Looking back, looking forward

For the last two years--670 days altogether--I've taken a photo a day. I want to thank all of you who have spent the time to accompany on that journey, especially those of you who have been kind enough to share your thoughts.

It's been a worthwhile experience. To take a photo every day and to try to make it not just a record but also something visually appealing is quite a challenge. The greatest gift it gave me was an opening of the eyes. So much in life passes by us without being noticed--until we have a reason to notice it. That one needs to take notice enriches every waking moment.

Next year, together with a stellar group of photographers, I'm undertaking a new challenge: to attempt to snag a photo for each of 365 themes to be found here: http://klsbear.wordpress.com/365-challenge-2011-theme-list/

After two years, I don't know how I'm going to feel the first day I don't take a photo; I expect it will be unsettling. My husband, however, is already celebrating!

At any rate, I am grateful for the experience of the past two years and for your companionship, and I look forward to this new visual adventure.

Wrapped

Today I wrap up 670 consecutive days of taking a photo a day and posting it here. Over the course of the past two years, many of the photos have been of Paper Goods Pond, so I thought it only right to end this two year adventure at this lovely spot. And then God blessed us with a most glorious sunset. It is a most fitting ending.

Candlelight

After the last few photos of the cold and snow of a New England winter, I thought I'd show the flip side: the warmth and light inside that we appreciate all the more. That essence, exemplified by this candle glowing against the brick in our kitchen, was captured using the Hipstamatic app.

Winter

To me, nothing says winter like bare branches against a cold sky.

Orchard in the snow

In winter, the afternoon sun lies low over the barren orchard, casting shadows over the new snow.

Blizzard aftermath

The winds scoured the snow, leaving sculptured ridges around downed branches. In some places, we had bare ground; in others, a foot or more of snow. In terms of snowfall, that's not impressive for New England. It was the winds that were unusual. Our basketball hoop, set in cement, was snapped off near the base & blown over.

Large

We are in the midst of an intensifying blizzard, one of the largest storms to hit us for quite a while. This is the view through our back door into the storm. The fine snow is actually blowing through the edges of the storm door.

Man

My son, Christian, relaxes before Christmas dinner. It's hard to believe that the little boy who once couldn't wait for Christmas because, "Ho-Ho come; bring presents," is now a man--and to our delight, a fine man.

Ornaments

The ornaments on our tree: from the newest with our grandson's kindergarten picture, to the oldest which belonged to John's family & dates to the '40s. The aged effect was applied with VintagePhoto.

Family

My husband, John, and our sweet daughter, Sierra Rose. Processing was done in Iris PhotoSuite, which evened out the contrast between his ruddy Irish skin and her warm brown Korean tones.

Urban Edge

This is what one sees on the periphery of a small city: a highway, a railway siding, a parking lot, high tension wires...The photo was taken through a window at my office building & processed in PhotoStudio.

Old

Trees are old. They live longer than mobile beings and they contain ancient wisdom. I used PictureShow to help convey the sense of great wise age.

Marigold

The marigolds in my AeroGarden at work have bloomed. I used VintageScene to create an effect like that of an antique quilt.

Christmas

Santa listens carefully to the wishes of this little girl's heart.

I posted two photos today to show two different aspects of Christmas. One is, of course, the real meaning of Christmas, the celebration of the birth of Jesus. The other is the magical Christmas experienced by little children. This Santa may well have been the real one: he was jolly and kind, and took the children seriously.

Christmas

The Nativity play at our church, with a real live Baby Jesus and the happiest shepherds I've ever seen.

Treasured

The Christmas after John and I were married, my parents gave us a Nativity set that had been made by one of their friends. I was delighted as I took out piece after piece: camels, sheep, donkeys, cow, angel and all! Then, when our son was seven or eight, he built a stable out of popsicle sticks. To this day, for me one of the most wonderful and meaningful traditions is putting up the Nativity set. It reflects both the essence of Christmas and the love within our family.

