jan 18, 2013
It's Friday! yipee!!!!
And it's garbage day!  So at 5am this morning, I'm out there putting out the recycling and the garbage bin.  It was too cold for me to stop out there to take a picture. That's why you're seeing this boring picture of the clean, new bag in the wonderful IKEA roll-out bin....which is great by the way. 
I've discovered that this challenge is not that easy to do.  It's hard to think up 31 days of morning pics.....but I promise, I'll get there. 
Have a wonderful weekend all!

---

Jan 17, 2013
I'm pretty happy I have a garage!  It was freezing this morning...-29...wow! But my car was sitting nice and warm in the garage.  I like my car, it looks pretty sleek and I know that my attachement to a vehicle usually depends on how it looks first and then how it performs...This car's got it all.  So when I took this picture I kneeled on the garage floor and took the picture from a lower angle...try it...it gives an elongated look to the car.  Since I was inside the garage, I couldn't back up enough to really give it the length I wanted but you get the idea! If you have a wider angle lens, you could really give it a cool look!  Have fun shooting! 

---

Jan 16, 2013

I know, I know!  What's this got to do with the "morning" theme....Funny you should ask...
I'm a morning person, as you already know.  As far as I'm concerned, I can get more done between 5am and 8am than the rest of the day's hours combined.  Most mornings, I make dinner so that I can be lazy when I get home in the evening, knowing that we'll have a great meal and I'm the star.  Maybe not as exceptional as the days I shovel the snow....my husband thinks I'm a real star then because he gets home and it's all clean....yipee!  So tonight, it's Italian beef and barley stew.  Yum!  Can't wait for tonight!

---

Jan 15, 2013
My shower...I probably have the ugliest shower on this earth but...it's my shower and I love it.  I just don't know how I even get out of it.  When I get in there, it's like the world took a different turn.  My whole body and mind shuts down...Sometimes I'm there for 15-20 minutes and I keep setting the water hotter and hotter.  I don't know about you, but that particular morning routine is my favorite, bar none! 
Are you a shower person or a bath person? 

---

Jan 14, 2013

I got up to shovel this morning....we have a large driveway....and sometimes I feel bad for my husband, so out I went and of course the photo ops were right there.  Here's a close-up of the trees in the yard across the street.  It's just beautiful out there. 
I took this at a very low shutter speed (with tripod of course)
20 seconds, f8 (that could change depending on the light available), iso 100.  Go try it, it's so much fun....remember to stabilize your camera and have fun...It was 5:30am so it's still pretty dark out there. 

---

Jan 13, 2013

If you were thinking of enjoying all the winter activities the north has to offer today, think again! We're thawing out, literally!
So this morning I took my camera outdoors  and took
some pictures of my backyard showing grass and barely any snow. 
Raindrops…wow!  It's beautiful…wish I had a Macro lens.  
I was out there in a sweater and sandals….must be 5 or 6 degrees….I just hope the bears don't wake up…hope you all enjoy your Sunday!

---

Jan 12, 2013

Do you have a comfortable pair of slippers? Mine are light sandals.  My feet are always so warm...I wear these year round.  I originally bought for a trip to Jamaica...and they were so comfortable that I started using them around the house instead of slippers....it was life-changing....haha! Now if I could only wear them to work!!!!
Today is Saturday....I plan to spend a lot of time in these today.  Enjoy the start of the weekend!

---

Jan 11, 2013

Remember when I said the first thing I do is take a big glass of water in the morning....I lied...shame on me.  The very first thing would be to put my glasses on. It's a pretty mundane thing but it's the only way to see through my day.  They're like my view on the world.  They improve my physical vision and my artistic vision.  First thing I put on when I get up, last thing I take off when I go to bed.  How important these little things are!  But now that I think about it, some amazing people take amazing pictures and they're completely blind. Enjoy your vision...you are blessed.  Have an insightful day! 

---

Jan 10, 2013

Raise your hand if you take vitamins!  I do…Calcium, Multi,
Vit C, Fish oil….and more.  This is just protection in case….
you never know.  I hope my body is benefitting but there's just no guarantee. 
I have to say though….I'm never sick.  Somehow, if nothing else, my immune system is strong. 
Could it be the vitamins???….I'll  let you know when I'm 125. 

