Mirror, Mirror

DAY 143

23 MAY 09

Project 365 has been a real learning experience for me. Sometimes the photos come easy, sometimes they're like pulling the teeth of an angry Tasmanian Devil. Day 143 was a Tasmanian Devil day. I couldn't find a single thing to shoot.

I finally settled on one of my fallback subjects, my truck. It was parked in my driveway, and despite the layer of dirt covering it, everything around it was still strongly reflected in the surfaces. When processing the photo, I did what I could to highlight those reflections. Look closely, you'll see part of my house, my driveway, and the woods next door.

Post-processing: noise reduction, sharpening, black & white conversion using the infrared filter in Photoshop, border addition.

Dot Dot Dot

DAY 91

01 APR 09

Yes, I've been posting a lot of rain-related pictures lately. That's good news for my area, as it means we've had enough rain for me to take a lot of rain-related pictures. It was recently reported that all this rain may have actually pulled us out of the worst of our seemingly ever-enduring drought.

These raindrops were clinging to the side of my truck. They kind of reminded me of that candy...do you know what I'm talking about? It was a candy that was little dots stuck to a sheet of paper. I'm sure they exist/existed, though I don't know their name.

I also found it interesting that when I zoomed in to a 100% crop, it was clear that each little drop reflected the woods next to my house.

Post-processing: noise reduction, sharpening, black & white conversion, border addition.

House. Upside Down.

DAY 49

18 FEB 09

Day 49 brought more much-needed rain for drought-stricken Atlanta. Sometimes it seems like we're always getting rain, but the news only presents more doom and gloom with regard to our drought condition. While I'm not complaining about the rain, I am getting tired of hearing how horrible conditions are.

Could just be my mood, though.

At any rate, during a break in the rain, I came home from my daily errands. As I got out of my truck, I realized one of the trees in the front yard had little bitty raindrops hanging off each and every branch. It almost made the tree look diamond-dipped, and that was way cool. I tried to capture what I saw, but the picture didn't work, darn it all. It just looked like a big, wet tree. So I decided instead to try concentrating on the individual drops.

I was pretty excited when I downloaded this photo, because I saw something that I couldn't see in the LCD when I took the picture -- a reflection in the drop. It's my house! Upside down! How cool is that?

Yes, I'm easily entertained.

Post-production included sharpening, noise reduction, curves adjustment, and border addition.

Inside Outside

DAY 31

31 JAN 09

Saturday was a busy day: a Tae Kwon Do belt test in the morning with a cub scout pack meeting in the afternoon. That left no time to plan dinner for my family. So we did what most modern families do -- fast food.

As we sat in a local chicken place, I looked around, wondering if I had my Project 365 shot yet. The inside of this restaurant is great, old stuff everywhere. I pointed my camera around (surreptitiously), capturing the goodies gracing the walls here and there. But the picture I ended up liking the most was not one of the artifacts on the walls.

I pointed the camera out the window next to our table on a whim, and I'm so glad I did. I love the juxtaposition of the neon signs from outside through the window with the reflections in the window of things on the inside. It's all jumbled, but for me, it works.

Post-processing, again, is just noise reduction, sharpening, a curves bump and border addition.

Upon Reflection...

DAY 28

28 JAN 09

Rain, rain, and more rain! In a drought-stricken area, all that water falling from the sky is exciting, even if the rain is sparse enough to avoid the drops by stepping to the right.

On Day 28, I came home from...somewhere...and went into the backyard. I had to enter the house through the back door since my dogs were in the garage (they're old and they don't like getting wet). Anyway, as I walked across the patio, I saw a couple of great puddles. My plan was to see if I could capture a raindrop hitting the puddle, the splash of explosion of water on water. But when I pointed the camera, what appeared in my viewfinder was much, much better.

I still got those raindrops, but even better, I got an amazing reflection. The images of some great naked wintertime trees stared back at me from the water's surface, and I knew I had my Project 365 shot.

Post-processing on this one was minimal, just my usual noise reduction, sharpening, and curves adjustment.