Something Good: photography

Showing posts with label photography. Show all posts

Friday, March 16, 2012

Springtime in Arizona

Springtime in Arizona is (obviously) much different than Springtime in Minnesota. Because the temps have been in the 70's for a few months already and are now creeping up into the mid-80's, I was becoming disappointed that I wouldn't get that springtime feeling that I remember from Minnesota and even California (since Northern California is definitely gray and cloudy much of the winter.)

And yet, as I looked out our balcony window one afternoon, I felt a sense of change. We have this beautiful deciduous tree right outside of our apartment and when I looked out that day I realized that its green leaves had sprung, and suddenly that rush of spring and new beginnings came back to me. Once I noticed this slight change in the Arizona foliage, I began to notice it in other areas too.

I noticed that in the midst of the rustic dessert colors, there were pops of bold, bright hues like this.

Then I noticed that if I slowed down and breathed in deeply I could smell the sweet scent of the blossoms of the citrus trees that are abundant in the Phoenix area. And suddenly I realized, I was experiencing Spring in a place where I didn't think it existed. It was around me all along. All I had to do was slow down and notice it.

Of course, there's still plenty of these guys around too. I am in the southwest after all. :)

Thursday, March 15, 2012

Project 52: Week 08 | Panorama

Here's my week 08 photo. This photo was taken on a lunchtime run at Papago Park and is actually a composite of 4 separate photos. Creating a panoramic image was one of the first projects I had to complete for one of my Photography Minor classes in college. It's a pretty simple process and whenever I do create one of these images, I'm always tempted to print it out and hang it up. In fact, I may just do that with this image. I never thought I would be able to fall in love with the Arizona landscape, yet here I am, enjoying it more than I could imagine. Not if only I could have the best of both worlds and bring the lush, Minnesota corn and bean fields to Arizona...

Now on to Week 09:

WEEK 09: Mar 16-Mar 22: FANCY

And here's the link to everyone's photos via Pinterest.

Join us! If you want to link up your photos, I've created a pin board on Pinterest. Click here to view it. This board is a community board. All you need to do to join is email me (martapeters@gmail.com) or leave a comment on the blog letting me know the your Pinterest profile name. Once I have you entered you're free to submit your photos to that board.

Monday, March 5, 2012

Project 52: Week 07 | My Choice

Let's take a look at Aliyah's current obsession for Week 07 of Project 52. For the past couple of weeks, Aliyah loves anything that has an alligator on it. This little guy gets walked around our apartment many, many times, and it is one of the cutest things I've seen. Then there's the fact that whenever I sit down with Aliyah at her little table to work on teaching her numbers and letters, she insists that I draw an alligator in between our learning sessions. We have scores of paper that have alligators sprinkled among the alphabet. You would think I'd be really good at drawing these creatures by now, right? Nope, I'm not. I thought about taking a photo of these drawings for this week's photo, but to be honest, I'm a little embarrassed that my ability to draw an alligator isn't better, especially after all my "practice". But it makes Aliyah happy, and really, that's all that matters. To top off Aliyah's alligator partiality, we have the alligator song, which also happens to be the "quote" I used for this week's photo. This song was one of those spur-of-moment-mom songs that I made up and for some reason it stuck. It's requested at every bath and at the end of the song, we have to make her bath alligators kiss each other. As silly as these little stories are, I love it. She's my little sweetheart and if drawing weird looking alligators and making up songs with actions is what she wants, well then that's what I'll give her.

Week 08 | Mar 2-Mar 8: PANORAMA

And here's the link to everyone's photos via Pinterest.

Thursday, February 23, 2012

Project 52: Week 06 | Yellow

I'm no morning person. In fact, I'm the exact opposite. Even though I would much rather sleep in every day of the week, I love to have the sun shining on me in the morning. Sebastian, on the other hand is a true morning person, yet can't stand to have the sun beams on him when he gets out of bed.

While I may never be a morning person, I can't deny that when I'm in the middle of getting things ready for the day, there is a sense of ambition. Of potential in what may come with the new day. Not every day is as accomplished as I'd like, but it's nice to know that every morning I can get up and start with a clean slate and be inspired about the possibilities a new day holds. It's all about the possibilities.

