Day 64 - will you still need me, will you still feed me....

The effects of a long rough winter takes its toll on the neighbors wheelbarrow. Beaten and worn but ready to take on the haulings of another day this wheelbarrow sits propped up against a red barn slowly decaying with the passage of time. I took a walk outside yesterday with the warm air and saw many things I walk by all the time and don't notice. My neighbor has a large yard and at over 80 years of age he keeps busy trying to maintain the whole thing. Having one of these around definitely helps save an aching back.

A simple shot, I like the shots of old barnyards, worn tools. Sitting in the sunlight makes it feel like a warm summers day. And while we are in the midst of winter still this gives you the hope of those warmer ones ahead. So basically I'm saying, this photo creates a sense of warmth with a simple shot of an oh so common piece of yard equipment....

....when I'm 64!!!.....

Day 63 - why don't we peel away......

I love these trees. I had seen one of the home improvement shows where they planted these peeling bark trees which I forget what they are called and noticed them in the neighborhood right behind ours. There are a few homes there that have these unique (to me) trees in their front yards. Another tree picture was on here recently yet it's the time of the year where we are almost through with the cold and nature starts to come alive again with the littlest of hints so far.

I like the shot because I love the texture seen here in the bark. The colors of the dark outside and the lighter colors within all mixed into one eye feasting photo. Sure there isn't a lot else going on in the picture, however I feel it's an intriguing closeup of a different kind of tree and most people would drive by not noticing the intracacies of its bark.

...why don't we peel away into the night.....

Day 62 - someday we'll find it, the rainbow connection....

Such an array of colors for painting. We were visiting Michelle's grandmother last night to show off Brendon. She holds a ceramic class in her basement once a week for a bunch of people so they all wanted to see the baby. While they googlied over Brendon I snapped a few pictures around the room. The paints stacked here are actually on the shelf, the picture is turned sideways. They use these and much more paints for painting all kinds of different ceramic figures, mostly seasonal things for holidays, especially Christmas figurines. She's breaking out the easter things on the shelves now as well.

I like the shot for a few reasons. One I like the assortment of colors in the picture. I left the picture rotated because I think it actually looks better this way having the vertical stripes of the shelves. The lighting was simple due to the overhead fluorescents in the room. It's just a simple shot with a lot of colors that shows of the range of the camera's ability to pick up subtleties in the color ranges.

....the lovers, the dreamers and me.....

Day 61 - she's a brick......

Here stands some old mill buildings down in the Lonsdale section of Cumberland. I think on the other side of this is an old Ann & Hope store that still operates. The building here looks a bit beat down and deserted and the parking lot sure seems that way.

I opt for the architecture pictures when I can , I like the shots with different angles, shadows, and architectural details. In this shot I basically like the rundown building, the boarded up windows, and the general decay of it all. There are so many buildings in so many cities that continue to deteriorate and those make for great pictures in our urban landscape

.....house, she's might mighty.....

Day 60 - ebony and ivory......

One of my favorite trees is the birch tree. I have always loved the simple black and white colors of it's bark and they look especially great in the setting sun. This is a shot taken in Attleboro, not far from the busy Route 1. It's a small park area and this pond which is still nicely frozen from the winter freeze. People drive by this constantly and I wonder how many of them take the time to appreciate the simple, serene setting so close to the urban chaos. I always notice it and this time I stopped to take a breather.

What can I say, I really like this shot. The raw format of the image is even better, I especially like the way the sunlight hits the bark and creates the subtle shadows. I opted for this shot out of my many because of the great lighting I got and the full frame of tree trunk as opposed to getting in the less full branches and more of the background scenery. My goals was to have the tree fill the frame and it occurs with these 3. I've heard things are better in 3s ?

...live together in perfect harmony.....

Day 59 - the sun will come out tomorrow.....

Really lousy day, I wanted to go walking in the rain to look for some dreary shots in the puddles, but we were busy all day getting things for the house and grocery shopping as well. I came back from the stores and was unloading the car and stood under the garage eave for a moment and snapped a shot of my soaking wet car.

Ok, I don't like this shot, I do think it's neat how the water almost looks like a sheet of ice, and the fact that you can see the trees in the reflection. I know there will be much better shots for tomorrow, since i've already taken that one !!!! A little foreshadowing for ya....

