Day 80: March 21st

Drat!  We woke up to snow this morning!  That is so wrong.  It couldn't be any wronger!!!  This is officially a tantrum I am having.

Seriously.  This is the worst winter of my life.

Day 79: March 20th

Rock Star

Had a nice hike at Lake Towhee today.  Two weeks ago, most of this lake was covered in ice.  Even if it snows now, we have still turned that corner from being in the middle of a nasty winter to being in the throws of early spring.

On a sad note, one of the horses at the farm died this week.  Sunshine was a big beautiful 4-year old filly.  She was the last baby born on the farm and she was the sweetest thing.  I started photographing her when she was just three days old.  She was my favorite of all the babies born there.  Unfortunately, she developed a habit of kicking her stall and on Wednesday night she kicked the wall and broke her leg.  The vet said there was nothing that could be done for her and they put her to sleep that night.  It was so sudden, shocking, and utterly sad.  I understand that there is suffering in the world, but now me and God need to have a talk about why this particular dose of suffering was really necessary.  I just don't understand.

Day 78: March 19th

Saturday Night

We went to the movies to see "Paul" on Saturday night (funny, laughed until I literally cried).  In a most unusual turn of events, we were about 15 minutes early (that never happens).  We sat in the very last row in the back, also highly unusual.  For a short time, while we were the only people in the theatre, the opportunity to capture the unoccupied theater presented itself.  I snapped it up with my cell phone.

Day 77: March 18th

Cover Boy

It's not always easy to get animals comfortable with the camera.  I find that, like people, they are immediately suspicious of the thing.  I'm not sure if it's the big box and lens pointing at them or if they find the click of the shutter disturbing.  They tolerate it for a little while, but then the cats simply get up and walk away.  Dogs are a little more tolerant, but Sammy starts to get worried and sniffs at the lens for reassurance.  It's cute, but I wish she would just work it like the easy breezy covergirl she was born to be.

In this picture, Neo rolled and stretched and strutted until finally he turned his furry backside to me and sashayed away. 

Day 76: March 17th

Rainbow Bridge, Tokyo

To be honest, I have failed on my 365 project.  I missed taking a picture today!  No matter that I've taken about a million on all the other days, but the goal was at least one picture every day.  I will be back on track soon, though.  In the meantime, this picture was taken in December using my cell phone.  Entering Tokyo from the Narita airport, my driver explained that this is known as the Rainbow Bridge.  The most spectacular thing, though, was the fact that Mt. Fuji was visible in the background as the sun was setting.  My first glimpse of Fuji San!

Day 75: March 16th

Moon over Quakertown

Nothing fancy about Quakertown, in fact it's just the opposite of fancy, but I do love it.  It is Everywhere, America.

Day 74: March 15th

Sky with Airplane

The airplane that cannot be seen in this picture, motivated me to take this picture with my cell phone.  Sammy and I have begun nearly daily walks in the park and they seem to cheer us both up A LOT!  It's a shame we are both such simple creatures.  Anyway, this fact of walking almost every day is an upward tick in our mental and physical health. 

Day 73: March 14th

Polk Valley Park

At the end of this year and when I look back at this 365 project, I wonder what I will find?  Will I realize that winter itself is the bane of my existence?  Will I find that days like this one, blue sky days where Sam and I can take a real walk in the park are like gold to my soul?  How could it be that something so small, a time so finite and simple as a walk in the park, could have all that gravity and mean so much?  If I took the sum total of everything I read, hear, and see in the daily world, it would have you believe that there are far greater experiences and certainly things that a person could have.  Things that would look like real success.  I'm certain, though, that this walk in the park - the fact of being able to take it, to actually do it on my own two legs and with such a wonderful companion, is a great thing.

Day 72: March 13th

Farm Road in Winter

This is my most favorite road in any season.  It is about a mile long, travelled only by a handful of cars each day - any most of them are people I know.  It leads to the farm.  The speed limit is 15 miles per hour, but it could take me all day to drive this single mile.  There is so much to see - deer, trees, birds, fox, coyote - even coyote! - rabbits, racoon.  The landscape itself is beautiful and constantly changing.

Day 71: March 12th

Rail Car

There is an old railway station in Quakertown where old rusty rail cars are permanently parked.  I discovered this beautifully decaying car decorated with graffiti.  I love to photograph urban decay.  It's just so hard to come by where I live.

Day 70: March 11th

I really like this picture.  The words "crisp" and "clean" come to mind when I see it.

I bought a new camera lens (Nikkor 28-300mm f3.5-5.6) to replace an older Tamron lens.  The new lens feels good in my hands and executes images like this one so much better.  I've never been good at manipulating depth of field to illustrate a particular aspect of a composition.  I think this image accomplished that, so it's a first for me.

Day 69: March 10th

Mom

No matter what fabulous pictures may have come before or may be posted after, this one is and will be my favorite.  There is nothing more special than having someone waiting at the door when you arrive or watching you until your car disappears as you go.

Day 68: March 9th

Poinsettia leaf.  It could easily be a view from an airplane, though.  Each vein is the delineation from one farm to the next.  The major veins could be mountain ranges.  I like this tiny world as much as I like grand sweeping landscapes.

