Have you been following my 365 Days of Riley project?
I can't hardly believe we are already 6 months in. This kid is growing up WAY too fast.
And I'm happy to report that over 175 images later, I'm still not tired of taking his picture. He's my favorite model!
This week my hubby was out in the field (still) so I had a lot of down time. This meant that I actually got out and did some stuff this weekend, and I think as a result got some fun pictures.
3-29-14: I spent my Saturday evening wandering Savannah and taking pictures of One Love's Paws for a Cause event. They had dancers performing and, seeing that I minored in dance and have a strong interest in the subject, I really enjoyed photographing it.
3-30-14: Sunday I went with some friends and some dogs out to the beach at Hilton head. This dog (sassy) had the time of her life chasing water droplets. I'm pretty sure she can fly!
3-31-14: I got my exercise this week with some tennis. I attempted to use my phone's camera as an experiment to how well it works. Not very well, it turns out. If this had a proper exposure it wouldn't have been half bad though. Does any know any manual camera apps for android?
4-1-14: I've been really enjoying how differently I'm able to grocery shop with my hubby not around. If I want salami and brie for dinner I can do it, and nobody is here to complain!
4-2-14: I got a remote shutter release for my camera and spent some time messing around with it. I was going for a model-like photo, but I guess I'm better off behind the camera, because I do NOT know how to pose myself. I accidentally got this shot of myself and Jerry playing though.
4-3-14: Another cell phone pic! This is one of the Petsmart cats being all belly's up and cuddly, which, after my day at work, I really needed.
4-4-14: I bought a new 35mm lens and took it downtown to do some street photography. This was one of the first shots I took with it. I love this lens!
And that's it for this weeks photos. Next week will kick off with Jerry at the beach and some sharkless shark fishing. Stay tuned!
This week has been a bit different than usual for me. It's been all about me time. My hubby has been in the field since Wednesday which means that my week can be summed up in just a few words- dogs, cats, bubble baths, books, and wine. And work, but I try to ignore that part.
3-22-14- I met these two cuties at the adoption event with One Love at Tailspin on Saturday. I was soo close to taking them home. If I was a single woman, I would have a house full.
3-23-14 Just some pretty flowers because spring has sprung.
3-24-14: Over the weekend I broke my phone (it was my first time ever breaking a phone). But I was able to use it as an excuse to upgrade back to an android. It was kind of disappointing because I really like the idea of the windows 8 operating system, but it just didn't run well enough.
3-25-14: Saturday was my husband and my anniversary. We've been keeping this charm bracelet since we were dating and the idea was to add a charm every year. We were a bit behind so he ordered some to catch up. Each charm represents a year in our marriage except the first two which are for when we were dating, and our wedding.
3-26-14: This was the first day of the field for my hubby. I took this as an opportunity for my kindle, a glass of wine, and a nice long bubble bath.
3-27-14: I'm excited because the plant that I thought I had killed just sprouted some new leaves.
3-28-14: Jerry and I have been getting a lot of quality time together with the hubster away. I think he even listens when I have conversations with him (uh oh am I crazy?). This is his interested face.
So that's it for this week's photos. Next week will be jumping off with Sassy, the amazing flying dog. Curious? Check back to find out what I'm talking about.
Here we are facing another Monday. I'm still sick. In fact today I am call in from work amounts of sick, so I've spent the whole morning on the couch reading Divergent, cuddling with my pets, and feeling all around crappy.
But, I'm taking a break from all of that to share this week's photos.
3-15-14: We start off in the heart of Savannah's St. Patty's day celebrations. This holiday is kind of a big deal here, for some odd reason, so the party lasted all weekend long. We went out on Saturday with some friends and I did some drinking and street photography. I wrote a quick post about it and shared some pictures here.
3-16-14: Sunday I revisited some old music that I used to love as a teenager and realized I've not developed an attachment to music in the same way since then. There is something about hiding out in the orange and yellow bedroom of my teenage years reading Ray Bradbury and listening to A Ghost is Born that in some ways, I'll never beat.
3-17-14: Monday was shopping day 'cause I was in desperate need of a new pair of running/work shoes. I made a first attempt at product photography, which, although it's a bit dark, I think I did pretty decent on (especially since I was working with natural light).
