Takin' a Bath

Day 172

21 JUNE 09

My truck was dirty, so we took a trip through the local laser car wash. What the heck is a laser car wash, anyway? I didn't notice anything laser-ish around me, and it certainly didn't get my truck any cleaner. ::shrug::

I had hoped to get pictures of the multi-colored "wax" being sprayed onto the truck, but alas, it never turned my windshield multi-colored. Rats. Instead, I just got a shot of "outside" through my wet windshield. Yup, I found another way to photograph water on my truck even when it's not raining! Clever girl am I. To me, the effect is similar to one you might get with one of the Photoshop sketching filters. Nifty.

Post-processing: Minimal on this one. Crop & straighten, noise reduction, sharpening, and border addition.

Drops on the Web

DAY 144

24 MAY 09

I woke up in the morning and went outside to greet the day.

Nice fantasy -- that's just not the way I do things. I did wake up. I probably stumbled around a while. Eventually, I did go outside. Probably to take photos of my porch railing. I keep photographing it, thinking that one day I'll use it as my Project 365 shot. It hasn't happened so far, but I keep trying.

Anyway, a spider or other web-weaving creature had spun a web in the corner of my railing. It had rained the night before, and the threads of the web still held droplets of rain. Of course, I had to try and get photos.

I know it seems like I've been on a black & white kick lately. That's not necessarily true -- it's just the last few photos I posted looked better (in my opinion) in black and white. With this photo, the conversion cut out the distraction in the shot posed by the red brick.

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

Geyser-Like

DAY 104

15 APR 09

I was driving through town and I noticed this fire hydrant spewing water. It kind of reminded me of a geyser, and instantly made me homesick for Yellowstone (yup, I get homesick for a place I've never lived, but fell in love with during vacations). As quickly as I could, I pulled over and took a few pictures. What you can't see in this photo is the city truck parked just outside the frame. I only managed to grab a few shots before the city worker shut it down.

Post-production: noise reduction, sharpening, border addition.

Light Up the Sky

DAY 100

10 APR 09

Major storms rolled through North Georgia, some were pretty destructive. Luckily, the worst of it missed us, but we did manage to see thunderstorms with heavy rain. I thought it'd be fun to try and get a shot of the rain on my patio lit just by the patio lights, and I ended up with a purely-by-chance shot.

Just as I hit the shutter, lightning lit up the sky. I had a handful of very dark pictures before this one and a handful of very dark pictures after this one. This one was my favorite.

Post-production: noise reduction, sharpening, 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.

Dreamy

DAY 87

28 MAR 09

We've had lots of rainy days around here, yet they're still exciting. On this rainy day, I had to run to the dry cleaners before the yearly cub scout banquet. As I parked, I saw the dainty flowers on this little tree and decided to get a few shots through the windshield. After a couple pictures, I feared there might be something wrong with my camera. No matter how hard I tried, it wouldn't focus.

Of course, as soon as I pulled the camera away from my face, I realized the problem. The rain was sheeting on my windshield. Nothing could focus through it. I caught this shot before the major sheeting. The rain threw small parts out of focus resulting in an almost a dreamy quality.

Post-processing: noise reduction, sharpening, curves adjustment, border addition.

Got the Drop

DAY 86

27 MAR 09

This photo does bear some similarity to my shot for Day 74 titled It's Raining Again -- they were both taken on rainy days, both pictures were taken of water on glass, and both were taken through the glass with me on the dry side. The subjects are similar, but there is a difference in execution.

My Day 74 shot was taken through the passenger-side window of my truck. This photo? Through my sun/moonroof. Plus, this was a one-in-a-million type shot for me; I actually caught the raindrop hitting the glass! Had I not caught that, you'd be looking at a very different photo for Day 86.

Post-processing: noise reduction, sharpening, curves adjustment, cropping (I caught part of the edge of the sun/moonroof so I cropped it out), and border addition.

It's Raining Again

DAY 74

15 MAR 09

Two things have become abundantly clear to me. First, taking my Project 365 photos has become a habit. I like that. It means there's a good chance I'll be sticking with the project.

Second, I'm not very good at updating daily. While I'm taking photos daily, I'm not downloading them daily. I'm not processing photos daily. I'm not posting photos daily. What I am doing, however, is often playing catch-up. Just not daily.

I hope you'll bear with me on my catch-up days.

Day 74 brought more rain. Some folks around here have taken to complaining about the wet stuff; I still enjoy it. Does that make me weird? This photo was a little experiment with the raindrops on my truck window. While I wish the focus had been just a bit sharper, overall, I'm pleased with the result.

Post-processing: noise reduction, sharpening, curves adjustment, 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.

On Dry Land

DAY 47

16 FEB 09

Day 47 was President's Day and the kids had the day off from school. I didn't want them zombied out in front of their computers and video games, so my husband and I got them out of the house and off to one of Georgia's state parks.

This photo is from Tugaloo State Park, on the shore of Hartwell Lake. Actually, this spot used to be underwater -- probably 5-10 feet deep, and these little shells were everywhere. Georgia's continued drought has just decimated this body of water.

It was quite sad to see. I'd seen this lake from the road as we drove by at 65+/- mph, seen where the lake had been dried so long there was grass growing, seen the floating docks now sitting on dry land. But experiencing it up close, getting out and walking the lake bed, brought all new meaning to the situation for me. There are boat ramps that now end nowhere near the water. The beach in this park is closed. Marked poles previously used for measuring water depth now sit yards away from the shoreline.

Will this drought ever end?

Post processing was sharpening, noise reduction, a slight curves adjustment, and border addition.

Raindrops Keep Falling

DAY 33

02 FEB 09

Yup. Rain's still exciting to us North Georgians. As long as we have drought, we'll happy dance at the sight of rain. This shot in particular is the one I was going for on Day 28 when I got the reflection shot instead.

I like the circles. I like the puddle. I like the hint of concrete in the foreground. I like the out of focus What the heck is that? reflection in the water. For me, this shot just works.

Post processing on this one included conversion to black & white in Adobe Camera Raw, noise reduction, sharpening, a curves adjustment and contrast boost, and the addition of the filter "Anvil" in Virtual Photographer. And my usual simple black border, too.

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.

Droplets

DAY 26

26 JAN 09

I had two pictures for Day 26 I couldn't decide between. I asked my daughter pick one, and this is the one she chose. This is one of the leaves on the huge bush next to my front porch after a rain. We've been in a severe drought here for a number of years, so any kind of rain even is worthy of cheering. And when it rained on this day, I absolutely had to run out and take pictures.

I don't often use the macro setting on my little Canon point-n-shoot, so doing this photo gave me the perfect opportunity to experiment. And that's exactly why I was doing Project 365: to experiment and learn new things!

Post-processing included what has become my routine -- noise reduction and sharpening and a slight curves adjustment. Plus the addition of the border, of course.

Are you wondering which photo my daughter didn't choose? Here it is!

Rainy Night in Georgia

DAY 4

04 JAN 09

Much-needed rain falling on my back patio. Looks like this photo serves two purposes; it's also a much-needed reminder to clean my windows. *sigh*