…I was honored to attend the very special wedding of a dear friend of mine.  The bride is one of the people I miss the most now that I’m not working…we shared an office, depended on each other for support and guidance in teaching and parenting, and shared so many laughs and tears I could not even begin to count.  She is one of the brightest souls I have ever encountered, and deserves every happiness that comes her way—I have never seen her looking more glorious than she did yesterday.  She absolutely glowed with happiness and I swear we were all enveloped by the warmth of it.  I rarely share photos of the important people in my life here, but I simply could not resist sharing this with you…

And her husband’s family Bible held a place of honor on the pulpit, having been in the family since the 1850’s.

What a blessed day.

So, thanks to Scott for mentioning “flash.”  *DUH*DUH*DUH*!!!  No, I didn’t try using a flash when I was doing my water droplet photos the other day.   I’m glad I didn’t think of it because the results were therapeutic.  BUT I feel like a doofizoid (yes I just made that up) for not even thinking of flash.  As I mentioned to Scott, I don’t like my results with flash so never use it.  I nearly always rely on natural light.  I guess it’s time I learn how to use a flash effectively!

So here are today’s results.  Not only did I use flash, but I backed up the camera a bit, and put a colorful background underneath the bowl.   Several trials, several duds, but a few keepers in the batch.  Much more fun this time too.  🙂

And this one I messed with and inverted just for the heck of it.

Kinda cool, eh?

At first glance, Scott’s new assignment looked to be a piece of cake.  Photograph “Water.”  Okay.  No problem. 

So I thought I’d try and be a bit creative…the plan was to travel around my area and photograph bodies of water from different perspectives, trying to take into account the skills I’ve learned since last Autumn.  Well, I got as far as photographing Lake George from the top of Prospect Mountain.  You will remember my Prospect Mountain views from last year?

Well, the colors last year were glorious…this season cannot compare.  However, I thought, “I learned about Storytelling this year, so I’ll take that into account as I photograph this year’s view.”  So…..

And…

Thomas Jefferson had this to say about Lake George: “Lake George is without comparison, the most beautiful water I ever saw; formed by a a contour of mountains into a basin thirty-five miles long and from two to four miles broad, finely interspersed with islands, its water limpid as crystal and the mountainsides covered with rich groves of silver fir, white pine, aspen and paper birch down to the water, here and there precipices of rock to checker the scene and save it from monotony. An abundance of speckled trout, salmon trout, bass, and other fish with which it is stored, have added to our other amusements the sport of taking them.” (History of Lake George, Chamber of Commerce Site.)

So, on to the next local body of water and another learned skill!!!  

Yeah, and I never got there.  😦  My plan of taking y’all on a photo tour of the local water holes, went down the drain.  (See what I did there?  *wink*wink*)

So instead, I decided to try something I have never tried before, but have seen done a hundred times—macro shots of water droplets.  I know, not very original, but I’ve wanted to give this a try for a year now, and Scott’s assignment seemed the perfect opportunity to give it a go.

It’s WAY harder than it looks, and if someone out there has done this successfully, I would really appreciate hints as to aperture and shutter speed settings.  Over a hundred attempts and I only got three keepers. 

(And here’s where I start to really go off course, but bear with me for a bit longer….this really is related to my photos!)

So, I’ve had a weird symptom (a buzzing leg…please don’t laugh…I already know it’s weird) and had to go through a multitude of tests only to be told they have no idea what could be wrong with me.  Only one doctor was able to point to a possible cause…….”Are you sleep deprived?” he asked.  At first I chuckled.  Many answers came to mind such as, “Who isn’t?” and “I have a two year old who continues to wake up twice a night, what do you think?” and “My husband almost bled to death in the middle of the night a few months ago, so I’m still dealing with post traumatic stress disorder…of course I’m sleep deprived!”  and, the answer I actually gave…”I don’t *think* so, but maybe.?.”

I tell you this little story to help explain what I saw when I viewed these three photos on my screen…as a set, they are a pictorial representation of my nights.  I had no intention of doing Conceptual Photography for this assignment, but here it is nonetheless.

So, here are my REAL exhibitions for Scott’s assignment! 

I call this one “Hovering.”  This is the stage of my night when I can’t slow my mind down enough to settle into sleep…I hover above it’s inviting surface in a fog, waiting, suspended.

This one is “Dream State.”  This is where I spend the majority of my night, not  awake, but not fully immersed in sleep, able to hear the slightest noises in the house, and yet adrift on the surface of sleep, riding the waves of surrealism.

And this one I call “Yanked.”  This is how I feel when Mister’s screams rent the quiet air in the middle of the night.

And then the process begins all over again….Hovering, Dream State, Yanked night after endless night.

Am I sleep deprived?  I believe that would be a definitive “yes.”

Our friends (Shrew over at Shrew’s Daily Shutters, and Scott over at Views Infinitum) have both offered up new Photography Challenges this month.  Head on over to their sites for full details.  The subject of Shrew’s is “Perspective” and the subject of Scott’s is “Water.”

These got me thinking of past photos that could meet the requirements of the challenges.  Since I won’t use oldies in new challenges (I want to “challenge” myself to find new shots) I thought I’d share some here. 

Okay, I lie….kind of.  That’s not the whole story.  I actually was going to have a big ol’ house cleaning deletion fest in my Flickr photostream.  But as I hovered my mouse over the first photo I was going to delete, I couldn’t bring myself to click.  The photo is nothing special…in fact I never really liked it.  But instead of deleting it, I found myself Picnicking it instead and this is what turned up.

I realized while contemplating the wipeout of half of my photos, that each photo has a reason for being there.  Whether it be an emotional attachment to the subject, an aid to memory, a historical representation of skills learned, or for even the very basic reason that I used it here on the blog so deleting it would leave those annoying little “x” boxes on several posts, each photo has a purpose. 

What I did do, was notice  that I photograph water…a lot.  And that I’ve tried to use different perspectives (if you want to interpret the challenge that way) a little.  So that’s the real story. 

Now, Perspective.

And now for some water…

(Just for you Scott.) 🙂

And Scott, I like your photo so much more than mine because of the foreground (rocks under the water.)

So, may The Force be with you, as you go out in search of photo inspiration.  Thanks to our friends for getting these challenges going again.  I needed a little push.

It’s Balloon Festival time in these here parts!  🙂   The weekend will bring the big launch of over 90 balloons, but all eyes are trained to the sky during this week, because there are always a few early birds who come and take advantage of the quiet evening skies…you never know when one (or a few) will turn up.

Last weekend was a mini-launch of the Black Sheep Squadron, a group of balloonist who choose not to participate in the organized festival for reasons I won’t go into here.  About 20 balloons were launched, so we had a little preview of things to come.  Zan, the kids, and Neighbors chased one around the corner and even helped take it down.  I have no photos since I was home making sure dinner didn’t burn, but we got a bottle of champaign as a souvenir since Zan was the first on the scene where the balloon landed on school grounds!  (For those of you who don’t know, it is customary for the Balloonist to gift the landowner a bottle of champaign as a “thank you” for allowing the use of their land for touch-down and take-down.) 

So here’s the first of what is sure to be *many* hot air balloon shots over the next week.  Enjoy!