315/365 Postcard-perfect

Ah, snow.

We've received quite a bit of it in the last week, though not nearly the blizzard dumped on the east coast. Ours amounted to a more manageable 5-8 inches or so.

And boy, was it beautiful.

The first round, which hit last Friday, was the wet, heavy snow that sticks to everything. Each tree limb, each rooftop, and of course, each road surface, ended up coated with it. It started while I was at work, so for this photo, I went to a west window that faces the woods.

It was so entrancing that I really had to tear myself away from the window after a while.

After that I slowly made my way home for the weekend.

Camera: Canon 40D, 1/125s, f/4.5 at ISO 200 at about 4:45 p.m., through a window facing west.

314/365 New theme: black and white

After a week of photos taken before noon, it's time for a new theme!

Ready for it?

Black and white.

I adore black and white photography, and I don't convert my color photos to black and white nearly enough. The challenging part of this theme is that not every subject looks good in black and white. For instance, red and green look like equal shades of gray when you remove the color.

Granted, if that's what you're going for, then by all means, shades of red and green together make a great black and white photo.

Black and white is great for focusing the eye on detail. Subtract all the distraction of vibrant colors, and you end up with texture and form. The photo above is of the tower at the Murat Centre in downtown Indianapolis. It's a theater/concert venue with very interesting architectural detail -- a fact which makes it great for shooting in black and white.

I love night photography, too. I admit it's more fun when the temperature is above 32°F, though.

Camera: Canon 40D, 1/50s, f/4 at ISO 1600 at about 6:30 p.m.

313/365 Under the wire

I barely got this photo in under the wire, at 11:55 a.m.

Whew, that was close!

I have a good excuse, though:  I was occupied by work. Yep, work. Most of my morning was spent in a meeting at a client's office, so on the way back to our building, I got this photo on I-465. Don't worry, I was the passenger, not the driver.

Not that I haven't been known to shoot photos while driving. I don't text and drive, though. I promise.

I set my shutter speed for 1/5 second, which in the land of photography is pretty long. It gave me the great blur you see here, a photo of a passing semi truck.

I need to do blurry shots more often. Who needs sharp focus, anyways? Look out, that may become a week-long theme!

Camera: Canon 40D, 1/5s, f/22 at ISO 100 at about 11:55 a.m.

312/365 Winter citrus

One bright spot in the dead of winter:  citrus fruit.

Yum.

My Farm Fresh Delivery bin once again came stuffed with some great produce and willing photography subjects, including some excellent grapefruit, pictured here.

Eating grapefruit always poses an interesting challenge. I don't know anyone who peels it and eats the slices like an orange. So that means you have to slice it another way, and many methods end up leaving a lot of the juicy fruit behind.

The easiest way? Just slice the darn thing in half and grab a spoon. Even though that means wiping up some juice splatters, it doesn't keep me away!

Camera: Canon 40D with 60mm macro lens, 1/125s, f/2.8 at ISO 125 at about 10:00 a.m. on an east-facing window ledge.

311/365 Rise of the sun

It would have been sacrilege if I'd completed a "photos before noon" theme without a sunrise photo. Thankfully, the weather cooperated and allowed me to get one done.

This is a little creek-side park that I pass on my commute every day. The picnic table is only about 15 yards off the highway, but the setting feels more remote. I may have to bring my lunch here one day when the weather warms up, because my office has no suitable lunch-time outdoor seating.

I love eating my lunch outside [when it's warm]. It serves many purposes:  I get away from my desk, a breath of fresh air, a dose of sunshine, and some quiet time to myself. I find that it recharges me for the afternoon.

I'll be looking forward to those days returning in a couple months!

Camera: Canon 40D, 1/60s, f/3.5 at ISO 400 at about 7:45 a.m.

310/365 Blue skies

On the day of this photo, this was the first day of blue sky that we'd seen in ages. And I'm not even exaggerating. It felt like hundreds of years.

Okay, yes, that's a little overly dramatic. But you know the feeling, right? We're all lacking in our Vitamin D intake right now, so when that blue sky shows up, it's monumental.

Unfortunately, it didn't last for long. Back to the reality of an Indiana winter.

Camera: Canon PowerShot SD1000 at about 11:45 a.m.

309/365 A gathering of all ages

When I earned the opportunity to represent Indiana as a 500 Festival Princess in 2005, I never dreamed it would end up being such a prominent influence on my life. It extended well beyond those four busy months of activity.

First milestone:  I realized I'd gained a truly valuable group of friends when, for my birthday shortly after that Indy 500, these young women stepped up to celebrate with me when my school friends backed out.

Next milestone:  I was part of a group, made up mostly of this new group of friends, who founded the Princess Partners program. It's a mentor program, through which each current Princess is paired with an alumna to guide her through the process.

And now? This same group of motivated young women has initiated an official Princess Alumni Association. We met for the first time last weekend with Princesses represented from every decade -- including a Princess from the very first year in 1960. We agreed on a mission, which includes raising money to fund more scholarships for the Princesses, a concept that's very important to me. We created committees (of course), divided up responsibilities -- and I can't wait to see where this goes.


