The Sunday Challenge (TSC)

Middle of the day at the market. This is one of my son's best friends right before he recognized me behind the camera.

Christmas - "your favorite bit of Christmas, food, family, pressie (this time unwrapped.)" My husband and I aren't big TV watchers and our son has wanted us to watch this sit com for a long time so he got us the 1st two seasons on DVD. We've watched 5 episodes so far and are hooked. Does anyone else love this series?

MERRY CHRISTMAS!! Show us something from your Christmas. Every year at Christmas we enjoy Poinsettias. It wouldn't be Christmas without them. They used to be mostly red or white, but now you can get them in bright pink too. You can learn about them here: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poinsettia

TSC - Numbers My Great Grandmother's watch. Number 7 has always been special to me. And for the musically inclined: Does Anybody Really Know What Time it Is?

TSC - Pushing the Boundaries This week I am trying out my new lens (Thank you Jon.) For my first time I used all manual settings (including focus) and chose extreme macro with high contrast on some wonderful Italian Ferrero Rocher chocolates. This is SOOC with some cropping only and no post processing. (I feel like I've entered a whole, new world.) These chocolates are especially nice if you aren't used to much sugar. They aren't too sweet (just delicious) and are so nicely presented. For a little history and info: Ferrero Rocher Company: www.ferrerorocherusa.com Ferrero Rocher: www.ferrero.com/products/the-most-famous-products/ferrero-rocher/a-brillant-idea

Flower Shower. Artificial orchid and its reflection in our bathroom upstairs.

Tacoma Narrows Bridge: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tacoma_Narrows_Bridges (Looks good big on black.) This is a photo I posted in my photostream a while back (in color). I tried it in sepia via iPhoto (going from color to sepia) and thought it looked pretty good, but then read that you should convert color to black and white before converting to sepia so I went and tried that in PicMonkey. This is the result and is very different than what I got in iPhoto. I have no idea if it's "correct" or not so please let me know what you think. I really have no experience with sepia before this challenge. Original in note. If you'd like to see the one I did in iPhoto click here: cl.ly/image/2l330R2t1a0K

Urk.... I had to venture into the "Man Cave" for this week's challenge. This is a custom paint job on a bike my husband built. It is metal flake paint with 23 carat gold leaf graphics. If you'd like to see the whole bike here it is: cl.ly/image/2l211o2t282E

Jack www.youtube.com/watch?v=9eMTgQEA7Es

Hood Canal 1974 Grey Day, Jesse Colin Young: www.youtube.com/watch?v=WiLqzluhWl0

"One boy... One dragon... A world of adventure." Christopher Paolini started these books when he was just 15 years old. I've read them through twice now. I just love this series.

See if you can guess who these legs belong to.

Hay up! (note in pic of my set up) Whew...this was a tough one this week. I didn't get my shot until Saturday evening after much research on the internet all week and coming up with zero ideas. It was confusing to me as I think some of the examples of forced perspective online may have been done in Photoshop and this challenge required you to actually use just your camera with little to no post processing. After I decided on this photo and put everything away I did some more reading on "forced perspective" and realized that if I would have been farther away from the toy Bobcat it would have made it easier to get everything in focus (cropping afterward if needed.) So next time I will try increasing my depth of field by backing up a bit more. (Amazing Stoker you get the blue ribbon for "Most Challenging Challenge" so far in my book. :)

Well, this was certainly a challenge with lots of trial and error for me. I did learn some good things though. I started out in Shutter mode and couldn't get any kind of flowing look to my shots so I did some reading and found out that a low ISO and an aperture of f22 at 2 seconds was more of what I needed along with a polarizer filter to cut down the light. It was interesting to see that as the daylight faded I was able to get a longer exposure. So...here is my entry.

I used the "High Key" setting in my camera. My first try with "High Key" photography (not sure if it is true "High Key" or not.) This beer stein/music box has been in my family since the 1950s. My parents got it when they were living in England. It was always on the mantel or book shelf while I was growing up and it was a treat when my mom would get it down and play it for us. I always loved the pretty tune that it played, but never knew what it was. Fast forward many years and my mom gives this stein to me as a gift since I was always so fond of it. I was re learning to play the flute at the time and one day I found this "Emperor Waltz" music in my flute book. Not having a lot of exposure to classical music I didn't recognize it. I thought "I'll try this one." As I started to work my way through the song I was pleasantly surprised to realize it was the tune from the old beer stein. A beautiful and famous waltz by Johann Strauss named Kaiser-Waltzer Op. 437. You can listen to it here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=itbcAQ4jqXs And if you would like to watch the entire piece performed by the incredible André Rieu and his orchestra just click here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=EBLaMmxyibE

Little fairy by candlelight. (Looks best on black.)

I used one of my photos, a water texture from PicMonkey and "Texture 1537 Moon" (inset) courtesy Peters Dreams to create this fluid "Blue Moon." Thank you Peter for the use of your lovely texture. You might enjoy Cybill Shepard singing "Blue Moon" from the 1980s TV series "Moonlighting" : www.youtube.com/watch?v=a3-Pcji25Ag

3 OOAK (one of a kind) Yo-Yos After last week's challenge (and some interest) I thought I'd showcase these yo-yos that my husband made. He's an "old school" chopper builder. They are made out of billet aluminum and one is copper plated with fake bullets. The 44 Magnum yo-yo has 12 real bullet casings cut down. The yo-yo idea came from other parts he was making at the time. Busy hands and a creative mind led to these creations. Credit also goes to Jesse James (West Coast Choppers) and Billy Lane (Choppers Inc.) for their inspiration. Enjoy!