3-18-14: On Tuesday Sam took in this absolutely adorable foster puppy who we both got instantly attached to (for me, all it took were some puppy kisses).
3-19-14: Wednesday I decided to revisit my writing after coming to the realization that I never write anymore, so I busted out this old tattered journal.
3-20-14: More writing on Thursday, but this time in the form of poetry. Inspiration hits at such random times for me (I wrote most of this in my head while counting jewelry at work), but it's such a great feeling when it happens.
3-21-14: Friday I did an impromptu photo shoot with Sam, her jeep, and the setting sun. I'm so excited with how this shot turned out!
That's it for this week. Next week's photo dump will be kicked off with the cutest puppies in the world, so stay tuned!
Ladies and Gentlemen, it's time for another Weekly Photo Dump!
This week was rainy and awful, but the weekend was gorgeous. I spent the weekend outside (yet didn't bring my camera, what was I thinking?) and then spent the rest of the week playing with dogs and eating (hey, my two favorite things.
So without further ado:
3-1-14: Okay so technically this was taken the night before, but since I had to work early Saturday morning, and this is what we were doing the night before, I think this gives you a good idea of how my Saturday felt- sleep deprived.
3-2-14: Sunday was also spent outside, somehow without my camera. Although I wasn't able to get any pictures of my adventures, my hubby did let me take this quick portrait of him and my dobe, Jerry. I can't believe how big that dog has gotten!
3-3-14: My Monday consisted of work and then hours spent at the car dealership while they figured out that they needed to replace my transmission. This is how I felt about things.
3-4-14: And then came the rain. A five minute storm flooded my yard, and then we were stuck in the cold, wet, gross weather for the rest of the week.
3-5-14: I used to be totally scared of raw chicken. It freaked me out. But this chicken is about to be delicious!
3-6-14: Thursday I decided to embrace the rain and play with my friend Sam's dog Sassy. She was not phased by the nasty weather. She just wanted to play!
3-7-14: I spent Friday playing with the dogs too. Magnum was so kind as to pose for me. He looks so dignified here!
After my missed photo opportunities this weekend I decided to take my camera with me more places, and I am much happier with this week's photos because of it. Sticking to this idea, I already have some great photos for next week including a day at the shooting range. I'm excited to bring some new life into this project and see where we can go with it. Stay tuned!
Phew! It's been a crazy week. I got stuck working two night shifts next week with not a whole lot of break between that and my day shift. I may have worked less hours, but I am still recovering from the lack of sleep.
I don't do well without sleep.
And then yesterday, when I was supposed to be posting last week's photos, I spent three and a half hours at the car dealership for them to tell me that I wouldn't have my car for a week while they replace the transmission. At least it's warranty work.
Anyway, this is going somewhere, I promise. Basically I'm giving you all my excuses for why I'm a) a day late, and b) using cell phone pictures this week.
I had originally planned to do every picture for my 365 with my DLSR, but quite frankly that wasn't doable this week. My week happened at work, and I can't exactly carry my DSLR around at Sam's and stop work to shoot some pictures. So, although the quality makes me cringe, I'm using some cell phone pictures.
Whew, I'm a bit long winded today, aren't I? Let's get to the pictures.
1-22-14: Before all the craziness, I spent my Saturday afternoon at an adoption event at Tails Spin in Pooler hanging out with this cool guy and a few other sweet adoptables. Fulton (the guy in the picture) is a complete lover, and he was posing for pictures left and right. He also licked my lens at one point. Nothing like a little dog slobber to make your pictures sharp, huh?
1-23-14: Sunday I went over to some friends' house to do a lifestyle photo shoot with them. I've wanted to do this silhouette shot for some time, I just hadn't found the right subjects and situation. I love the way this turned out.
1-24-14: Yes, it's supposed to be upside down. My hubby convinced me to go for a jog with him Monday. Let me just say, I don't jog. I was so sore/tired/defeated by the end of this jog that I pretty much collapsed on the floor afterwards. Once I recovered, I decided to do some yoga for my poor, poor muscles. Jerry seemed to think it was a game and was running around all over the place, so I took this shot: my view from downward facing dog.
