Day Twenty Five - Y is for...

Yellow - with a little help from photo shop!

The photo project is quickly drawing to a close and while I have dutifully completed my entry each day, I am not thinking that any of the entries are going to really put me in a photography hall of fame.  There is some creativity and thought to the process, but since I am using a phone camera for most of the shots, the execution is just OK.

Y is for yellow.  I decided that first thing this morning and was pretty clear in my mind what that needed to look like.  There is a courtyard outside the building that I work in, with a fair number of plants and flowers, including a yellow hibiscus that I have admired multiple times.

The photo that I took and you see here (in a somewhat enhanced state)  was lovely, but the yellow was pale at best, thanks to the fact that I waited until the late afternoon to snap my shot.  I considered pinch-hitting with another item, like a post-it note, but that bored ME, so I can't even imagine how you the reader might feel!

Fortunately, Microsoft Photo has a few settings that can be modified and manipulated, taking the pale yellow flower to something that looks like it grew up out of a nuclear reactor.  Too bad radioactive doesn't start with the letter Y!

Day Twenty Four - X is for...

An X-ceptionally challenging letter to capture!

Science and abbreviations.  That is what the letter X is all about, at least in my cursory review for options.  I really thought about and actually researched the letter for a bit of inspiration today, but there wasn't a lot to be had.

Things I could have done but refuse on principal include the representation of Christmas with X-Mas...that takes the whole point out the season!

X-Ray, thankfully I don't have a need for one of those right now. Xylophone, don't have one of those lying around. Then we get into Roman numerals and a lot of scientific sounding ingredients that I am pretty sure are mostly artificial and I have no idea what they really are...xanthide, for example.

I was starting to feel a little desperate by about 8 pm...I was at Farmers Market/The Grove for our company Christmas party and I knew that my options were getting slimmer by the moment.  I was scanning the area, looking for something to spark my creativity, when I saw a sign on the American Girl store, touting their American Girl experience.

I bring you the letter X, this is as good as it is going to get today!

Day Twenty Three - W is for...

The world wide web is a wonderful thing

The photo itself is a bit lacking in imagination, but the functionality is INCREDIBLE.  I would estimate that I look something up on either my computer or my phone an easy 4-5 times per day, sometimes even more!

It sounds cliche, but I really don't know how we made it without the instant gratification of a search engine at our fingertips.  I have a set of encyclopedias that David and I bought when we first got married - we might have busted them out a few times when Holly first started her school career, but I have to admit that the web served as a far greater resource for her from about 4th grade on.

It makes me wonder what amazing thing will exist in 20 years that we will all declare as hard to imagine living without.  That will admittedly be here faster than I might like to admit!

Day Twenty Two - V is for...

Pluto, our guest Vizsla for a few weeks

The Newton home for wayward dogs has taken on a new charge.  Pluto, a 4-year old Vizsla (and featured V photograph!) has been hanging out with the pack for a week, and will likely be here for another 2 weeks or so, while his owners take care of some things in New York.

Pluto is quite the pup and has fit in nicely with our pack.  His first day at the house would have been overwhelming for most - he first met Charlie and Doug on the front lawn, then went into the backyard to run around a bit with them, before Shaggy came charging out and Penny sort of just said hi.

Pluto played the perfect balance with the pack - not too aggressive, but not a complete pushover either - he held his own!  Pluto loaded up with everyone else to go on a walk the next morning, went to work during the day and by dinnertime it was as if he has been a part of the pack for years.

He is a sweet pup, we will be sorry to have to give him back - this is the fundamental reason why fostering does not work for us, we always want to keep all of the nice dogs that come to stay with us!

Day Twenty One - U is for...

A glimpse at the Underwater world, courtesy of my Camelbak

U was a bit elusive, at least in the ideation phase. I landed on the whole underwater thing, which I thought would be pretty cool, but without an actual underwater camera or an aquarium or other way to catch a glimpse of the blurry world underwater, I was a bit stuck.

I typically have a water bottle around, and realized that the color of the bottle, combined with the water and the light made for a different look and angle on the underwater concept.

