Project 365
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It's so darn fresh, flavorful and cheap, you just have to have two.
Day 289: Weeds
You pull them, step on them, burn them, drown them in poison but they just keep coming back.
You have to respect them for their survival instinct.
Day 290: Sun Kissed
Though the model may look like she staring off into a sunset, this was actually shot in a studio with three strobes. My intention was to adjust the color in post but I liked how it came out of the camera and left it untouched.
Day 291: Omega-3s
These are vitamin pills I'm currently taking. They look like candies but if one of them cracks open, I bet they are disgusting. I hope I'll never find out.
Day 292: My Secret Garden
I wish I could say I found this amazing waterfall deep in the woods, while hiking the Appalachian Trail up in New Hampshire. Unfortunately, that would not be entirely true. This waterfall is located off a highway and is a part of a hotel landscape. I pass by it almost everyday during y commute. I always thought it was kind of cheesy but in a good way. Today, I decided to pull in to the hotel
parking lot and in front of all the passing cars on the highway, I laid down in
front of the waterfall and made this photograph. I didn't have a tripod so I used several stones to support my camera for this 2 second exposure. Who cares if it's not natural, I think it's great! My only regret is that I didn't use a polarizing filter to cut out some of the glare and I wish I would have included more of the foreground. I'm definitely heading back for a second shot at this. I know there will always be plenty of parking space.
Day 293: Useful Kenko
I used a Kenko extension tube on a 70-200mm lens for the first time to get this shot. I didn't realize the extension tube would cut down the minimum focusing distance of this telephoto lens to just a few feet. I think I was about three feet away from the subject at 200mm. This would be pretty handy for capturing macros of flowers and bugs. I also realized how dirty my watch was.
Day 294: Coolatta Craze
I don't drink lots of coffee or eat at fast food restaurants but I do have a weakness for icy, slushy drinks. The Iced Tea Lemonade Coolatta is Dunkin' Donuts' newest offering in their Coolatta family. They've come up with some really whacky flavors in the past but I think this one is a winner. It's not overly sweetened like their strawberry and coffee coolattas. This one has just the right amount of sweetness balanced by the tartness of the lemonade iced tea.
Day 295: Different Worlds
While filling up my car at a gas station, I noticed these three young ladies just sitting outside a convenient store, each absorbed in her own world.
Day 297: The Ultimate Skyline
Before heading back home to Boston today, I had to make couple of stops in New Jersey. My GPS got all wonky and I got lost for a while. I ended up driving along the Hudson River and found this incredible view of midtown Manhattan. This was in the middle of the day with lots of haze and sunshine. I had to bumped up the contrast to bring out the details and maybe my color is a bit off, but man, what a view. Next time I'm in town, I must come back to this place for some night photography. I just don't know if I can find the exact spot.
Day 298: The Hardest Working Tool
These gloves are essential when working in backyard. They seem to last forever too. I had my last pair for over five years until I spilled some grease on them. This pair is still pretty new.
Day 299: Caught
I caught this dandelion seed coming in for a landing on my flower bed. With its endless buffet of weeds and other vegetation, what's another dandelion.
Day 300: Tornado Warning
Several counties in Massachusetts are currently under a tornado warning. In fact, there were two tornadoes that touched down near Springfield, less than hundred miles from my house. The two tornadoes caused severe damages, at least four fatalities and the governor declared a state of emergency. During my ride home, I had plans to somehow capture the severity of this storm with my camera. Instead, the photos I came away with depicted something much more tranquil.
Day 301: Travel Gear
I decided to grab few items within arm's length around my desk and pull this composition together. My goal here was to create a photo that has a warm, rich tone to it with a theme of travel. I grabbed an orange baseball cap and a desktop globe, both of which had an orange tone to them and used them as backdrops. I knew they would be mostly out of focus so I was more concerned about their texture and color. I placed the main subject on a magazine with a page that was dominated by a reddish color. It was actually the back cover of this month's Photoshop User magazine.
Day 302: Retired
An old wheel barrel that's been retired but still hangs around by the tool shed.
The 18th hole on Course #2 at Ponkapaug Golf Course in Canton, MA is a 300 yard par 4. It's a fairly easy hole but it's narrow with overhanging trees from both sides of the fairway. I took my 3 wood and drove the ball 210 yards, dead straight into the middle of the fairway. I lost the sight of my ball in the direct sunlight and wasn't quite sure where it landed. When I found my ball, it was sitting so pretty in the short grass, bathed in the late afternoon sunlight, just 90 yards away from the flag stick. I love this game.
