Weekly Header Challenge -- Signs

It's time for the Weekly Header Challenge!

"Headbanger" Participants

Fishing Guy 

Kathy 

Imac 

Lew

I'm joining the group above for this weekly challenge.

Visit the other participants' blogs to see their entries!

Theme ~ Signs

Chosen by Kathy.

Here's the image I used for my header.  It's a sign at the Louvre.  I love the English translation!

More fun signs.

At the Eiffel Tower.

Funny road signs...

And a misspelled sign (two m's in accommodation), at our local community college, no less...

Thanks for visiting today!


Treasuring life's moments,
Christine

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Weekly Header Challenge -- I Didn't Expect to See THAT Here!

It's time for the Weekly Header Challenge!

"Headbanger" Participants

Craver VII 

Fishing Guy 

Katney 

Imac 

Lew

I'm joining in the group above for this weekly challenge.

Click on the other participants' blogs to see

what they've come up with!

Theme ~ I Didn't Expect to See That Here!

Chosen by Kathy.

It was tough to find images that fit this theme.  Halfway through my images, I realized I was searching for Now What's That Doing Here?  Then I realized it's slightly different.  I expect to, say, walk into a room and have it look like it always does.  So, these pictures reflect things or scenarios I didn't expect to be there.

For my header, I chose this image:

I fully expected to see college books lying around my house, and even on my kitchen counter.  I didn't expect to see that molecular model sitting there, though.  I guess that's a toy for a biochemistry major (required for his Quantitative Chemical Analysis course--I can barely type that, let alone try to say or describe it!).

Here are some more unexpected scenarios...

Walking into my family room, I fully expected to see Jacob in his spot on the couch, on his laptop.  I did not expect to see a huge Papasan chair with Thomas lounging in it, his bruised ankle (twisted in a football practice injury) hanging off the end of the chair.  That chair took up the entire family room!

While making a large batch of tomato soup which I planned on canning, I didn't expect the hot soup to shoot through the little pouring hole in my blender as I pureed it.  And, neither did I expect to look up and see the splatters of soup all over the ceiling above.  I mean, I had the lid on the blender.  Sheesh.

For last year's Labor Day parade, I expected to see parade-type things--not Jacob with a sign taped to his chest.  The sign came from my friend, the homeowner, whose son-in-law had posted it on the coffee pot in the kitchen that morning.  She figured the sign would get put to good use on Jacob.

One day last October, I heard a loud CRACK as I sat at the computer.  I thought the lawn mowing service for the church property behind us had kicked up a rock which hit our window.  I checked all the first floor windows on the west side, but nothing.  I shrugged and went back to my day.

Later that evening, after Danny had come home from school, I heard a, "Hey, Mom?  What happened to my [bedroom] window??"  I knew before I even saw it.  The industrial lanwmower had kicked up a rock to the second-story window, which shot through both the screen and the outside pane of the double-pane window!  I took several pictures, while dreading calling the company to see if they'd replace the window.

Before I could even finish my story to the owner of Prime Cut Landscaping, he told me to get the window and screen fixed and send him the bill.  I was impressed and amazed at their integrity--and thankful we didn't have to pay for repairs!

The below is the Christmas tree in Daley Plaza downtown Chicago; it's a familiar landmark of this city, along with the Christkindl market at Christmastime (you can see the booths of the market around the tree).  Danny performed in the UIC University Choir's Christmas concert that night, and honestly, we found the building, walked in, and enjoyed the concert, never bothering to look at our surroundings.  When we exited the building, there it was!  I expected a street full of skyscrapers, and lots of people since it was a Saturday night.

While Fernando and Danny walked to the parking garage to pick up the car, we had about 15 minutes to enjoy the tree and our surroundings.  I even had several people lined up at one point, handing me their smart phones to take their pictures in front of the tree, lol!  How did that happen??  I guess they saw the Canon around my neck and figured I knew what I was doing.  It was a ton of fun.

Thanks for visiting!  I expect to see some great, interesting, and fun photos on your blogs, too!


Treasuring life's moments,
Christine

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Project 52 -- Cabin Fever

I'm linking up with Darcy for Project 52.

Click her Project 52 button above to see what it's all about!

This week's challenge:  Cabin Fever


My photo:

My thoughts:

After family devotions on Wednesday night, my husband started ordering our guys to "clean up this mess!"  He was flabbergasted when I stopped him.  After all, I'm the organized, neat, and tidy one in the family.  Unbeknownst to him, I already had this photo in my mind.


The setup:

Although I envisioned both Thomas (my 15yo, above) and his brother Danny (18 and loves to make the goofiest faces imaginable for the camera) in my image, Thomas would work in a pinch.  Danny was too busy that morning writing a short essay in Spanish.  I cajoled Thomas into sitting down on the floor in the middle of the mess, and I stood on the computer desk chair to snap the image.  The above is the first picture I took, and I chose it because it didn't get any better than that.  I had wanted him to make a pull-your-hair-out-while-screaming face, but he was not in a good mood (see the picture below).  Of course, not being in a good mood was good for the theme!

Note--nothing else in the photo was staged; the clutter (mostly three guys' school stuff) appears as it actually lay from the night before.  Half an hour after I took the shots, my living room was back to its beautiful, tidy self.


Camera settings:

• ISO 1600
• Manual mode
• 17-85mm lens at 17mm
• Aperture at f4
• 1/50 second shutter speed

Because the photo was just what I envisioned, post-edit was simple and quick.  This week's image was all about composition--what I was actually going to shoot--not changing the image significantly with editing.  In Lightroom3, I increased the contrast, brightened the image a tiny bit, and added some grain, which I think works well with both high ISO and lots of busy-ness in an image.

 Toldja he wasn't in a good mood!

Don't worry; he's partially "faking" the above.  He soon became his sweet self (breakfast helped).  I mean--how many 15-year-olds give their moms random hugs throughout the day?  :)


Treasuring life's moments,
Christine

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365 Project -- #50-56

I really felt like I was just plodding along with my photography this past week.  Rain all day Sunday, dreary clouded week...  Getting ready for my trip to Atlanta was my bright spot of hopeful dreams--warm, sunny, 70s, aaahhhhh.

By way of explanation, since I'm in Atlanta this weekend, I put this post together early, and have just auto-published it.  Since I won't be back until next week, and I wanted to be sure to get this week's images up on time, I took a few extra images from Tuesday and Wednesday and I used them for Thursday and Friday.  (Thank you for being merciful.)  I am still sticking to the rules, and have been--and will be--taking photos every day.

My week started out with food, and ended up--again--in my back yard with my macro lens.  In fact, all of these images were taken with my macro lens (except Danny's chemistry experiment).  I just love that lens!  It brings out a fascinating, hidden world.

One more note--Since I'm away, I won't be able to visit your blogs right away.  Please leave comments (I covet them!!), and I promise to visit you once I'm home.

[50] February 19 -- Belgian waffles with apples and syrup

[51] February 20 -- Sorting the beans

[52] February 21 -- Chemistry experiment

[53] February 22 -- Winter garden life

[54] February 23 -- Dormant onion

[55] February 24 -- Sage in winter

[56] February 25 -- Winter fence line

I hope you've had a much better week of finding things to shoot than I had.  And a shout-out to all you southern folks--please post flowers, and birds, and grass, and sun!!

Living life; capturing life.

Christine

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