Afternoon light on the porch

We have been so very busy this past several days that I've had to squeeze in my photos and postings in mere minutes.  So, this afternoon I grabbed the camera and went out on the deck where there was some nice light.  One of these is a shot of just the light falling across the rough deck boards and the other is an old watering can sitting by the door.

One thing I realize when I take photos of strong lines is that it's always hard to figure out what line to make straight.  On the boards, I shot the left vertical straight and worked the diagonals to hit at about a 45 degree angle.  It still looks a little weird with the second vertical not straight, but I moved it all around and this was the best visual I could get.  The same issue occurred on the watering can.  I wanted a little bit of an angle so that the shadow below showed, but I finally straightened the edge of the can as much as I could without cropping out all the shadow.  So many things to consider in composing a shot!

How I see the world....or how the world sees me

The DPS (Digital Photography School) assignment for this weekend was to take a self-portrait of yourself and your camera.  I tried hard to capture the late afternoon sun backlighting me and shining in a mirror which in turn created a nice lens flare on the lens.   The idea was better than the execution....

Boone window

Tonight I went out with the best of intentions.  Got ready to take a shot and....."no card" in the camera.  I usually keep an extra memory card in my purse, but not tonight.  Fortunately my iphone came to the rescue again.  I got a couple of street scenes from nearby the restaurant we went to in Boone, but I liked best the window display in this funky little "antique" store.

Orchids

We have two beautiful orchids in our kitchen in Charlotte and this morning they were particularly nice with the sun coming in behind them.  Since orchids have so much saturated color, I desaturated these images a little and like the effect.

Street light

Another fairly lame submission due to another busy day.  I love the summer and fall, but I'm looking forward to the slower months to spend more time with my camera at hand.  Searching for an image at the end of the day is getting old.  Of course, I have been at this for 8 1/2 months, so I guess slackness was sure to set in at some time....

Hope you all enjoyed Sarah's blog yesterday....isn't it amazing what you can do with a cellphone?

Street scenes

Another day without time to pick up a camera, but I shot these two scenes through my car window on the way home from Blowing Rock.  A train rolling by in Mount Holly and the Duke Energy building in Charlotte.

Also, Sarah Baron has her cellphone contest posted tonight and there are some excellent shots.  I have two in the mix.  Although they weren't the final two I submitted, I'm just happy to be among such good company!  Please enjoy her blog at  http://sarahbaronphotography.blogspot.com/2010/09/once-again.html.

Bittersweet thoughts

A couple of different shots from this morning.  We had breakfast in a beautiful garden cafe this morning, and while the air was chilled, the beautiful sunshine and flowers reminded us that summer is still here.  Coming home, however, this leaf reminded us that, in the mountains at least, change is quickly on the way.