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.

Retro

Pottery is one of the most ancient arts. This potter demonstrated his skill at a craft show in Hartford today. I used TiltShift Generator to put the focus on his hands and the wheel, and Vintage Scene to age it enough to convey the antiquity of his craft.

Warmth

Time for the woodstove, which provides us with warmth as well as a focal place for the coming-indoors that occurs as winter draws in with its dark and cold. The photos was taken with Hipstamatic.

Pears

Pears...a fruit of fall, too delicate to keep through the winter, so they need to be savored now. PhotoStudio helped define their lines.

For Shayne

It's been a tough day. Tonight, we were at the wake of the 14 year old nephew of our best friends. He swerved his skateboard in front of a car. His favorite color was purple. The sunset tonight was a deep purple. Please pray for his family, and also for the person whose car he hit. And always remember that life is fragile.

Comfort

Tuesday night Taize services are a spiritual comfort for us. Here, the pastor prays quietly before the service begins. I used Iris PhotoSuite to brighten the photo, which was dark due to the church being lit mostly by candles.

First Snow

We were surprised to wake to the sound of a snow plow this morning. Even in New England, this is early for snow. We hope it's not a portent. This was the view out our kitchen window.

Insignificant

In a place as cavernous as IKEA, one can easily feel insignificant. I used PictureShow for the effects.

Isolation

I had decided not to post anything from Hipstamatic for a while, but then I took this one. I changed my mind. I like the way it conveys a sense of isolation even in a very public place.

Brown

As the song says, "All the leaves are brown and the sky is grey..." Photo was taken with Hipstamatic (the new Dali pak is my latest toy.)

Late autumn

The leaves have been falling like sifting snow until today, when a steady rain pulled the last of them from the trees. This one was plastered onto the windshield. Hipstamatic caught it perfectly aligned with the trees in the background.

Words

At the community team meeting for UpBeat--a leadership training/drug and alcohol prevention program at our high school--ideas are "brainstormed" by being written on big sheets of paper. They're considered and discussed, then we arrive at a consensus. Processing was done in SwankoLab.

Numbers

Tonight, the numbers will be all over the news, but the numbers only matter if people get out to vote. This is Election Day in Berlin, Connecticut. The poster effect is from PhotoExpress.

Interior

Remember in "Shrek," where he says, "Onions have layers. Ogres have layers!"? It struck me as I was clearing off the table tonight that the pattern in the sliced red onion was reflected in the knot in the wood of the table.