1-25-14: Que the night shift. This was my "rockin' the night shift" selfie for instagram that I took on the first night when I was consuming way too much caffeine and driving a forklift around 'cause I was bored.
1-26-14: After work I thought I'd go home and crash. I curled up on the couch and Jerry joined me. I was exhausted! But I was so amped up on caffeine still that I couldn't sleep. And Jerry's nose was constantly in my face, so that didn't help much. I ended up watching I Love Lucy all day instead.
1-27-14: My last nightshift was dragging on by the end. I was still full of caffeine and spent most of the night jamming out to The Fratelli's, but as the last hour came I was losing steam. I tried to entertain myself by doodling one a post-it note.
1-28-14: This was my recovery day, also spent on the couch watching I Love Lucy (I've decided I'm in love with Ricky Ricardo). This time Gizmo kept me company.
Like I said, it's was a crazy week. This one is off to a rough start, but I'm hoping for smooth sailing from here on out. We will see. Until then I've got some serious house cleaning to do, so that's all for today!
I know I was a bit absent this weekend, but I wasn't able to do my shelter work this week (and may not for a while) so there was no weekly adoptable post to share. I also spent Saturday celebrating my hubby's birthday which is Tuesday, so I decided to take the weekend off.
That said, I'm a little behind on this whole blog thing. Instead of my usual planning ahead, I have been rushing through in the past half hour or so to edit these weekly photos.
Anyway, let's get right to it, huh?
2-8-14: This was a Saturday workday, cranking out blog posts and working on business cards, among other things. A photo of my keyboard seemed fitting, since I spent so much time with it.
2-9-14: I followed that up with a Sunday of rest, and a lot of playing with my goofy doberman. He's got crazy eyes!
2-10-14: Let me just warn you right now that this week was all about the food photography. Judging by the pictures I must have spent this week just eating. Sounds like the perfect week!
2-11-14: As I pulled into the driveway from work, I did this. Now I get to replace this $300 tire, because I was too lazy to move a jack that was in my way. I'm a smart cookie! Needless to say, I was a bit angry for the rest of the evening.
2-12-14: Thank goodness I was able to turn that flat-tire attitude around with a day with Sam. She took me to the Asian market where I tried this Basil Seed Drink. It looks creepy as hell, but it is seriously delicious.
2-13-14: Speaking of weird foods, what better choice is there than celery root? This stuff looks evil, but it's tasty, I promise.
2-14-14: Ah Valentines day, the day of every year where my lovely hubby buys a little potted rose, and every year I kill it. Plants and I don't get along. But this year he got it right with some already dead roses (and very pretty ones at that!) along with chocolates just in time to satiate an extreme chocolate craving, shopping, and some lunch at Bonefish Grill. Yup, he definitely got it right!
So there you have it, another week of photos. I must say, this has been going much better than I originally thought when I planned this 365 project. I thought I'd really struggle, and while I do have some rough days where I have a hard time caring, I've for the most part been really enjoying this project (and all this oh-so-photographable food!)
Today we are launching the Monday photo dump since Fridays are now my afternoon at the animal shelter and I will no longer have time to edit and post my photos that day. You can find out all about that here.
I know I've made a lot of changes all of a sudden, but the format for this post is still the same and the pictures are still from the same part of the week, we are just switching up the days. With that said, here's last week's photos, the first set for the month of February.
2-1-14: Can I just say that I love food photography. We see a lot of people posting pictures of their lunch on Instagram and it's kind of a running joke that gives food photography a bad name, but food that is prepared by hand can be gorgeous and really great to take pictures of, like this colorful pork stir fry that I made for a lazy night dinner.
2-2-14: More food! My husband had the random idea to make handmade pretzels for our Superbowl party. It was actually pretty easy and very successful (I couldn't stop eating them). A recipe is coming soon.
2-3-14: Just some Jerry toes. I sure do love Jerry toes.
2-4-14: It's a pretty self explanatory shot of the penny jar. I just like the colors of the pennies,
2-5-14: What used to be a nice view of a wooded area out of my computer room window is now construction. They cleared the trees quite a while ago (which I was pretty upset about) and then just recently they started construction. My work is now accompanied by the sounds of hammers and construction equipment. This is my new view. I can't wait until they are done building.
