Weekly Header Challenge -- Going Strong

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 ~ Going Strong

Chosen by All of Us.

For this week's theme, I chose my family, since we're all going strong.  And my guys are strong.  'Nuff said.  Here's the image I used for my header.  At a wedding, I took the camera that doesn't work with my remote shutter release (of course), so I adjusted all the settings, propped it on a bench and used the 10-second timer.  Danny pressed the shutter than ran into the frame because I wasn't about to press it and run and jump into my guys' arms!

Here are some other things are are going strong.

My dad at age 84!

Danny, who graduated from college and just landed a job.

These flowers were growing strong, in profusion.

These two old vehicles, at 500,000+ and almost 100,000+ miles, are both still going strong!

The White Sox were going strong by winning their game.

My garden is going strong.

Alpine strawberries, going strong.

Finally--fireworks from a few days ago were definitely going strong!

Treasuring life's moments,
Christine

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Cars and Trucks, from Farm to Guns

Friends invited us to a car show featuring farm equipment and military vehicles.  We figured it'd be a nice night out and ended up having a blast hanging out with a great family.  I brought Ellie along on what would be some of her last shots before being sent for repair (her main dial was not working properly--try changing the shutter speed when the dial just spins!).  I used my 50mm prime lens for all the shots, in overcast/dim lighting and this was the best I could do--mostly close-up but not too shabby, I think  ;)

These last three close-ups are pretty special.  They're part of a very special car, and most kids will know which one if they look at all three of these images.  The man who built it paid attention to every detail.  Can you guess which famous car this is a remake of?

Now I'm humming the tune to its famous movie musical.


Treasuring life's moments,
Christine

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Les Voitures de Paris -- Cars | Paris Travel

Looking east down avenue Champs-Élysées.

Our Silver Paris

Welcome to my Paris travel journal,

where I share our experiences of our special journey to Paris.

Please use these posts as a guide for your own travels

to this amazing and wonderful city!

Or simply read, and dream...

This will be a fun post, I hope.  After editing the hundreds of images I took throughout our trip, I realized that there were a lot of cars.  And there was this image, at the request of my husband:

It's hard to read the LED on this pump, but it works out to about $8.00 per gallon.  Yes, that's American dollars.  (I no longer complain about our gas prices.) 

So, I'm filling my "photography tank" with some gas, by posting the various cars we saw while on our trip.

I'll start off with a fun one, and the first deliberate car picture I took.  This image made me wonder how that car got there.  And, I also wondered how he was going to get out.  :)

Interesting parking job along avneue Winston Churchill.

We noticed two very significant things about vehicles during our week in Paris:

1.  Horns were rarely used.  Streets were packed at certain hours, but we almost never heard car horns.

2.  You know the loud, booming music emanating out of many American cars?  And/or the vibrations of the bass cranked to full levels?  Not in Paris.  At all.  (That we didn't hear, anyway.)

    
On part of our anniversary walk, we passed the Renault showroom on avenue Champs-Élysées.

Seriously cool car!
 

The next day, on our Seine River boat tour, I spotted the below scene, and snapped a picture.  The car is one of those that our sons call an "escape pod," so it was tiny to begin with.  But for some reason, it looks like a little toy car in this picture.  My funny bone was struck.  :)

Then, on my birthday, our evening jaunt took us back to avenue Champs-Élysées.  At one point, we passed the Mercedes-Benz showroom and wandered in.

Love the finish on the below car.

  

The Mercedes-Benz showroom also sells accessories, including this umbrella:

Mercedes-Benz label, Mercedes-Benz price.

 
We passed the Renault dealership again, and decided to go in this time.  Fun!

This car looks really, really happy.

They were also selling this one-seater, below.  That'd be a cool car to tool around Paris in!

  
Well, I thought that would be the end of my car pictures, but on our last day, the below car stopped me to have its picture taken.

Classy.

Treasuring life's moments,
Christine

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Project 2012 -- Week 36

Project 2012 -- Week 36

September 2-8

Welcome to my Project 2012 weekly post!  This is my time for looking back over the past week, choosing my seven favorites images, and sharing them here with you.  If you have a project you're working on, please leave a comment so I can visit your blog and see what you're up to!

Yes, I'm behind in my posting again.  But I have a great excuse.  And you won't get to hear about it until I'm caught up with Project 2012 posts.  Sorry.  :)

This particular week was all about Labor Day, and the parade and the time we spent with good friends.  I was busy preparing for a special trip (yes, more on that later), and couldn't take many pictures the rest of the week.  Here we go--featuring...Labor Day in Naperville!

A friend brought along this chair, which made Fernando look small.  If you know Fernando in real life, you know he's as big as a pro football linebacker.  :)

[246] Mini Fernando!

While waiting for the parade to begin, I took some pictures of flowers in my friend's garden.  Here's one I really like.

[247] Pink

The Knights of Columbus was giving out balloons for donations, and they had lots of takers.

[248] Parade balloons

Love this old truck in the parade!

[249] Old truck

When the library display rode by, there were several storybook characters walking along.  We knew Peter Rabbit and the others, but this one eluded us.  Do you know which character this is??

[250] Storybook character

There were lots of dogs in the parade, and I think every one of them was panting.  It was pretty hot that day!

[251] Hot dog

I just had to share this image I snapped of two women walking the parade.  I don't know if they were able to make it the whole way.  I don't think I could walk 25 steps in either pair!

[252] Walking the parade

Hope you enjoyed the parade pics; next week's images are ready to go and will post really soon!  Can't wait to see what you've been up to!!


Treasuring life's moments,
Christine

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Project 2012 -- June 17-23

Project 2012 -- Week 25

June 17 - June 23

How to Link Up With Us

1.  Click here to read the Project 2012 Guidelines, and to get the code to place in your blog.
2.  Fill out the little form below (insert the URL of your blog post, not the main URL of your blog).
3.  Please visit others' links and leave comments; you will receive visits and comments in return!

My Week 25 Photos

I was back out taking tons of pictures of flowers again this past week.  But I also used Ellie for a lot of other shots throughout the week.  We'll start with a flower shot, and a bee to boot!

[169] Bumblebee on Russian sage

And a shot showing the progress of our vegetable garden:

[170] Mid-June garden

Wednesday was spent cleaning--and I mean cleaning--our garage while Fernando was out of town.  We found the below living in an old VCR on my husband's workspace counter.  This creature is no longer with us.  :)

 [171] Mouse house

Back to the flowers, and an amazingly brilliant coneflower.  I keep having to say that I didn't color-enhance this image, because purple coneflowers are usually a pastel lavender color.  This particular cultivar, however, is called Powwow Wild Berry, and its color reflects its name perfectly.

[172] Coneflower

I decided to fool around with a broken mirror and a self-portrait.  Double the smiles!

[173] Broken mirror

Half the guys, and two friends, packed up to go on an overnight campout and canoe trip.

[174] Canoe and campout

I recently discovered the PRINT module in Lightroom3, and have been fiddling around with making collages.  Below is a collage of Thomas' awesome block in Friday night's weekly Frisbee game.

[175] Awesome block

Although I have loved posting Project 2012 images, I will be discontinuing the Linky for sharing blogs--today's Linky will be the last one to link up with.  I've thoroughly enjoyed sharing blog posts with JoAnn (click here to see her Project 2012 blog posts), and I'll continue to visit her and your blogs to see what you're up to.  As for me, I will continue creating weekly blog posts showcasing my favorite images from the week.  I hope you'll keep shooting away, having fun with your camera, and capturing awesome images from your lives.  This is not good-bye!!  :)


Treasuring life's moments,
Christine

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