Ready for Week 07? I'm letting me and you loose this week by having each of us pick whatever word or subject we want for the photo. So go wild. :)

Week 07 | Feb 24-Mar 1: YOUR CHOICE

And here's the link to everyone's photos via Pinterest.

Thursday, February 16, 2012

Project 52: Week 05 {Wooden}

I'm double-posting today since I was a week behind on Project 52. So if you're confused, I hope that explains it a bit. :)

Week 05's word that was Wooden. Again, I apologize for not posting this on my blog last week. I will say that it's awesome that people are putting their creative efforts into this project. I can only image how neat it will be to look back on 52 photos from so many individuals at the end of the year and see what came of it. I predict lots of beautiful photography if the Pinterest board so far is any indication of what the future might hold.

For this week's word I took a photo of these little figurines that I received as a gift from my sweet Mother-In-Law. They are originally from Germany and I am so honored to have them as part of my home decor. I absolutely love family heirlooms and items that have history to them. I have no idea why, but to me I find such a mystique and intrigue when I know that a piece has been around for many years.

And now, on to Week 06! This week's word:

Week 06 | Feb 17-Feb 23: YELLOW

And to recap, Week 05's word, so that anyone that I confused can catch up again:

Week 05 | Feb 10-Feb16: WOODEN

And here's the link to everyone's photos via Pinterest.

Project 52: Week 04 {Wash}

Yikes! I apologize I am so behind on Project 52. Here's my photo for Week 04. This quote above explains my cleaning habits almost to a T. I usually get these frenzied moments of cleaning once every week and then slowly, our place become more and more messy as the week goes on. And then the cycle repeats and I get this sudden moment of cleaning inspiration and do one big clean. But! There is hope for me yet! Following the advice of my wise mother, I'm trying to do just a little bit every night, even when I absolutely dread it. Some nights I fail, and some nights I succeed.

And since I'm a week behind, Week 05's word is Wooden. I thought I was being clever by posting it on the Pinterest board into at the top even though I hadn't actually taken my photo yet, but it was brought to my attention that people actually read my blog to see the new word. Oops. I feel terrible about that, and it is my promise that it won't happen again. :)

So, Week 05's word..(And I'm double-posting, so Week 06's word will also be posted today too.)

Week 05 | Feb 10-Feb16: WOODEN

And here's the link to everyone's photos via Pinterest.

Friday, February 3, 2012

Project 52: Week 03

Well, here's my photo for this week. Everyday this week, I looked around and all I could see were circles, and I thought to myself, this will be easy. But as the psychological theory goes, the more choices we are given, the more inhibited we become to make a confident one. So, in the end, I decided to just capture the first thing that caught my eye with circles. It happened to be this Atlas. While probably about 20 years old, this book is still full of intriguing information about the earth's formation, stars, topography, weather cycles and more. It was Sebastian's when he was younger and he said he used to love to drink in the information within this book.

On a more exciting note, Week Three of Project 52 brought in some new members! It's always exciting to see new people ask to join up in on the Pinterest board. We even have a new contributor, Jessica, from Ireland. Check out her three photos a day project here. I know, she's ambitious. So far she's succeeded in posting her three shots everyday.

I have to say, this project has been even more inspiring than I imagined. I love seeing the great shots that come in little by little. And since everyone has a different perspective on the same word, every shot is different. I love it! Wait, I said that already didn't I? :)

And so, we begin Week 04.

Week 03 | Feb 3-Feb 9: WASH

And here's the link to everyone's photos via Pinterest.

Thursday, January 26, 2012

Project 52: Week 02

At first glance, this doesn't look like variety at all. I admit, it looks like a bunch of green plants (some of which are dying...oops.) But there is a variety of herbs in this little pot of soil. I can't remember how I started researching it, but somehow I discovered that in order to have a full garden with herbs and even veggies, you don't need very much space. In fact, you don't even need to be on the ground. Since we are on the 3rd floor of our apartment complex (which I hope will soon change to the first floor of a house...we're in the process of looking at the moment), learning this made me ecstatic. And because I know that my green thumb isn't very green, I decided to start out small by planting herbs, which seem to have a very strong ability to stay alive. In this arrangement, I have rosemary, peppermint and some sort of onion. We haven't eaten any yet, but it sure has added to my happiness when I glance out our balcony door during the day.