Relaxation

We were supposed to collect our daughter from college this afternoon, but she decided to come home tomorrow instead. Since John & I had the afternoon off anyway, we decided to go to the movies. The theater in Plainville has gold mirror doors that reflect light in parking lot. Processing was done in PhotoStudio.

Winter Evening

The last lights lent a smokiness to the sky this evening in Hartford. Unfortunately, from the parking lot of my office building, there were many distracting elements that I couldn't filter out taking a shot with my iPhone--but I wanted to convey the mystical colors. Using PhotoStudio and Iris PhotoSuite, I was able to find an almost Van Gogh style to highlight the lights and darks and colors the sky had to show tonight.

The Lesson

Aidan does his homework under the watchful guidance of his father. I used TouchUp and TiltShift Generator to get the lighting right.

Soft

We had our first snowfall overnight--nothing at all like what battered the Midwest of our country. It was just enough to soften the landscape. I made only a few touch-up adjustments with PerfectPhoto.

Mouse trap

We've had a problem with mice in our office, so they put put traps. I caught one! PictureShow helped me show off my trophy.

Happiness is...

...finding the right Christmas tree. We had raw, windy, gusty rain today--downpours at times--so not the best day to take the wagon ride through the woods and up the hill to cut our own as we usually do. But we also needed to get the tree this weekend, so that it will be up when our grandson comes to celebrate an early Christmas with us on Wednesday. We decided to get it at Stew Leonard's, a store that specializes in fresh meats, seafood and produce. We do most of our grocery shopping there. Despite the gloomy weather, spirits were high, and we found the perfect compact tree to fit into our cozy little house.

Ballet

This afternoon we saw a version of The Nutcracker presented by a local ballet company/school. Aside from the fact that it did not actually feature a nutcracker except as a backdrop (literally!) the plot had some very disturbing implications. A rather interesting afternoon...here is one of the more classic moments.

Far from home

The Dude in Red is far from home as he travels around to hear the dearest wishes of children from all over. This photo was taken with the Hipstamatic app.

Abstract

Who knew that the wires hanging on the wall in my drab cube at work could look so cool? The miracle was wrought through PictureShow & FX PhotoStudio.

Fabric

This is actually OOC (or, more accurately, OOP--Out Of Phone.) It's got to be the only photo in years--camera or iPhone--that I haven't tweaked even a little with software. The patterns of the late afternoon light coming through the blinded windows onto the industrial carpeting caught my eye. No processing improved the original image.

Golden

Paper Goods Pond is just beginning to freeze over. The patches of ice and open water reflect the gold of the setting sun differently. I used Iris PhotoSuite to play up the light.

Primitive

There is something primitive and almost compulsive about leaving one's mark on walls. They did it in caves before there was writing. Ron's shown us aboriginal wall art. Here is the version one sees in the cities of the American northeast.

Berries, Take 2

Actually, I'd played with this using IrisPhotoSuite and rejected it, but now I like it better. I can't delete the other version from the iPhone & I promised my husband I'd watch "Jason & the Argonauts" with him--so I beg your indulgence. Which do you like better?

Berries

It was rather cold today; there isn't much color left. I found these berries--withered but still red--in a patch of brambles in our side yard.

Festive

The annual Tinsel Fun Run goes past our house. Festive dress is encouraged.

Apartments

I had a really busy day, running from one appointment to another, and then guests for dinner. Along the way, I snagged this photo of an apartment building. It was taken with Hipstamatic.

Looking up

Just a few lights are on in my office building when Ieave near 5PM. Looking up from the parking lot, I catch one window still lit from within and another reflecting the last lights of sundown. The photo was tuned up just a bit with PerfectPhoto, a new app.

Innocence

When I was a very little girl living first in Manhattan and then Brooklyn, I thought oil slicks were just amazingly beautiful. I'd never seen a rainbow in the sky--I'd barely seen the sky at all--but here were rainbows on the street! When I saw this big oil slick in the parking lot at my job, I still held the wonder of seeing them as a small city child who was completely innocent of the fact that they represent pollution.

