Keepin' on with the 365 and You Capture

I'm realizing that I'm focusing more on the picture part of what's going on - not necessarily a bad thing, and it's been fun trying new photo challenges. But I'm not writing as much as I hoped with the blog...something to ponder!

Here are my next 5 photos for the 365 project - an opportunity/challenge to take 1 photo every day for 365 days.

# 2 9/20/10 This is where I am most Monday nights of the year, with the exception of summer. I sing in a 200-voice women's chorus and we rehearse on Monday nights in the beautiful Unitarian Universalist church in town. I like how the lights are giving out a special glow.

#3 9/21/10 On Monday our work landlord came in with 4 tickets to the Red Sox the following night. We don't usually go out on a "school night", but decided to go. It was quite an adventure getting there (broken subway car in front of us, stuck in a crowded car for 20 minutes & ended up walking the last mile and got there an hour after the game started). But once we got there...nothing like Fenway Park on a beautiful night!

#4 9/22/10 I'm attempting to participate in the You Capture photography project and this is my one shot of the week. I won a packet of seeds at a work event and tossed them in this spot about a month ago. 1 of these flowers makes an appearance each morning - just beautiful!


#5 9/23/10 I offered a vespers service (meditative evening service) at my church and folks are invited to come light a candle of joy or concern.

#6 9/24/10 We tried a new restaurant tonight in the tiny town of Epping NH. The place is called Holy Grail - it's a former catholic church. This guy was there to greet us and to his right is a baptismal font with mints in it. Fun!

365 - I'd like a do-over

Ok, so I wasn't really organized for starting the 365 project. I've been taking pictures on my little Canon Point & Shoot, and I've been taking some on my Droid. I figured having 2 options would make it easier for me to actually take a picture every day...it didn't work. I missed days, and then I've somehow deleted photos from my Droid before succesfully moving them to my laptop.

So...with your permission, I'd like to start this project over as of today, 9/19/10. Thanks in advance! So...here's the 1st shot for my 365 project:

#1 9/19/10

My hometown hosts a Criterium each year. Other than our downtown streets being closed to vehicles and lots of bicyclists going quickly, I wasn't sure what it meant. Here's the definition from Wikipedia: "A criterium, or crit, is a bike race held on a short course (usually less than 5km) often run on closed-off city center streets." Yup that's exactly what was happening today.

I took this shot on my Droid sitting on the curb in front of my church. I love the action of it, and how the camera somehow made her wheel oval.
After watching some of the racing I headed to a friend's house to get some plants for our new flower garden - pictures of that will definitely be part of the next 364 days!

365 - catching up

Well, I've fallen a bit behind on posting my pictures for the 365 project! (see link on the right) I started the project wanting to have a wonderfully creative picture each day, but that ain't gonna happen. So far in the couple of weeks I've been doing it...I'm lucky if I remember to take any picture at all - let alone be creative about it. So I've now decided that I'll be happy if I just take a picture that documents my day - and looking back at the year, seeing the progress of things will be lovely! So here are several days of the 365 - enjoy!

#4 Our little garden. We planted 4 tomato plants and 1 cuke plant. But last fall Bobbi threw a few mini pumpkins in here, and now we have almost a dozen mini pumpkins growing! Later in the Fall I'll post a pic of several of them together.

#5 When the sun is just so out our front window - it makes this beautiful shadow on our wall from the crab apple tree in our front yard.

#6 The stage at Prescott Park in Portsmouth, NH. The scene of Peter Pan all summer, along with many wonderful concerts. They're taking things down for the winter, but we'll be back next year!

#7 Low tide at Rye Beach, NH.

#8 We went camping in the White Mountains on Labor Day weekend. My all-time favorite part is having a campfire - I could just sit there for hours - and I do! Here's our fire one nigh.

#9 There was a penny on the picnic table at our campsite. It rained one night and the water pooled a bit on the penny creating a neat effect.

#10 One of our favorite Portsmouth Restaurant - The Rosa. They've been around since 1927 and this is a picture of their original menu.

#11 I looked out our front window and saw the neighbor's cat (Blue - on the left) stalking a squirell (on the right). I knew Blue was the neighborhood feline bully, but I thought he just bullied other cats and birds!

#12 We had some peaches in the fruit bowl and some late-summer rhubarb in the yard. Here's the result - rhubarb peach crisp. Yum!

I'll try to keep up on posting my pictures more regularly...but don't count on it! Thanks for going through the year with me!

