365 Alternates

And down goes another month! It's gotten to the point with my 365 project that it seems as if I've always taken pictures every single day. It is so interesting to me how my whole day revolves around my project. On one hand it's not so great, because I'm so focused on getting my pictures taken that I am very protective of my time and sometimes feel worried if we spend the whole day out because I need to be sure to get my picture done. On the other hand, I'm very good about going out and spending just a short time taking pictures and I'm finally ok with it. That used to be a real battle for me. I'd see something I wanted to take pictures of, but I knew I already had plenty of images to choose from for my project, so I'd force myself not to take the pictures, which would make me very annoyed. Now it doesn't bother me at all. Unlike at the beginning of the project, I'm now confident that the relatively small number of pictures I take will be plenty. Only rarely do I have to take more. It's nice to be getting a higher ratio of good pictures, and I can tell you this: I would not be as good at photography if I hadn't taken on this challenging project! It's made me a bit obsessed about getting my pictures done, but it's a small tradeoff for getting such a rich reward!

How can it be that there are only two months left in this project?! And to think I've taken pictures every single day for over 300 days now...it's just insane! :D In fact, it has become such an entegral part of me that I can hardly remember not doing it! Thanks to all of you for the wonderful support and encouragement you've given me through the months! *hugs all around* :)

It is extremely hard for me to wrap my mind around the fact that I am now on my last month of this 365 Project! It's been such a long journey and though I started it with great confidence, you never know what will happen. This project seems so simple. I mean, what's the big deal, right? One picture a day. So what? However, it's not so simple, and the fact of the matter is that in my list of people doing the 365, only 5 of the 15 are still doing it! I have run into my share of issues--time crunch, low motivation, low inspiration, technical issues--but I never had an issue with the #1 365 Project Killer: BURNOUT. Before I began this project, I spent months thinking about it, and then I read about the issues people run into. I didn't want to fail, and the top issue is that many people get so excited about this project that they take tons of pictures every day, and by the end of the first month, they're sick and tired of photography and walk away. Month by month, this project loses people, and many times it's out of their control. I've been very careful to monitor my mood, and control my photography so that I don't burn out. And thankfully, I'm now entering the final stretch and I'm just as bright-eyed and bushy-tailed today as I was on Day 1!!! It's just so awesome that my carefully laid plans have worked out. Granted, I will need to take some time off after my project is finished. I plan to do something that ISN'T photography for a while, like play some video games or whatever. I'm very passionate about photography, but it's not good to always do the very same thing every single day. Nice to do as a challenge, but when I'm done with this project, I'll take some time off to do something else for a while. (But I'll very likely be posting most every day--you guys have no IDEA how many pictures I have backed up and ready for show 'n' tell! :D :D) Finally, I have to give a shout-out to all of you for the awesome support you've all been giving me! It's been incredible. Words just don't cover how I feel, and I just want to say THANK YOU!! *big hugs all around* HERE'S TO THE FINAL MONTH!! HUZZAH!!! HUZZAH!! HUZZAH!! :D

This is the last picture of my 365 Project, the December collage. What a crazy challenge. Now that it's over, I'm kind of amazed that I was successful, given all the issues that could have gotten in the way. I am going to take a very short break from photography. It won't be long, but I want to do something else for a while, just to refresh myself. I'm not burned out at all, but I would like to have a couple of weeks where I don't think about taking pictures. I plan to post images here, but I'm going to put photography on the back burner for a little while. I have work projects and other things going on, so it will be nice to have this committment off my shoulders to concentrate on other things. Hooray, I'm done with my 365!! :)

Look at this tiny cutie pie!! I've seen these itty-bitty guys on the wall in our bathroom every once in a while, but this is the first time I've actually gotten reasonable pictures. No longer than 1/8" long, this Box Elder Bug larva looks like a dark speck on the wall! As I took pictures, I noticed that he crept very slowly up the wall, at a speed I could barely detect! Amazing!

Yesterday I took this picture of water droplets on the brake light of my Ford Focus, and all I could think about was Red Stiletto and her amazing All Red 365! Here's one just for you, baby!!! :D *high five* *feed the birds* What is "Feed the birds" ??? It's a gesture invented by Nathan Fillion of Firefly/Serenity and most recently, Castle. "Feed the birds" is used to show a person that they are clever, cool, or smart by "feeding a compliment" to them by using your fingers to simulate a parent bird feeding its baby with a downward jiggling gesture, while the person being "fed the compliment" simulates the baby with fingers jiggling upwards! Steve and I absolutely LOVE this gesture and use it all the time! We are also HUGE HUGE fans of Nathan Fillion and anything he's ever worked in!) Here's another video where he actually says it!! See 2:24: "Somebody Feed these Birds!" You can learn more on the Castle Wiki: Feed the Birds

Here's my alternate for today, an interesting dried weed covered with morning dew.

