Nareh running away

Today we had George's mom's 90 birthday party and I had the opportunity to be the family photographer. Since the entire family isn't together very often we did several "portrait" type sittings before the party started.  Our great niece, Nareh, has recently learned to walk and run, so we had a hard time getting her to sit still for her family portrait.  This one is my favorite of her running toward the camera with her family watching in the background.

Eastern North Carolina

We were on the way to visit George's mom for her 90th birthday and stopped by to take a photograph of this old barn in a field near Kinston.

Another uptown shot

I took some photos today of the continuing fall color, but I didn't like them as well as a couple I shot yesterday uptown after I had already completed my post.  (I consider anything after my post to be fair game for the next day, but I still take a photo every day.)  Right before the warden let us out of "jury duty prison", I found a little balcony off the jury selection room that looked out over the city.  Since you can't take cameras in the courthouse (why?), I did this with my iphone.  What I really like about these two shots is the way the waviness of the wires of the barrier around the balcony (fence, grill, I don't know what to call it) causes the entire shot to look like a reflection (especially in the "landscape" shot).  I shot through the barrier into a window reflecting a building with the line of the skyline sitting above.  As a plus, I got a nice sun spot on the "jukebox" Wachovia building.  I increased the contrast a little and lowered the saturation to get a somewhat "grungy" look that seemed to suit the shots.

Jury duty

I'm on jury duty today, and I know I'm not going to have much time for photography.  So while I was out for lunch, I snapped a few images of the surrounding buildings with my iPhone.  Not great photography, but at least I'm done for the day.  This is a photo of two women walking in front of the County Courthouse.

After exercise

I just finished exercising this morning and decided to take this image of me sitting on the floor. I tried a couple of different lenses, but like the effect of using a wide angle. I also like the bits of light coming into the room reflecting on the wood floor.

Silhouette

The view through the arch on our neighbor's porch.

George the tree

Most of the time I try to use this blog as an opportunity to be creative in my photography.  Some days all I can manage is a quick snapshot over dinner.  Finally, when looking back at the images I've created throughout the year, I realize this blog also serves as a photographic journal of what's been going on in my life over the past 10 months.  The photo today falls into that category.  This week we broke ground on a new addition to our house in Blowing Rock and I wanted a shot to capture that event.  We drove up to BR today to do a few things and check on the first few days of work.  This was a happy and sad day because this week they cleared out trees.  Happy, because we're glad to be started; sad, because I always hate to lose a tree.  George is standing on the stump of where a nice maple stood a few days ago.  It was mid-day and with the sun as glaring as I've ever seen, so the exposure is pretty bad, but it marks the occasion.