You Capture - Mornings

This is my first post as part of the You Capture project - click the link on the right. I love the idea of paying attention to an idea, a concept for a week and looking to find images that capture your imagination. This week the word was "Mornings".
I was lucky enough to be on Star Island this past weekend. Star is one of the Isles of Shoals about 6 miles off the coast of NH. I spent 7 summers working there about 20 years ago - best summers of my life. Sunday morning I woke up early - at about 6:15. I'm not generally a morning person, but a clear morning on Star is a wonderful thing...and a great opportunity for pictures! So as my roommate slept, I crept out of the room and started shooting - here are just a few shots from my Star Morning.

This one is for my friend Suz who loves taking photos of beach roses. They are in abundance on Star!


There was another group on Star - Road Scholars (formerly Elder Hostel). It's a program for seniors to explore different parts of the country, attend educational workshops, etc. This was a group of people walking around checking out the birds on the island. I was 10 seconds too late to catch them all looking through their binoculars.

Rocking chairs are in abundance on Star, but it's rare to find a row of them empty. Because of the different angles, it does look like they're rocking...just waiting for the humans to arrive.

The current chapel on the island is 210 years old and is probably the most photographed part of the island. I love the morning light casting shadows with the few trees on the island. Interested in Star Island? Check out www.starisland.org.

Gettin' Creative 2 and 3/365

Here are my pictures for days 2 and 3 of the 365 project. I can already tell it's going to be a challenge to remember to take a photo each day - but I'll keep trying!


2/365 This was taken in my room at Star Island - one of 9 islands off the coast of NH. The warm wind was coming from the west and created a beautiful flowing image.


3/365 This is a "before" picture in our back yard. I just borrowed a rototiller from a friend in hopes of starting a small flower garden. It's been on my wish list for quite a while, so it's nice to finally be making some progress! This will be a good source of photos for the next 365 days!!

Gettin' creative (1/365)

I've added a couple of links to my blog - You Capture and 365 - both opportunities to explore photography. So...not only am I hoping write more, but I'm adding picture taking to the mix too. We'll see how long they both last!! With You Capture, we're given a word each week and are asked to take a picture inspired by that word and share it through your blog and on the You Capture site. And with 365 we're challenged to picture every day for 365 days.
Here's my picture from yesterday - day #1 of 365 (thus the 1/365 in the title)


This is a picture taken on Star Island - one of the Isles of Shoals off the coast of NH. I was there for a retreat for church. Each evening, there is a chapel service - these candles are carried up the hill to the 210 year old chapel. Watching the chapel fill with these glowing lights is one of my favorite things. I worked on Star Island from 1984-1990 and one of my side jobs was to prepare the candles for the service and hand them to people as they silently go to the chapel.

HikingRev?

I haven't written much yet because I've been pondering why I want to share my thoughts online, and do I really want to. I don't consider myself much of a writer but I've been inspired by a friend who started a blog in the Spring.
I originally had the idea as a way of documenting my journey and goal of hiking all of the 4,000 footers in the White Mountains of NH - there are 48 of them and I've done 5 so far. I love reading hiking books, hiking blogs and have followed several folks on trailjournals.com as they make their way on the Appalachian Trail. So I guess I've wanted to be one of those who writes about hiking adventures and here's my chance. And it's a way to share my unique perspective of doing this as a formerly morbidly obese person. I had weight loss surgery in December 2006 and have lost 1/2 of my weight. Here's a "before" picture followed by an "after" picture:


I hope to share some of that journey as I share my hiking journey - the ups and downs of both.
And the "rev" part? In June of 2006 I was ordained as an interfaith minister which has been a journey of its own and seems like more fodder for writing.
So there's a bit about why I'm here.

Catch a Shooting Star

The Perseid Meteor Showers were this past week. Friday night Bobbi and I turned out all the lights in the house and went out to the hammock to take a look. We laid there on the damp hammock, a couple of bugs buzzing around and let our eyes adjust to the night sky. There was still a bit of light in the west even though it was 9pm. We watched and watched - trying to see the whole sky so we didn't miss anything. Then 1 bright meteor came shooting across leaving a long trail - right above us and we both saw it. What a treat! We each saw one other one but not as brilliant. Apparently to really get a good show we should have gotten up right before dawn - not our cup of tea.
Bobbi sang "Catch a Falling Star" (Catch a falling star and put it in your pocket, save it for a rainy day...) and reminded me of the time we visited my father and step mother in Missouri many years ago. We were sitting in their back yard under a clear sky then as well. My father started singing Catch a Falling Star and we joined him - creating a lovely moment. My father passed away in June of 2005 - we weren't particularly close, but we had our times of trying to connect, and this was one that came naturally and one that I'm very grateful for.

First post

So - I've had this blog set up for a few weeks - been waiting to have something brilliant to say and it hasn't happened yet. So here's my first post. It's done. I can now move on to what comes next from this.