Now that I see it here, it is in my opinion a little blurred, not too unlike how things look when I am swimming without goggles!

Day Twenty - T is for...

A customized TREE. handmade by my new friend Carter

I spent the first half of today helping to watch a group of kids, ranging in age from 4 to 8 years old at the "Drop and Shop" event held at church.  The idea is the parents drop their kids off for about 4 hours, giving the parents the freedom to Christmas shop, decorate, or just enjoy a little time away from the little ones.

When I saw the message go out looking for volunteers, I thought that it would be a lot of fun to play with a group of kids for a few hours and give their parents a morning off, given it has been a long time since I have had to worry about looking after someone under 10 years old!

I will have to admit that the task itself was far more challenging than I originally thought it would be (not helping was the fact that I was coming down with a cold), and I was pretty wiped out by the time 2:15 rolled around and the last kid was picked up.  I did, however, have a nice keepsake in the form of a tree ornament that one of the boys made for me.  After he completed the ornament, he asked me how to spell my name, then wrote it on the back and signed it, "from your friend Carter".

There was no guesswork about what my T entry would be for the day, after all, it was customized just for me!

Day Nineteen - S is for...

Scrumptious Squash serves it up

Today is a good example of creative inspiration taking over the best laid plans.  I had already snapped a picture of the salad I ate for lunch (a Greek salad, not too surprising, is it?) but then I cooked up a batch of butternut squash for some quesadillas at dinner and was struck with the wonderful color, texture and smell that was before me, spurring this extreme close up shot of all things squash.

The quesadillas, by the way, were DELICIOUS.  Without a doubt the best that I have made to date.  Handmade flour tortillas with a healthy portion of freshly cooked and smashed squash, topped with Swiss, goat and Parmesan cheeses, plus a sprinkling of fresh chopped sage.

You will have to ask me to make these for you sometime, they will blow your mind!

Day Eighteen - R is for...

RED palm trees...you don't see that every day!

As I was pondering my entry for the letter R, the color red came to mind right away, and then I fixated.  We did the color red last year in the other 30 Days of Photos exercise and I recall being very proud of my avante garde interpretation of my car's tail lights.

Not one to duplicate, I started to look around for options.  An apple...did that for the letter A.  A stop sign...did that for close-up last year.  It is kind of dreary and rainy outside today, so the outdoor shots don't hold a lot of appeal...

Ah, the In-N-Out plastic cup.  Put a red folder behind it, get super close and let the magic happen from there.  It's really righteous, don't you think?

Day Seventeen - Q is for...

Quirky - but always cute and entertaining

I have joined the Sadie Kitten bandwagon and chose to represent the letter Q as a descriptor for our favorite cat - she is (like a good many of us) quirky.

You might notices that Sadie is photographed here with her eyes closed - in a box touting DOG FOOD - and still manages to look above it all.  She could easily be described as quintessentially quirky in the cat world.

Look at that, I squeezed in another Q word!  We have represented the letter well, thanks of course to the charms of Miss Sadie Kitten herself.

Day Sixteen - P is for...

Popchips - how I love thee!

Food features two days in a row!  It would seem that using the lunch hour to create my blog is swaying how I think about the different photo ops!

To my credit, I actually thought of this idea in the morning when I was packing my lunch.  The intention was to pour out all of the chips and get a close up of the pile, au natural.  A very good idea, indeed.

What actually happened at lunch time was I ripped open the bag and wolfed down the 16-chip portion in about 3 minutes, licking the residual thai sweet chili seasoning off of my fingers and tossing the bag into the trash.

It wasn't until almost an hour later that I realized I had not yet taken the photo for the day AND I ate the target subject!  Sheepishly, I fished the bag from the trashcan and did my best to angle it in some flattering light.

The crinkled bag just wasn't working with me today.  Time to step up my photo game and perhaps bust out the fancy camera...these rookie shots may be entertaining to speak of, but they certainly don't create a dramatic, artistic effect...because of course, that is what I am going for!