Hand

About a dozen years ago, our middle school had an artsy avant-garde assistant principal. She got the notion that acquiring a decrepit school bus, having the kids paint it with designs & then having two rather feckless young men drive it across the country would further diversity. As I recall, the bus broke down & was abandoned somewhere in Ohio. But the middle school kids here in town got a day off to paint the bus, which was parked outside the library. One little darling left his/her handprint on the library's brick walkway. I enhanced the photo in SwankoLab.

Self-portrait with faucet?

OK...I admit that at the end of November, when it's cold and dark out there, and one is at the end of the second year of doing a photo-a-day, one does get desperate. This is the faucet in the ladies' room at work, which caught an inadvertent self-portrait. I did some very minimal processing with TiltShift Generator.

Apple

Apples, autumn and New England--a classic combination.

Desire

Petitions for prayer rest in a basket above votive candles at our church. I sometimes wonder if electric candles can be as efficacious as the kinds we lit with long slender wooden sticks that got extinguished in little bins of sand that hung below the candles (a good reason to be Catholic as a kid: we got to play with fire, literally!) But the prayers and the faith are real, and that's what matters.

Tea

Tea needs to be made the way my Irish grandmother made it: in a heated pot with the water at a full boil. I like using a glass cup, so I can appreciate the rich color or the tea. Good tea is an experience that needs to be taken slowly, engaging the senses.

Thanksgiving

What I am most grateful for is the people in my life. Thanksgiving is an opportunity to spend time with them and to share family stories. Our son, Christian, is clearly enjoying one of his Dad's tales.

Paper

As part of my job, I review medical records. Most of our work is on computer (imagine trying to read faxed copies of doctors' handwriting on a computer screen! It's a wonder I can see...) There are still some cases with paper records such as this stack. Processing was done in Iris PhotoSuite, which has become one of my favorite apps.

Hartford

The City of Hartford as seen from Charter Oak Landing on the Connecticut River.

Desire

What is the heart's desire? Perhaps, as Thoreau suggested, simplicity. A few slices of ginger sizzle in the wok which reflects the sign over the stove that reads, "SIMPLIFY."

Needles & moss

I've been fascinated by the patterns of the needles from our blue spruces on the moss under the trees. Iris PhotoSuite helped delineate the geometry.

No news is good news?

Or perhaps there was no news fit to print...at any rate, this news box was empty. I used ColorSplash to play up the red.

Retro

John & I took the day off to go to the early afternoon showing of the new Harry Potter movie. For all the new special effects, going to the movies really hasn't changed much over the years. I used a few different apps (I confess I lost track of which) to give a retro look to this shot of the lobby of our local theater. (PS: the movie was great! How are we going to wait for the final episode?)

Bittersweet

Twining vines of bittersweet provide the last colors of fading fall. I used Iris PhotoSuite to emulate the look of Japanese art.

Five

Five is just fun. Here is my grandson, the delight of my heart, at five. I used TiltShift Generator to highlight the sheer joy.

Many/multiple

Many leaves on multiple steps--or is it the other way around? To get this effect, I used a technique I learned on the Iphoneography blog: use ProHDR to merge a color and a B&W version of a photo.

Technology

The state has deemed it necessary to replace our completely functional computers with new ones. (Don't even get me started on this...) Here's a pile of the new mice waiting to be installed. This is close to OOC; I just did a little brightness & contrast adjustment in Iris PhotoSuite.

Commitment

When I first met John, he was teaching in a Catholic elementary school. There were still nuns there (no longer the case at many schools) and John had a great relationship with them. Today, the order celebrated its 125th anniversary. This is the bishop saying a few words after Mass. He had this order in school when he was a boy. Note that there are no young nuns. I used PictureShow to make it look like an old Polaroid because it reflects an era that is passing.