...bet your bottom dollar that tomorrow.......

Day 58 - turning japanese, i think i'm turning japanese....

Well the brother made it in here so it's Shadow's turn. He never sits still enough while he's awake to get a good shot so I have to wait until moments like this to get him at his finest. Sleeping! Shadow is a Japanese Manx that Michelle got when he was a few weeks old. Manx are cats that normally don't have tails and the rest of the litter he was in didn't. He was the only one with the tail. A full tail too. Well it's nice to have somebody a bit different. He is such a great cat when he's not getting into things he shouldn't. I suppose that is with all cats, him and Leo get into things they aren't supposed to often, but we love them anyway. Give Shadow a good cardboard box and he is in heaven...

I love the shot I snapped here for the simple fact of the great lighting, the simplicity of having only the cat and the green blanket for colors in the frame as well. Nothing special done here for the shot just the tripod to keep it still and a few tries at the right angle and height that I desired. Let peaceful cats lay!!!

...I really think so.....

Day 57 - I keep the ends out for the tie that binds....

Geometric shapes in architecture always catch my eye. I was heading around the backside of the Emerald Square mall in Attleboro, MA and notices the sunlight hitting some structure and I had to check it out. What it was was one of the parking garages. I drove up and into the garage. I felt a little awkward trying to snap some pictures on the ramps which are clearly not for walkers, but I did anyway. When I was on the top of the garage and walking back up the ramp I noticed the security vehicle approaching, so I casually walked back to my car and drove away. On the way down I snapped this shot

I liked this shot better because of the great lighting created by the setting sun. It's very clean and straight. The metal wires and concrete are such a great industrial look that I enjoy. Those two materials together go so well. It is a simple picture but that's all it takes sometimes..

....Because you're mine, I walk the line....

Day 56 - are you going to Scarborough Fair.....

So what do you get after 6 or 7 hours of cooking in a large stockpot on the stove ? Some of the tastiest boiled dinner you can get. It consisted of smoked pork shoulder which fell right off the bone, along with potatoes, carrots, celery, turnip and some green cabbage. Michelle spent hours preparing and making this great dinner for everyone here to enjoy, even CJ enjoyed the pork and potatoes of it.

I really have been trying to find some better shots this past week and I think I've managed to sneak in a some good with the bland. This shot clearly is a closeup of the vegetables for our dinner. I chose this one over others because of the color contrasts of greens, oranges, and browns and whites. A little reflection of light on one section couldn't be helped as it was from the overhead light from the microwave oven light.....

...parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme.......

Day 55 - put me in coach........

Ok, yes there are two pictures. I couldn't help it, I like them both to show off the story. Well these Canadian geese sure made a mess of this baseball field! There were literally hundreds of these buggers hanging out and pooping all over the little league field down in Middletown/Newport RI. I couldn't find any good places to park over near the field so I parked on the edge of it. I walked in carefully avoiding stepping in the thousands of little presents they had left and the geese starting moving towards the outfield. It looks like one of them is rounding first . There goes Lucy heading for second, looks like the other team doesn't know which way to be looking..... So I walked over to the other side of the fence and another group of spectator geese were hanging out there. I couldn't help but remember the scene from Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade where Sean Connery runs at the birds on the beach..... I did the same and ran right at em.. and quickly snapped this shot!

I know it's not the best clarity, but it was priceless to see the whole 20 or so of them head for the heavens as I charged at them and managed to grab at least A shot at them .... The different outspread wings look very neat in the shot. It was fun to take this one to say the least.....

... I'm ready to play, today.....

Day 54 - Michelle, ma belle......

Well hello there my darling. I decided to get a shot of my lovely fiancee unbeknownst to her she would be ending up on my picture of the day today. Her she is focused intently on the baby and making sure he gets every little bit of that oh so tasty formula inside him. He's a growing boy you know. He's eating quite well and Mom and I are very happy and excited about our brand new baby boy. I hope he knows how much time we take to care for him.

I love this shot. The setting sunlight coming in on the left side creating such great shadows on the opposite side of her face. Well I have to like the shot anyways it's of my honey... I think the colors, and the darkness in the picture adds to the shot and doesn't really take away from anything.