If you haven't done so yet, check out some of the other photos on our Pinterest board. Christy and Ashley were so creative yet again this week on taking the word variety and capturing some great photos. While I was sitting here stumped on what to photograph, those girls took variety to a whole 'nother level, which I absolutely love.

And without further ado, here's the word for Week 03...(Can you believe it will be February next week? I sure can't.)

Week 03 | Jan 26-Feb2: CIRCLE

And here's the link to everyone's photos via Pinterest.

Thursday, January 19, 2012

Project 52: Week 01!

I'm excited to say that Project 52 is well under way. We have a handful of creative gals participating and so far from what I've seen, I'm impressed with the photography talent, not to mention the innovative ways they took the word, "necessity".

Necessity was somewhat of a tough word to capture, because to me, there seemed to be so many things I thought I couldn't live without. But then as I thought about it more, I realized that I'm pretty spoiled to consider so many things necessities. I'm not about to give anything up just yet, but it does put things in perspective.

In the end, I decided to choose light. Light seems like a necessity because it is one of the main components for growth in living things. Our world literally would not be here without light in the form of sun and energy. Plus it seems fitting for photography, since photography is essentially capturing light.

Ready for next week's word? Alright (and if you're new to the project feel free to jump in no matter what week we're on!)...

Week 02 | Jan 19-Jan 25: VARIETY

And here's the link to everyone's photos via Pinterest.

Week 01 | Jan 12-Jan 18: NECESSITY

Thursday, January 12, 2012

Project 52 | Taking One Photo a Week in 2012

I've had a desire to do an ongoing creative project for some time, but kept waiting until I knew I was really going to commit. My first inclination was to try out a 30-day project, but the more I thought about it the more I worried that I'd be excited about it the first few days or weeks, have everyday life intervene and have yet another half-finished project. I needed something that I could be a fun long-term project, but not require so much time and effort in such a short period of time.

Enter, the 52 week photo project. One photo a week for the next year. (This idea is nothing new. If you do a quick Google search you'll find lots of sites for this type of project.) Each week I'll randomly pick a word or phrase though a word generator here and take a photo based on that inspiration. My goal isn't to have an outstanding photo each week, but rather to just get out and practice photography with a subject idea that is unique to what I normally take photos of (because let me be honest, I could take photos of Aliyah every day.)

So who's with me?! First of all, let me tell you that I realize this invitation certainly won't reach the masses since I only have a reader base of about 5 people right now. Two of those people include my parents (thank goodness!) and the other few, I have Christy over at a peek into 31 otter court to thank. If she didn't have me on her blog roll, well, I guess I would just have two readers.

So if anyone out there is interested, you should join me in this photographic adventure. You don't have to do any of the ideation since I'll pick out the word for inspiration every Thursday. You don't need to link back to me (though I would love to see you photos if you do participate). You don't need a fancy camera. You don't even need to commit to a full 52 weeks. In the words of Ron Burgandy, "I'm gonna put it out there; if you like, you can take it, if you don't, send it right back..."

So without further ado, this week's word is...

Week 01 | Jan 12-Jan 18: NECESSITY

Hope you'll join me!

Update: If you want to link up your photos, I've created a pin board on Pinterest. Click here to view it. This board is a community board. All you need to do to join is email me (martapeters@gmail.com) or leave a comment on the blog letting me know the your Pinterest profile name. Once I have you entered you're free to submit your photos to that board.

Monday, December 12, 2011

Remnants Of A Winter Rain

We woke up today to the pitter, patter of rain on our windows. It felt like it should still be the weekend, and the mix of rain and the fact that Aliyah slept in later today, made me want to crawl back under the covers. Instead, we got up, began our week and took time this afternoon to capture these photos and enjoy the cozy feeling that a winter rain creates.