About a month ago, Zoe took her favorite tennis ball on our walk, but at one point she dropped it at the edge of our frozen pond, where it rolled out onto the ice. Oh, that was a very sad panda!! I kept an eye on the ball, and yesterday I finally found it bobbing at the edge of the pond. I called Zoe over and when she saw her ball, she got very excited and cautiously scooped it up. Suddenly, all was right with the world again!! We went up to the house and I got my camera and spent the next 10 minutes tossing it for her to chase and fetch while I clicked away! I had such fun taking these pictures, I kept looking to see if I got anything good and couldn't stop laughing! This set of pictures is my very best pet portraiture to date in my opinion because I think I've totally nailed Zoe's personality!

Steve and I went out today with my camera and on the way home I stopped to take some pictures of an unusual plant I saw. It ended up not being as interesting as I'd hoped, but when I turned around, I found a rose bush completely covered with beautiful bright red rose hips! Hooray!

When I first started working on my 365 picture for today, I immediately cropped down to this view, but I realized that doing so lost the magical, sparkling scene that drew me to take the picture in the first place. However, I think this close-up is really neat too, and allows us to see a larger view of the magnified blade of grass through the droplet.

Another picture from yesterday, we made couscous to go with our meal last night and when I saw it cooking on the stove, I needed to take a picture! (The red droplets are from Tom Yum soup base to give it yummy flavoring!) I played with this in photoshop and added a texture from Thanks to Kirsten Frank Art . Thanks to Stephanie Calhoun for continued inspiration to texturize some of my photos! :)

This is my alternate for today, a pair of feathers I found floating on our seasonal pond. The surface tension of the water around them makes a heart and I thought it was just beautiful! I had planned to make this my pick for today but Steve insisted on the pampas grass! What do you think?

These delicious looking truffles are peanut-butter flavored, and are actually made for people. However, they aren't filled with chocolate, which is bad for dogs, so for a decadent treat for a beloved canine, these delicious confections are something they can have once in a while!

Celebrity Pets has a wonderful dog bakery, filled with lots of delicious looking cookies for dogs in many different shapes and flavors. I was in charge of taking product shots of some of their edible offerings, and this picture shows a pretty bag of little bone-shaped doggy cookies, decorated with a bow.

Yesterday Steve and I spent a few hours taking pictures at Celebrity Pets, and this was one of the shop dogs. Friendly, sweet and curious, this dog cruised around the shop and would lay down just about anywhere. What a beauty!

I was originally planning to make this my 365 picture by adding a heart border that I photographed today, but Pumpkin was the perfect choice, so this is my alternate! This is a Valentine's balloon that I saw in Celebrity Pets, and I knew it would look nice with an added texture. What fun! :) Texture by Jill Black , thank you so much! Thanks to Stephanie Calhoun for being an endless inspiration for adding texture to some of my pictures!!

This is an alternate image for today that I thought turned out nicely too! :) Only a levels adjustment and cropping was done to this, along with a frame.

It was so beautiful and warm today that I decided to see if I could find some creatures to photograph since I've seen signs that critters are starting to come to life again. I didn't have to go far. I carefully turned over a cement block near our house and underneath were many animals! A hunting spider, other tiny spiders, ants, and then I saw this little guy and I couldn't believe my eyes! So tiny I could hardly see him (only 1/4" or smaller in size!), I thought this might be some kind of baby scorpion! He crawled all over the place and finally into a crevice, but I managed to get this picture to share. I discovered that this is a Pseudoscorpion, and instead of having a venemous tail, its venom is in its pincers. Not that this nearly microscopic cutie pie could hurt us, its favorite prey are dust mites and other miniscule critters! If you would like to learn more about this cool looking critter, I found this wonderful blog page which wonderful pictures and great information! Seabrooke Leckie's Blog: Pseudoscorpion By the way, I found a picture of a pseudoscorpion next to a 10-cent coin and on a finger so you can get an idea how small it is: Cabin Blog: Pseudoscorpion