....These are words that go together well, My Michelle.....

Day 53 - nothing's turning out the way I planned....

So I had to pull over on my way back from Sturbridge to grab this shot. I thought what could be more perfect than an odd looking school bus painted and made up to look like a pig. Ugh, what were these people thinging. Well I guess I'm doing some advertising for Carl's diner though. I wonder if it's any good. I mean come on they have an entire bus painted up to look like a pig. Does that mean their they serve up a lot of bacon ? Or you feel very piggish after eating there? OR perhaps you're tickled pink when you are done. Who know's. Well I'm sure someone knows about this place.

I like the shot, I love the bright color and the way the sunlight hits it it just right creating some shadows on the bright pink exterior. I opted for the closeup shot once again because it just looks right and takes away from the viewer looking in the background, which in this case was nothing exciting to look at but a bunch of dirt and some trees. The picture has a bright, cheery, spring like quality too it, along with the creepy feeling as well.

....hey pig there's a lot of things I hoped you could help me understand.....

Day 52 - more than meets the eye......

Like I've said before sometimes I have uninspired picture days. You got to expect a few of those in a year at least. Well I do have a thing for Transformers so I took a picture of my all time favorite character, Optimus Prime. I got this one from someone on Ebay who makes the custom trailers for him. This isn't the average original Optimus which I have as well, this is the 25th anniversary oversized version of it, so the trailer is also oversized. A neat thing to proudly display on a shelf somewhere in my own little space.

I like the shot of the toy with the blurred out trailer. If you know what the cab from the truck is you know what the the symbol on the trailer is anyway and it becomes less important for the photo. I tried to make the shot with no background so it becomes hard to tell where the actual truck is on, a black roadway ? or a black shelf ? It makes the photo seem a little more lifelike.

...robots in disguise.......

Day 51 - it's not m-i-c-k-e-y......

So there is this game I play on Facebook called MouseHunt. The object of the game is to catch as many mice as you can using different traps and bases. The more gold you get the more mice you can catch and the more gold you can earn, it's a never ending cycle. Now What I thought was funny was the fact that to catch the mouse you have to sound a hunter's horn. Well this little mouse was something lying around the house and low and behold he's playing his own horn! I saw him and said, look how fitting, I have my own Mousehunt mascot!!

I took the shot using the sunlight to create the cool shadow of the mouse. It does look like they typical Mickey Mouse head in the background. I like the lighting of the shot , again using only the sunlight peeking through the curtains. Yes I used that yesterday as well, this is in the same room as the prior picture, but I think it works so well in certain circumstances. I also like the material contrast of the metal mouse and the stone bricks behind him.....

...m-o-u-s-e....

MouseHunt!!!

Day 50 - let the sunshine in...

It's Friday the 13th in this shot and the sun was shining through the curtains, just lighting up this one book. Now what would have been really cool or freaky I suppose if this was the Edgar Allen Poe book, but it's The Three Musketeers. I just thought it odd how only this one book was lit up so brightly on the book shelf that I had to take this shot. This book shelf holds a collection of the 100 best stories every written. It is a subscription that Michelle has had for the last 5 years or so. All leatherbound books with goldleaf edging on them. They look very nice and will fill our shelves for years to come.

I like the unique shot as I stated above. The sunlight poring in and highlighting the one book only. I was surprised that I didn't need to use a tripod or that the shutter didn't want to stay open longer due to the dark conditions in the room at the time but for the one swath of light. I like this shot because it is unique, I suppose perhaps I should have picked up the book and thumbed through it at least....

this is the dawning of the age of Aquarius, age of Aquarius

Day 49 - get your motor runnin.....

I often drive by this place on the side of route 6 on my way to Connecticut. It's this ramshackle building that seems to sell all kinds of old objects, coke machines, tractor parts, and just random antiques. I stopped and was taking pictures of some of the rusty parts in the front yard. The man who owns the place came home and asked if I needed help with anything and I mentioned I was just taking pictures of a few things if he didn't mind. He said, no problem, come inside we have some lots more antiques inside. I politely obliged and spent a few minutes inside out of common courtesy. The shot I liked the most was this one however, some sort of engine thingy , I really have no idea what this was part of or could of be used for....