Day 67: March 8th

Kiwi's Playhouse

This was a very hard shot to get.  Fruit doesn't behave nearly as well as you would expect.  It rolls over, it reflects light where and when you least expect, and it does its damndest to avoid looking tasty.  I tried different angles trying to get his "good side," and eventually decided on this as the best of the lot.  It was hard work and although this is the best, it's not nearly as good as what I hoped for.  Food photography is really difficult, which is why food photographers are some of the highest paid in the profession. 

Well, as you might expect, I ate him afterward.

Day 66: March 7th

Postcard from the Edge (of the bed)

This is the wicked kitty in predator mode.  I do love this image for its color and content.  The recipe for this image was simple: set the ISO to 1250, put the focus on automatic and set the camera to Program mode.  Next, I set the camera on the bed just where I estimated it would have an angle from below her face. I fired about 20 shots this way.  Most were garbage, but some were kind of cool.  I really like this one for how it implies intention (she's pretty intent, isn't she?) and also for the line created from her paw to shoulder.  I applied some digital effects to enhance the color and also to add the embossed frame that makes it seem more postcardy.

Day 65: March 6th

This is the bridge between New Hope and Lambertville.  I had lunch with two dear friends at Mother's Restaurant on Main Street in New Hope.  It was really wonderful to see both of them and to spend time catching up on people we know.  I was sad to learn that one of our friends has been going through chemotherapy.  She is apparently doing well now and her lab tests say she is cancer-free.  Still, she has a young daughter to whom she is very devoted.  The whole event must have been terrifying.  I can't imagine being faced with cancer when you have a small child to raise.

There are so many terrors out there waiting to scare us.  I wonder why God didn't make us tougher.

Day 64: March 5th

Don't let the sky fool you - this was actually a wonderful day to be out in the park.  The temperature was perfect and although it looks like a bad storm was stirring, it didn't rain one drop.  The lake was still ice-covered, except at the very edges.

Day 63: March 4th

A place like this makes us think more fondly of the old days.  Truth is, they just were what they were.  No better than today and probably no worse.  On the bell-shaped curve of life, we humans, we sort of hover at a middle stasis, always migrating to the center where things are not too extraordinary.  One era no better than the next...just always the same.

Day 61: March 2nd

THE DAY

Today was the day I've been waiting for.  I didn't know on which date it would land or even if I would be home to see it, but this was for sure THE DAY.  The first sign was the crocus, appearing out of nowhere.  Who knows when they actually pushed through the dirt and started growing purple petals?  Was it last night while we slept?  Who knows?  I just know they weren't there a day or two ago and then wham!  Here they are!  On this day, the sun was right and the breeze was light.  The temperature warmed up to where we could sit on the porch in only light jackets.  There were robins on the lawn.  Of course there were robins!  What did you expect on THE DAY!

Day 62: March 3rd

This is me standing on my own left leg, actually moving forward and dressed in my work clothes.  These things all put together mean that my knee has come a long way since the operation, I'm back to work like a real person, and I'm healing nicely.  Spring is due to arrive later this month, so life is good and what more could I ask for?

Day 60: March 1st

Here lies evidence.  March really did come in like a lion.  I'm holding out prayers that the rest of the cliche is true and that winter quietly wanders away like the proverbial lamb.

Day 59: February 28th

Spring starts out like this: ugly and messy and soaking wet.  On beautiful blue sky summer days when the ground is dry and the air is warm, it's easy to forget that we spend a month or so in this gray/brown limbo with our feet wet and our spirits dampened.

Day 58: February 27th

Neo: Man About Town

The world has a lot to learn from this cat.  Recently neutered and still he struts his stuff like nothing bad ever happened to him.  Eternally optimistic, his tail is always at full mast without a care for the fact that he was born into a world with strong superstitions against him, feral and without a windowsill to call his own.

Day 57: February 26th

A truly crappy picture.  This was taken while I was at a stop sign near my home.  There's a lot wrong with this picture: the post on the right, where the chain should connect, was cut out, the horizon is just about smack in the center, and really, there is nothing visually interesting about it.

So why is it posted here?  Well, I took the picture out of a desperate attempt to grab a "picture of the day," specifically for this project.  The day was growing long and I didn't have one yet.  The second reason is that this field can be really beautiful at different times of the day and under different weather conditions.  For example, when ice is caked on every blade of grass and the morning sun is just at the right angle.  When the sun is getting low on the horizon in the late afternoon, it backlights the brush.  The sky and the warm golden tones at that time of day can turn this field into a masterpiece.

Day 56: February 25th

Hotel room.  Laying awake.  Headlights through the curtains come and go.  At night, even the fanciest hotel room transforms itself into a Quentin Tarantino movie set. 

This is the first time this year that I've stayed away from home.  China next month!

Day 55: February 24th

This whole room hangs off of that red sofa.  It would just be a room if it wasn't for that hot tamale sitting there in front of the curtains.  Red sofas are to a room what cheekbones were to Joan Crawford.  Simply fabulous.