Camera: Canon 40D, 1/60s, f/3.5 at ISO 1000

308/365 Up before the sun

I can't tell you the last time I got a photo at 6:30 a.m. -- but here you go. How's that for being a photo before noon? Day two of the weekly theme, knocked out before the sun even came up.

If it's not immediately recognizable, this is the top of my shower curtain. I love the fabric of this curtain, so that alone makes getting up and in the shower a little more fun each morning.

Camera: Canon 40D with 60mm macro lens and 430EX Speedlite, 1/60s, f/4.5 at ISO 320

307/365 Hanging on

As I mentioned in my 300th post of this round of Project 365, I'm going to throw some week-long themes into the mix. It's time for an extra challenge -- and some new inspiration!

First up: Photos before noon.

That may seem like an odd first choice, but here's my rationale:  I've found myself falling into a bad habit. Though I have a camera with me all day long every day, I don't think to get my photo of the day until I'm home and it's after dinner.

I'll tell you what, that gets a little stale after a while. Especially when it's dark at that time of day and it's the dead of winter.

So, the first theme -- photos before noon -- is my personal kick in the pants to be looking for photo subjects in the morning.

A bonus: it means I have more time free in the evening. And when is that a bad thing?

The photo in this post is the first of this theme. I made this photo right after I exited my car at work, a little before 8:00 a.m. Dirty ice clumps like this are a common sight on cars at this time of year. After the last snow storm, they built up on my car enough that they rubbed the tires when I turned.

A true pain, but it just comes with the territory.

Camera: Canon 40D, 1/60s, f/3.5 at ISO 640 at about 7:45 a.m.

306/365 Quiet river

When the weather is nice, the paved walking trail by this river is busy with walkers and runners, out enjoying the scenery.

It runs along the edge of a park in Zionsville, and I pass it every day on my way to and from work. On this day, not a soul was in sight in the park, so I was able to choose the closest possible parking spot -- which allowed me to jump out, walk very quickly to the river, get some photos, and jump right back into my toasty-warm car.

I'll save the rugged, die-hard, cold-beating, hours-outside photography for another day.

Camera: Canon PowerShot SD1000 at about 5:15 p.m.

305/365 Wellies

I broke down and did it. I bought a pair of wellies.

And that has to be one of the funniest names for a style of boots. Granted, the nickname comes from a reasonable origin, but it still makes me laugh.

Overseas, wellies are serious outdoor muckboots, not fashion accessories -- but I went ahead and chose a lovely violet for mine anyways. I plan to use them as they were intended, for trekking about in the rain.

So if a fun color is available, why not buy it?

Camera: Canon 40D with 430EX Speedlite, 1/125s, f/4 at ISO 500

304/365 What your ice cream says about you

The simplicity of chocolate syrup on vanilla ice cream never gets old.

Make it dark chocolate? That gives it extra points. Hot fudge? Even better.


Now here's the big question: do you add the syrup in zig-zagging lines? Concentric spirals? A single, growing mountain in the middle? Or just random patterns?

I know, it's one of those thought-provoking questions that's going to keep you up all night. What does my chocolate syrup pattern say about me?

I tend to mix it up and do a different pattern each time -- though there's always a pattern. What does that mean?

Camera: Canon 40D with 60mm macro lens and 430EX Speedlite, 1/125s, f/3.5 at ISO 500

303/365 A little color in the kitchen

Isn't it great how the little things can really tie things together?

I painted the yellow and red chairs in October, but their seats have been bare for the last four months. And the white chair in the middle has been sporting a cushion of pastel pink and gray that's nearly as old as I am and didn't really go with my kitchen.

Enter:  Mom the Amazing.

We found inspiration in these fun cushions I spotted on Apartment Therapy. I liked the patchwork look but didn't want my own to be quite as lofty. Because the tops were pieced together, we were able to raid Mom's fabric stash and use up scraps -- and that's always a positive thing, because it makes room for new stuff.

We got foam from Jo-Ann's, added thick black rickrack along the edges, and created ties from old shopping bag handles.

And voila! Custom, unique chair pads that completely go with my kitchen and tie the three chairs together.

They make both my eyes and my derriere happy.

Camera: Canon 40D with 430EX Speedlite, 1/125s, f/4 at ISO 500

302/365 January fog

January was a foggy month in Indiana. I don't ordinarily associate fog with January (aside from freezing fog), but my memory could just be fooling me today.

This was a particularly foggy night, and I pulled off the road to get this photo on my way home. Very few cars were around, and the fog gave the area a very isolated, solitary feel.

If it were Halloween I'd call it creepy.

Camera: Canon 40D, 1/15s, f/3.5 at ISO 400 at about 10:00 p.m.

301/365 The new kind of exciting purchase

It hit me the other day:  I must really be an adult if a new vacuum cleaner is now an exciting purchase.

For the last six months, I've been borrowing a vacuum. But it really didn't work very well. In a word, it sucked. Or didn't suck, that is.

So it was time to get a new one. And my beautiful deep turquoise, shiny new vacuum, with extensions, arrived via free shipping from Hoover.

It's a beaut. And these bristles will probably never look this nice, so I had to document the momentous day.

They actually look to me like spaghetti stuffed through holes. Don't you think?

Camera: Canon 40D with 60mm macro lens and 430EX Speedlite, 1/125s, f/2.8 at ISO 400