I like the shot, the closeup of this motor part and definitely the combination of orange rust and blues of the engine, the colors are a great combination and create a unique shot. I also like the random machinery and rusted parts in the background of this shot as well. Overall it was just a unique item in a unique setting.

...head out on the highway.....

Day 48 - It's like a light of a new day-, It came from out of the blue.

Another month where I can take another self portrait. This is me hanging out in the loft of the shed in the backyard. It's a neat little place that I've been cleaning out in my spare time and eventually want to make it a little cottage retreat. At the moment I have to climb up an unfinished ladder step and then climb on top of a desk and hoist myself in here. It's kinda cool space though. It was 50+ degrees out so I thought it was a good time to jump up there and take some shots...

I took many shots here with my camera by attaching the camera to the tripod (shadow) and setting the timer to 10 seconds. It took many tries to get some good shots and while this isn't my favorite shot of them all it shows that I am actually up off the ground and you can get a sense of the size of the shed and height as well. The sunlight provided some great shadows and lighting, almost a bit too much lighting, but the washed out look of the shed is fine for my picture. The actually color of the shed at the moment is a pale yellow, the same as our house, again at the moment eventually we will paint everything and I may shingle the shed as well!

....Believe it or not, I'm walking on air....

Day 47 - these boots were made for walkin.....

Ok, I couldn't resist putting this picture in here. I had many other pictures to choose from , but these shoes are just so very cute looking. Obviously you are looking at a pair of Brendon's new shoes, and while he can't walk yet, they do help in keeping his socks on his feet which he so happily kicks off. I picked these ones out because they are some of the colors that I like and thought the baby would look cute in them as well.

I took this closeup shot on top of a glass case coffee table that I made, I think it makes the shoes look as if they are floating off of the page or that this photo was edited in Photoshop or the like, I assure you it wasn't. I arrange them this way and used the light coming in from the sliding glass door to create the shot that I wanted.

...and that's just what they'll do.....

Day 46 - ooo,rock me amadeus....

Wow, the temperature outside these past couple days got very nice and all the snow is melting. I am happy to see the sun and feel this warm weather. This is a bit of the rocks that flanks the stairs that head to the backyard on the side of our house. I placed these there sometime in the fall because it was mostly just dirt and everytime it rained the dirt ran down the driveway. Some of these rocks were very heavy! Now it creates a nicer cleaner look when the heavy rains come into town.

I like the way the shadows came together in this shot with the sunlight hitting the rocks and creating a unique effect. I contrasting dark and whites is also something that I think looks good in this photo. I was trying to show a little bit of nature popping through the otherwise cold winter we have been having.

...amadeus, amadeus.....

Day 45 - daddy mac will make you jump, jump....

What to do in the hospital to pass the time besides watching the television and taking care of the baby. Crossword puzzles of course. We did this as well as watched tv, so I guess it wasn't instead of. We have a good time together doing these puzzles and when Michelle gets stuck, I help her out. For some reason I have all of this trival knowledge in my head and that's just what they are looking for.

So a close up shot (of course right?), of the puzzle, where I purposely went for the blurring of the top and the bottom and went for clarity on a few of the already finished clues. Nothing too special on the camera settings here, just a few tries at the right angle and distance from the page I needed the lense to be.

...kriss kross will make you jump, jump....

Day 44 - well, don't you know that other kids are starving in Japan....

Dinnertime for Michelle. She got some decent meals there actually, I was surprised when she said they tasted ok. I ended up having a lot of dinners from the cafeteria downstairs which also had decent food for a cafeteria in a hospital that is. Here we have some fruit, soda, I see a roll , and I think this may have been a spaghetti dinner under the blue covered plate, I forget what she had.

I opted to use this shot with a closeup again because it was a unique shot of the day. The lighting in the hospital room worked well with the camera and didn't require and longer shutter speeds or flashes (which I try not to use until I get the external someday).

...so eat it, just eat it...

Day 43 - baby love, my baby love....

We were still at the hospital day 3 at that point and we had visitors and gifts! These were from Uncle Dave and Auntie Dawn. They came to visit their new nephew and Brendon was happy to see them! Not a lot of options for taking pictures when I was in the same room for 5 days with Michelle so I had to be creative and I have lots of pictures of Brendon to share and I will be posting them on a different blog site.