I didn't have my camera with me so I used my Blackberry to capture this scene in the magic hour.
Day 304: Blue Dress
This blue dress has been hanging on Dani's wall like a piece of art for several weeks now. It's a dress she has picked out for an upcoming party. I haven't seen her in it yet, but I think she will look beautiful.
Day 305: The Closing Hour
Not much of a subject but I liked the way the inside and the outside of this sandwich shop was lit.
Day 306: Night Lights
Caught this interesting play of light and shadow while driving home tonight.
Day 307: Take Five
A quick smoke break before closing up shop.
Day 308: Life
These cherries may appear appetizing and perfect in many ways but in reality, many of them were bruised and didn't taste very good. Some were in perfect condition but most of them had flaws. Some were so badly bruised, I threw them out without trying them while some tasted lot sweeter then expected. Others tasted as bad as they looked. Under the brilliant light, they all looked the same.
Day 309: Run, Scooter, Run
Scooter runs pretty fast for an old dog with short stubby legs.
Day 310: Dani in a Blue Dress
Dani just came back from a friend's Bat Mitzvah. She looked liked she had a great time and was in a good mood. Seizing the opportunity, I asked, begged to be more precise, if she would model for me before she changed out of her dress. She was gracious enough to stand still for few poses. Best of all, she didn't charge a modeling fee this time. An angel, she is.
Day 311: Duncan Butterfly
This a classic toy. I played with these same Duncan Butterflies and The Imperials when I was growing up except mine were made out of wood. No batteries, LCDs or keypads on these classics.
Day 312: Dusk
Lake Massapaug in Sharon, MA at dusk. I was hoping for a nice sunset but it was too cloudy tonight. This silhouette was the best I could come up with.
Day 313: The Perfect Swing
Once in a while, the ever-elusive "perfect swing" will appear. When it does, you stand in awe posing just slightly longer than necessary as you stare down the fairway hoping to make that moment last a second longer. As with all miracles, you don't anticipate it, you just enjoy it when it happens.
Day 314: On Golden Pond
A beautiful sunset over Massapaug Lake. It's been several days since we've had a break in the weather. It was nice to see so many boats out on the lake tonight right at the golden hour.
Day 315: No More Impatiens
Nurseries and local home centers are overflowing with young flowers and plants this time of the year. Kate went out and bought a bunch of plants for our own flower bed. We decided we were really tired of Impatiens. So this year, it's a hodge-podge of flowers. I don't know any of the names but I know they are not Impatiens...I think.
Take a straight and stronger course to the corner of your life.
Make the white queen run so fast, she hasn't got time to make you a wife.
Move me on to any black square, use me any time you want.
Just remember that the goal is for us to capture all we want.
Don't surround yourself with yourself, move on back two squares.
Send an instant Karma to me, initial it with loving care.
-Jon Anderson/ Chris Squire
Day 317: Easton Country Club
I had a great time playing a round golf at the Easton Country Club this afternoon. This is a nice course and well maintained. Best of all, it's about 5 minutes from my house. This is a view from the back of the club house overlooking the 10th hole and the mandatory gazebo that every respectable country club must have.
Day 318: Move The Pew Day
It was "Move the Pew Day" at Grace Chapel today. As part of a major renovation project, we had to empty out the sanctuary including all the pews. There were hundreds of pews that had to be unbolted, some disassembled and carried down from the balcony. It was a lot of work but with so many volunteers, the work was completed in a single afternoon without injuries, raised voices or even complaints, just a lot of smiles and laughter. I think we all witnessed a small miracle today.
Day 319: Late Night Shenanigans
This was taken at 10:14pm on my way home after a long day at the office and a late night meeting at the church tonight. I knew by the time I got home, it would be close to 11 and I would be stuck without a photo and too tired to do anything else. To get this photo, I set the ISO to 6400, aperture to f/4, zoomed all the way out to 24mm, placed the camera on my right shoulder to stabilize it and clicked the shutter. I had to check the histogram few times to make sure I was metering off the part of the road that was lit by my headlights and not into the night sky. This got a little tricky because I drive a stick and it was hard to shift with my elbow.
Day 320: Doing The Time Warp
School is out and today is already the first day of summer. It seems like yesterday I was shoveling snow off these steps. I think I stepped into a time warp where years turn into months and months into days. I want to return to the days when school seemed to last for five years and Christmas would only come around every ten years or so.
