Day 74 - welcome to the jungle....

A mass of these red barked bushes or trees sits along the edge of the parking lot at the Y. I had no shots of the day and I was intrigued by this particular section that appeared to be worse off , as if it was run over by a plow during one of the many snow storms we've had this winter. I'm going to hazard a guess and say that's the case. It was raining after having snowed again a little bit so I tried to be quick about getting the shot.

I like the wildness and unpredictability of the shot. The colors are in a range that while similar provide a good range of hues from reds to browns. Also a bit of light reflection off of the wet branches in the foreground let you get the coldness of the moment as well I feel.

...you know where you are ? you're in the jungle baby.....

Day 73 - we can dance if we want to......

Happy Birthday Ilana! My niece turned 5 years old yesterday and had all of her friends and family hanging out first at Build-A-Bear and then afterwards down for some tasty desserts at Brigham's. It was fun seeing all of the kids so excited when they got to get their bear stuffed and then put the little hearts in. Very Cute. I took tons of pictures which Deb is patiently waiting for! I never knew how insane a place like that can be with 12 excited kids running around like nuts to get their bears all stuffed, cleaned, and dressed! Oy....

This shot was the last one I took of the day and I think it is the best one, she definitely hammed it up for the camera! I think the pose along with the bright colors and lighting make the pictures look incredible, plus the adorable little girl there helps out abit as well....

...we can lose all self control......

Day 72 - I'm nerdy in the extreme and whiter than sour cream....

Ok, ok, here is CJ. He doesn't know that I put him up here on the blog yet, and I finally got a picture of him where he is smiling normally. Here he is sitting on the steps at my Aunt's house that we visited yesterday. Michelle and CJ and Brendon had never met her yet so she got to meet all of them at once. We had a great time there and a great lunch of spaghetti with turkey meatballs and some garlic bread and a salad. I think everybody enjoyed themselves there. I also had to use the caption of a Weird Al song because he likes him so much, that's because of me... oops!!

I like this picture because it is a great portrait shot of the boy! The lighting is great , I didn't need to use any flash, and he smiled normal for me!! I think the colors of the picture came out great and the clarity looks great as well.

....just becaue I'm white and nerdy.....

Day 71 - go speed racer, go speed racer....

So this was an interesting night. Michelle's dad had tickets to an indoor midget car racing event at the Dunkin' Donuts center in Providence. Apparently it was 50 years since the last time they had any indoor event and we witnessed a big thing. There were so many people there that follow these guys and were rooting on their favorites, I had never heard of these things until a few days before. They were neat to see these midget cars racing around the track at up to 70mph! Even better was seeing some of the crashes. No one was hurt , just mostly minor things that looked worse than they were....

I took many many shots , trying to obtain one when they were flying around the track at those insane speeds, which resulted in many blurry shots, except when I increased the shutter speed and turned on the flash, but many of those were a little too dark, albeit not blurry. I opted to post this shot which they were circling on a caution flag because the speeds were done and I got some clarity and good colors in the frame....

....go speed racer, GO!!

Day 70 - baby you're my everything......

What's better than having some stuffed shells and some nice italian bread and garlic bread as well. Here is Michelle cutting up some nice ciabatta bread for dinner with Jenn the other night. The dinner was very good and the garlic bread (not pictured) was extremely tasty and really really garlicky. You also get to see her nice ring that she's sporting these days..

It's a different kind of shot, not something I incorporate too often, meaning people and/or parts of people. A close up yes, but not my typical close up shots.

...diamond ring.....

Day 69 - You know that it would be untrue, You know that I would be a liar....

Another month and another self portrait type picture. I picked up a bunch of doors from Home Depot the other day to replace a few around the house. I have them stacked in a pile in the basement, so I thought, hmmm, what an opportunity for a crazy pic with them. Well with a little strategic placement and 10 or 20 different poses I got a few pics I liked.

Yes, I used the flash in this shot, I figured in this case in the dim basement and the bright white doors the lighting would reflect off of the doors and not illuminate me with such terrible lighting. I think this was one of my most fun shots I have made and I debated which picture to use, ultimately I am posting one of the more goofy shots, but it is a fun shot as well...

....If I was to say to you
Girl, we couldn't get much higher.....

Day 68 - all in all you're just....

Drove around a little bit with CJ after picking him up from the Y yesterday and stopped by one of my favorite areas nearby, the Monastery. The grounds are large and full of many different buildings , most of them quite old.... This is one of a couple buildings near the back of the property close to some of the many hiking trails that abound back there. There are over 400 acres of trails to explore. It looked like some people had been trudging through the snow covered trails recently.

Notice the reflection in the window of this shot. The sun was on it's way down and I thought this old building looked like a neat way to capture a little of the lighting of the moment. It's a dark shot otherwise, the white brick wall looking rather blue in the photo, but you can get a glimpse of color in the glass which offers a bit of warmth.

...another brick in the wall.....

Day 67 - and it seemed to me, you lived your life.....

A little bit of the long candle holder I have in the living room. It holds about 10 to 12 candles and looks really great all lit up. As you can see the candles have gotten a little bit of use as they slowly shrink into the bottom of the glass holder. These are just something you can light, sit, and just stare into the flickering flames and contemplate so many things. I remember in our college days, just sitting around with friends, lights off, perhaps a candle lit, some frosty beverages, and some music playing, just talking about whatever came to mind. This was not the times where we were partying it up hard obviously, there were plenty of those too... but that's for another day....

I particularly like the simpleness of the shot, the lighting, and the fact that I didn't need to keep the shutter open long at all to achieve the shot I was looking far. Just a dimly lit room and the camera perhaps a little close to the flame, but all in the name of my pictures...

...like a candle in the wind.....

Day 66 - la, la , la la, la, la,

Who can forget these lovable guys! I used to watch the smurfs everyday when I was little as far as I can remember. "Are we there yet Papa Smurf? "..... "Not Far Now!"... Ahh the memories. This Boomerang channel brings back all of them from the Smurfs, to the Snorks, the old Scooby Doo, Tom and Jerry, and much more. Why am I watching cartoon channels you may ask ? Well we have an 11 year old living here, sooooooo....

Not much to say about the shot. I took several shots at the television screen trying to get one I liked that came in clear enough, and without showing the television screen edges. I apparently missed that and ended up with a little of the edge showing. No big deal. It's Papa Smurf!!!

...la, la, la la, la, la, la, la la, la la....

Day 65 - blinded by the light.....

I've been noticing that with all the pictures I've taken so far, there aren't many taken at night. This was taken on my way back from Cumberland House of Pizza the other night. What you see is the lights from an oncoming vehicle on Angell Rd. Of course I was moving as the picture was shot which accounts for the strange light effects here.

I think it's a unique shot the way the headlights came out with the long shutterspeed the camera used in order to catch enough light for the photo. It was held open approximately 10 seconds as I drove down the road creating this unique effect from the bouncing of the car as well as the forward movement. It appears as if it is a shot from some sort of new fangled laser blaster.

...revved up like a deuce,
another runner in the night......