I took a few shots here, I played with the shade to let more sunlight in and get less shadows and a better brightness to the shot. So cute all of the things people have bringing for the baby to wear , I thought I'd capture a little of that in this photo.

...I need you , Oh, how I need you....

day 42 - and runnin, runnin and runnin, runnin

Awww, cute.. heh heh.. I thought they were so cute looking when Michelle was holding the baby yesterday I had to try and get a few shots. Little baby Brendon is on his 2nd day of life and just happy as a clam, although he doesn't like these little feet out in the cool air of the hospital room but it wakes him up enough to get him to eat without falling back asleep.

The picture looks darker than the .raw version which gives the true colors of the photo, but I used the macro feature on my telephoto lens to snap this shot and I think it came out quite well with the lighting and the detailing of the wrinkly feet, ha ha.. What else can I say about this shot, they are so adorable..

...let's get it started, hah.. let's get is started in here....

Day 41 - Welcome to my world.....

Baby Brendon is here! Welcome this adorable little boy born February 4th at 9:22am. He tipped the scales at 6lbs 14oz and 17.5 inches tall!! We had a little scare there in the beginning and he had to come out in an emergency c section! Both Mom and baby are doing just fine now and Brendon is as happy as can be. Daddy is very happy and excited to see his little bundle of joy.

He is pretty quiet and only seems to cry when he needs his diaper changed or he is a little hungry. He doesn't have a huge appetite yet, but it'll get there. He's had a few visitors so far and a lot of congratulations on Facebook from his fan club!

The shot is simple and focused on the star of the day! I love all the pictures I've taken of him so far. He seems so peaceful and innocent and he definitely is. A nice shot , nice lighting, cute overal.....

...won't you come on in....

Day 40 - the ending of an era.....

While cleaning out the Verizon Wireless kiosk the other day I decide since another big box store is biting the dust I'd get a picture to memorialize it. It is amazing what has happened to the economy in the past couple years and the changes that is has affected on both businesses and the individual. Perhaps the U.S. will become less of a wasteful society after our recovery begins and we will realized the value of something and be less materialistic. One can hope anyways...

Again I opted for the close up shot. I had another that included the whole sign but also some of the sky and I didn't really like it because of that. If you look closely you can see the snowflakes falling as it was snowing when I snapped this shot.

...and the turning of a page....

Day 39 - i've got my orange crush....

Yummy. Something nice and fruity to go with lunch yesterday. It was a nice weekend we didn't do much besides the shopping with gift cards, so when it came for what can I possibly photograph today, I saw this nice bowl of juice orange slices freshly separated I couldn't resist both the photo and eating them.

I like doing macro shots if you couldn't tell and this is no exception, although I'm not using the macro feature of my telephoto lens. This is just a point and shoot with a little rearrangement of the bowl for optimal light and a little movement of the orange slices to get just the right shot. It's amazing something so ordinary can look so different when you get in real close and see the real thing. I'll have more extreme examples to follow sometime this year.

...collar me, don't collar me...

Day 38 - the year of the ox....

Needed to get something to eat yesterday before we went out to spend some of Michelle's gift cards. We stopped at the Ho Ho chinese restaurant in Smithfield. There's not much to this place, not much selection on the menu either, but we had tried to go somewhere else and they were closed so we stayed here. I know Michelle felt bad because I didn't like the food, I don't think she did either. Sorry honey. I still liked the company :)

I looked around at the decor and saw this banner hanging across from our table and thought that would be a unique picture. So I took the shot and figured with the low lighting it would come out blurry or I would have to retake it, however it came out fine on the first shot. I like the colors and the lighting on the picture with the dark edges. I noticed the spot of food on the fan he's holding after the shot, I wasn't sure if it was there before I took the shot so I had to look in the camera to make sure. It doesn't detract from the photo, but , the fact that I noticed is annoying to me at least. Overall the shot came out the way I wanted and as it was a quiet day for photos this was the shot of the day I decided to post.

...The Ox is thought to be the sign of prosperity through fortitude and hard work.....
(Chinese New Year was 1/26)