2-6-14: X marks the spot, I guess.
2-7-14: This is one of my shots from my day at the animal shelter. I didn't use this as something to post to get this dog adopted (for obvious reasons), but I do like the moment that was captured. This dog is anything but vicious, I swear, but caught mid bark he does look kind of mean, doesn't he?
So there you have it, last week's photos. I didn't do a theme, which left me with kind of a hodgepodge of photos, but I think they captured my week pretty well. As always, if you have any theme suggestions leave them in the comments below. Otherwise, I'll see you next time!
Ok, so I know I'm a day late. I had to work today (I normally have weekends off) and it completely threw my week off. I crawled into bed last night and my last thought was, 'oh crap, it's Friday isn't it? I didn't post my photos!'
And then I went to sleep, because I had to be up at 330 this morning, and therefore it didn't seem that important. So here I am posting last week's photos a day late.
Enough excuses.
This week's theme was cold, and despite the fact that my fingers were numb for the majority of the time I spent at work, I didn't really have a lot of cold to take pictures of. See in Georgia, even though it may be freezing outside, it'll still probably look like swimsuit weather (and then the next day it probably will be swimsuit weather, as a matter of fact). So let's just say that I struggled with this week a bit.
But even if they weren't what I was envisioning, I still think I came up with some pretty interesting photos. Let's see what you think!
1-25-14: After meeting with some potential clients about a Wedding, I spent my morning wandering around Savannah (there's a post to come with photos of that whole adventure). Every time I am downtown I try to take a photo of the fountain, and I never actually like the photos I take. But this time there were icicles on the statues and the light was hitting them just right and-- well you can see it for yourself.
1-25-14: What better way to warm up on a cold day than... ice cream? What can I say, I just love the stuff.
1-27-14: The nice thing about this winter being a little cold is that I got to bust out all my old winter clothes. It's even been scarf weather lately!
1-28-14: I'll confess, I was a bit uninspired this day with the whole cold thing.
1-29-14: Ok so Wednesday was kind of a big deal. This was the day of the big southern storm that everybody was all freaked out about. It even had a name- Winter Storm Leon. Sounds pretty intense, right? The forecast predicted in snow in Savannah which hasn't happened in basically forever and I was very excited. Well what I woke up to that morning was rain. We got some sleet and some serious ice build up, and half of my coworkers called in to work due to ice and closed bridges, but I didn't get any snow. It was very disappointing. I did get these wicked icicles hanging off the back of my trashcan though. Maybe that counts for something?
1-30-14: After that storm craziness, I just needed a cold beer. Or cider. Close enough.
1-40-14: Which leads me to Friday: more rain. This started as a picture of water droplets on my car but I started messing around with it and it became something abstract, yet pretty cool in my opinion.
So there you have it: my week of cold photos.
I still don't have a theme for this week, so if you have any last minute suggestions please leave a comment below. Otherwise, I may just make it a freebie week. We'll see.
Hey guys! It's that time of week again for a bunch more photos.
This week I came up with a last minute theme (I seriously decided as I was taking the first picture). The theme is:
Outdoors
it's pretty straight forward. You would think that would be quite easy except for one little thing--
It's been really cold.
Okay I probably have all my readers from up North shaking their heads right now. Fair enough, it's been really Georgia cold. But the thing about Georgia cold is that it's not pretty in an "I want to go outside and play in the snow" kind of way. Things are just brown and dead and cold. I also haven't been feeling super motivated to leave my house this week, so that left me with the challenge of finding things to photograph in my cold, dead yard.
Let's see how I did.
1-18-14: For Saturday and Sunday I did actually leave my house. My husband and I took our dog Jerry on a walk at the park. It was pretty dang cold in the shade, but when these lovely rays of sun showed up it was perfect out! The rare thing about this photo is that my hubby is actually in the picture. He hates cameras, so this may be one of only a few photos of him this year.
1-19-14: After my dad brought home my childhood kite during Christmas, the hubby and I decided to take it out for a test spin (I never got the chance to use it as a kid). Well, during this endeavor we learned that Jerry loves kite chasing. I'm just lucky those big sharp doberman teeth didn't snag my kite!