Day 321: Not By Bread Alone
I recently decided to start reading the Bible from Genesis again and go through every chapter without skipping. I've done this twice but many years ago and the real hurdle was the first five books of the Old Testament. This time around, it was much more enjoyable, even through Leviticus and Numbers. I just started Deuteronomy and this quote, which I've seen many times " ...man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD" seemed so refreshing and took on a new meaning for me.
Day 322: Lost
It rained all day today and it was just a dreary day all around. Driving home, I saw this duck out on the lake all by itself. Not much of a subject but I thought it captured the mood of the day.
Day 323 (June 24): The Thriller
We spent the day at the Six Flags New England amusement park. The kids had a fabulous time going on every single roller coaster in the park. Some of them
made me dizzy just looking at it. This roller coaster was called Batman - The Dark Knight. It had several loops and corkscrew turns. I was able to stand right underneath its path and capture some priceless expressions. Alex, Dani and our friend from Berlin, Wontek are in the second row from the back.
Day 324: The King's Chapel
Looking up at the ceiling of King's Chapel in downtown Boston. This church was founded in 1686 at the corner of Tremont and School Street as the first Anglican Church in New England during the reign of King James II. It was situated on a public burying ground because no resident would sell land for a non-Puritan church.
Day 325: Roadside Beauties
I've noticed these Tiger Lilies on the roadside all over my town lately. I guess it's the time of the year when these flowers are in full bloom Today, I saw the late afternoon sun hitting a patch of these beauties on a sidewalk. I pulled over and took this photo shooting directly into the sunlight, flares and all.
Day 326: Lübeck Marzipan
I received a box of these confections from friends in Berlin. This was my first time tasting it. It has a wonderfully rich, nutty taste without being overly sweet. Each one has a slightly different flavor. I can't read German so I'll have to try each one to appreciate them all.
Day 327: Après Golf
By the time I finished my round today it was almost 8pm. I dropped my bag off and went back into the club house and went out to the balcony to capture this scene. I don't know why more people don't come out here after golf. Maybe the bar is too far away. The scenery here is simply beautiful. I was especially drawn to the black wrought iron tables and chairs laid out against the simple white washed deck and railing. When I captured this photo, I saw it in black and white in my head, but after seeing the sunset, I decided to keep it as it was shot.
Day 328: A Room With A View
I was down in New York City on business for the past three days. I stayed at a hotel on the east side in midtown Manhattan. Due to my frequent stay with this hotel chain, they gave me an upgraded room on the top floor but the room was still ridiculously small with one window. At least, I was able to see the sky. I can't imagine what the view would be like from the lower floors.
Day 329: I Love New Jersey
Last time I was in New York city, I found a new vantage point to photograph the Manhattan skyline (see Day 297) but it was in the middle of the day so I wasn't crazy about how the final photo came out. I promised I would come back to get some night shots. I've returned to the same spot and the night scenery did not disappoint. Best of all, it wasn't crowded and I was able to park! Now there are three things I love about New Jersey: Bruce Springsteen, cheap gas and a great spot for looking at the New York skyline.
Day 330: Walking Color Palette
Driving through SOHO today, this bright red paneling in front of a restaurant caught my eyes. I found a parking spot, illegal but close by and I prepared my camera. I waited for the right subject, in this case, a splash of complimentary color to pass by to complete the picture. This was a busy street so I had many subjects walk by but the tricky part was getting a single person with the right color combination and the right gesture. After many outtakes, I caught this magic moment.
Day 331: Afternoon at Newport
We spent this afternoon at the Newport beach. The shoreline was covered with these stones of various sizes and shapes. Alex went around and made several of these stacked stones all along the seashore. I guess this was his way of commemorating a wonderful afternoon and saying "we were here."
Day 332: Cornered
I had an opportunity to shoot a snake today. This one crawled up to our front steps and got itself cornered. As luck would have it, I was in the backyard photographing wild berries so I was ready with my camera and a flash.
I found out snakes are incredibly difficult to shoot, even when it is cornered. I was on my stomach chasing after the snake while trying to focus and press the shutter just at the right time. It took over 200 shots to get about 10 that were correctly focused and composed. This one was my favorite.
Day 333: Let Freedom Ring
Happy Birthday America!
Day 334: e-Time
During school, we limit TV, computers and any other electronics, or "e-time," as we call it, to just weekends but during summer, it's pretty hard to enforce that. I relaxed the rules so that as long as they do their daily chores, required reading, quiet time and exercises, they are given free e-time until bedtime. Dani manages to squeezes out every second from this new found freedom.
Day 335: Backlit
Wildflowers on the side of the road backlit by the bright afternoon sun.