Now go take your vitamins and start your day!

---

Jan 9, 2013

Some morning routines I enjoy more than others. 
I know that most of us don't like brushing our teeth, but that’s one that I like doing!  When my mouth feels good, I feel better all over.  Like being "clean"…I took this picture with a wide open focal length f 2.8, bathroom light only, and shutter speed was at 1/200.  Getting the focus right is the hardest part of this exercise.  But I liked the effect of the out of focus toothbrush.  I took this pic a few times and the ones in focus are not as cool...So I'm sticking with this story! ok! Did you brush your teeth this morning? 

---

Jan 8, 2013
So this picture is probably not necessarily related to my morning theme but I did take it this morning and I'm calling it "Morning Light".  It doesn't look like much but it's lots of fun.  I'm playing with long exposures and a flashlight.  It's just for fun and there is no wisdom attached to it.  I will keep practicing and see if I can become more artistic with it. Has anyone "light painted" with a flashlight?  I'd love to see your results.  It's harder than it looks...I plan to keep practicing and I'll post results as I get better ones. 

---

Jan 7, 2013
Every morning I make my lunch before heading off to work..I'm not creative but it does provide the nutrients my body needs to make it through the day (there's hummus at work too).  It's probably the healthiest meal of my day.  So, looks like it's time to change a few things.  New Year's resolutions are hard to keep….easy to make but hard to keep.  I've pretty much given up on losing weight…that's been my go-to resolution every year since I'm 16.  For shame, the results have been less than stellar. Resolution, Resolve, Results….looks like I'm going to go for improving my health.  Better food, more movement, more relaxation, less stress…..I can do it!  What's your New Year's resolution? Are you doing it?

---

Jan 6, 2013.
This is the strangest picture I've taken in a long time.  5:30am and I check outside to see the most beautiful red glow in the sky.  I hurry to take the picture (results posted) and 5 minutes later it's dark again.  The light disappeared almost as quickly as it came. 
Now, its 7:30am as I'm posting this and it's almost pitch dark out there except for the faint blue light of dawn starting to make its entry into the day.  Wow! got so lucky to see this and enjoy the scene.  I took it through my kitchen window and it's not the best shot but I had to hurry.  This is going to be a beautiful Sunday morning!  I love it when unexpected things like this happen....enjoy your day!

---

Jan 5, 2013

Exercise, good
for your body,
good for your soul,
good for your mind….yuck! 
I have no words of wisdom when it comes to exercise. It just has to be done…..every morning!  It does make me feel better though.  My head is
clearer, my joints don't hurt as much, and I always look forward to when it's over so that I can have that great cup of coffee! 

I spot jog, do my 54 year old version of push-ups, lunges, jumping jacks, and stretches....about 20-25 minutes in all...did you do yours today!

---

Jan 4, 2013

Day 4....a new beginning. So the first thing I do in the morning, every morning, is drink a full glass of water...I like to give myself a new beginning to each day.  chinchin!

---

Jan 3, 2013

Day 3....wow!  I'm really liking this challenge!

Breakfast....

It's easy, it's fast, and I like it….Cereal….
it's always the same….vector. 
6:30 every morning, and it has to last until 1pm when I finally eat lunch. 
Life is good!
What did you eat this morning?

---

Jan 2, 2013...

Did I mention I like coffee….My pot, my cup, my java….it helps get me going in the morning…it
also puts things into perspective…my thought patterns are clearer, my day starts out better and I'm generally nicer once I've had my first cup.  Bottoms up!

---

Jan 1, 2013...
So this is picture number 1.  I thought I should start the year with a self-portrait...the best part is that I'm done now for this month. 

7:07 AM
I'm definitely a morning person…that's the reason
I chose that theme for January. 
I'm up early, enjoy my cup of coffee and generally like to build the day early on. I chose this shot as my
first day pic to start the year off right (haha). 
People know me in this outfit, it's my everyday lounge wear. 
The self-portrait is difficult.  After taking about a gazillion pictures, I finally chose this one. 
I didn't think it would be so difficult.  But it's me!
What did you come up with?

---