52 Week Project - Week 5 & 6

Week 5 - en·nui ( än wē′) noun ~ weariness and dissatisfaction resulting from inactivity or lack of interest; boredom.

For this entire project my rule is that I must find subjects around or near our house and since our closest neighbor is 2 miles away that leaves me with my family, wildlife, cattle, our dog, and foliage to use as subject matter for ennui. Our dog, Blue, who definitely was not interested in getting her picture taken, made the cut for week #5's assignment. She was totally bored with the whole ordeal and just wanted to get to the "pet me" part.

Week 6 - RED

The man at the market said that they are really sweet...ummm, strawberries. Love this new 35mm 1.8 lens.

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52 Week Project - Week 3 & 4

Week 3 - Self Portrait

My attitude, about life and living, is me. Joyful, loving, affectionate, welcoming, positive, and glad to greet each new day because each is a new start, a new day to explore, to learn, and to love...and to do all the things on the To-Do List that didn't get done the day before! :)





Week 4 - Reflection

Sunrise at the "Honey Hole" on the ranch with the mist lazily rising from the water, which beautifully reflects the early morning clouds. The colors aren't as vibrant as they are on my computer monitor.

Laundry Day

It's a small thing really...the dryer broke. Oh, the drum spins just fine, but there is no heat. Without heat the clothes take forr-evv-verrr to dry...IF they ever get dry. Wanting to "use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without," I had Jeff help me put up a clothesline between some palm trees in the yard. Today I planned to do some laundry but the weather report said, "scattered thunderstorms." So I thought that I'd just have to wash some clothes any way and take my chances on the rain. The first load I hung while it was still cool and calm. By the time I hung the second load a warm wind had picked up a little - a gentle breeze. When I got the third load out to the clothesline the wind was blowing - hard! The first load was totally dry and the second well on its way. Loads two and three dried quickly and I hung load 4 and 5. One more to go :) President Henry B. Eyring recommended keeping a daily record of the little miracles that occur in our lives. "Tonight, and tomorrow night," he suggested, "you might pray and ponder, asking the questions: Did God send a message that was just for me? Did I see His hand in my life or the lives of my children? I will do that. And then I will find a way to preserve that memory for the day that I, and those that I love, will need to remember how much God loves us and how much we need Him." It may seem like a coincidence, but I'm grateful for the tiny miracle of having the wind blow hard today so that, even though we haven't quite figured out how to fix the dryer yet, I was still able to get the laundry done.

My Photographic Journey of Discovery

Over the weekend I started reading a photography book called Learning to See Creatively by Bryan Peterson. The first exercise he suggests is to "get to know your lenses" so I set my 28-80mm lens at 35mm and took a series of shots of the clothes drying on the line. With each shot I moved toward the clothesline 5 paces. Then I went back to my starting point and shot the same series while kneeling. After that I shot one more series while lying on my stomach. Lastly I flipped over on my back for a shot straight up (see photo at top of this blog entry).

35mm focal length - Standing and moving 5 paces forward for each shot

Bryan Peterson says, "If you maintain this regimen of 'eye exercises' once a week for three months, you'll have a vision that is shared by fewer than 10% of all photographers."

Practice, Practice, Practice...52 Week Project - Weeks 1&2

As with anything worth doing, one must practice, practice, practice in order to become proficient. With that idea in mind, I have, over the years, wanted to become a figure skater, a musician, a painter, and a photographer. When I was little I lived in State College, Pennsylvania - a great place to grow up, by the way. My dad worked at Penn State University as a professor of soil fertility. Penn State had a skating rink and I took figure skating lessons there and had lots of fun doing jelly-rolls, skating backward, and in circles...but never, ever was I brave enough to do jumps more than a couple of inches off the ice. My dream of being a figure skater was relegated to my imagination...and over the years that has been O.K.

On to being a musician. I took piano lessons from the time I was in 3rd grade until 7th grade. Miss Margareta Way was a strict disciplinarian and I was, unfortunately, not a strictly disciplined student of the piano. I was terrified of recitals and always played poorly when I had to perform in front of so many pairs of eyes as I knew they watched my fingers tremble and fumble on the piano keys. OK, I'm not the greatest piano player to be sure but I with practice I have improved over the years :) Now I play because I like to make music.

My other musical dream was to sing in the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. I adore singing, especially with a good choir director!! My grandfather, John David Bowers, sang tenor in the choir during the late 1890's; my mother, Mildred Bowers Hunter sang alto in the choir during the 1930's. I sang in my high school's acappella choir, but my family circumstances and location never afforded me the opportunity to even audition for the MoTab....so that dream died a slow and melancholy death...only to rise again in a different form through our son, Josh, who DID get to audition and now sings in the Mormon Tabernacle Choir every week.

ART. How I love paintings - Realism, Impressionism, the Old Masters. As I grew up I found that I could draw fairly well and I know that IF I were to practice, practice, practice, I could even become good at drawing with paint. The creation of a painting, for me, takes time, concentration, and a deep thought process. This dream will have to wait...

For now it's...photography...no waiting for film to get developed these days. Digital Photography has opened up a whole new world and a photograph can be as beautiful as an oil painting. It can capture a personality, a feeling, beauty, reality. This is the dream I intend to chase during 2011. Thanks to Brooke Snow's photography class, I understand the technicalities of shooting pictures in manual mode with my Nikon D-50. Just like any other thing worth doing well, it takes practice, practice, practice. So, in order to get myself into practice mode, I'm going to take on a 52 week project - thank you Handbag-Obsessed Blogger for your list!


I'm a few weeks behind so will catch up this week!

Week 1: Black and White

Big sister, Eden, holds her little brother, Hunter

Week 2: Food


My friend, Melissa Grover, makes the most delicious and beautiful gourmet cupcakes. These were served at a Women's Conference to almost 200 very appreciative women!