1-20-14: Did I mention that it's cold out! Well, I had this brilliant idea that I was going to have a bonfire with the Christmas tree that is still sitting patiently in the backyard. Turns out I kind of suck at starting fires. This is the best flame I got.
1-21-14: I took advantage of this blue sky day to take a silhouette picture of the tree in our front yard. I love the crisp lines in this photo.
1-22-14: Here's Jerry basking in the evening sun. Don't let the warm colors of this photo fool you though. I still had two sweatshirts on.
1-23-14: The Christmas tree is still in the backyard. I should really do something about that.
1-25-14: It's just another beautiful, blue sky, sunny day. And freezing. I had to continuously pause from my paperwork at work this morning in order to breathe on my hands to warm them back up. And that was inside the store!
And that's it for this week.
Since I've used this word entirely too much in this post, I've come up with a theme for next week and it is: Cold.
I'm still on the hunt for new themes, so if you have any ideas please leave them in the comments.
See ya next time!
Alright everyone, are you ready for another Friday photo dump?
This week I decided to do something different. I did a specific theme for the week. That theme is self portraits. I kind of stumbled upon it on Saturday when I was dying my hair and decided to take a picture of the process for my daily. I liked the way it turned out and wanted to do more like it. But I didn't want this to be like the selfies you see on facebook everyday, you know the crappy cell phone pictures in the bathroom mirror. I wanted to do something a little more artistic.
So I came up with a "pieces of me" idea.
I am pretty happy with the results, to the point where I think I might do another theme next week. I just need to figure out what it will be. Any ideas anyone? If so please leave a comment for me. I am open to suggestions.
Anyway, here's this week's photos.
1-11-14: This is the hair dye photo. The original idea was to show my hair back and covered in dye, but it came out as more of a raw self portrait. I don't have a shutter remote so I have to hold the camera at arms length for selfies, meaning that all my photos have to be pretty close up. I feel that makes these pictures more vulnerable. What I love about this one in particular is that it is truly me, no makeup, freckles, and unplucked eyebrows. The uncropped version also shows where I accidentally dyed my forehead red, but it wasn't necessary for this particular picture.
1-12-14: I have a confession. I kind of cheated for this photo. On Sunday I hadn't realized I was doing a theme this week, and took a picture of the orchid on my desk. I thought about leaving that as the photo for honesty's sake, but felt it was more important to stick to the theme of the post. I took this picture on a different day, but feel it's a better representation than the first. This necklace is one that my husband gave me back when we were still dating and he was graduating from basic training. It may not be much, but it is one of my most prized possessions.
1-13-14: I decided to try my hand at making Pizza dough this day. I had a lot of trouble with the stuff (the dough was too sticky) but still, the pizza turned out delicious. By the way, did you know that it's incredibly difficult to take a good picture of a hand in action when it is your own hand? Well I do now. I would have preferred this picture as two hands kneading the dough, but then I couldn't have taken the picture. 
1-14-14: Lips. I don't have a whole lot to say about this one. It's pretty self explanatory. 
1-15-14: With all this talk of hair dye I suppose I should show off the new color right? Even though this isn't my natural color, my hair is a big part of my representation of myself. I am a natural redhead and have always taken a lot of pride in that. Although I choose to dye my hair sometimes, I still consider my red hair to be my defining feature. 
1-16-14: This one is pretty self explanatory too, although I will say that I love the way it shows my nose ring. That's another part of me that, although many people don't notice it, I feel is a big part of who I am. I got it done on my 18th birthday only because my parents wouldn't let me do it a day sooner. For me it kind of represents my first step towards independence.
1-17-14: That brings us to today. This photo was taken minutes before I fell asleep on the couch cuddling with all three animals, my two Siamese cats and my doberman. This was just a cozy, catch up on sleep kind of day. I am so ready for the weekend! Also, please ignore the fact that I need a pedicure. Or don't, because maybe outgrown toenail polish is another defining factor for me. Lord knows I don't have the patience to keep up with that stuff.
So this week turned into a bit of an all about me post. If you like the themes and think I should do a new one for next week, please leave your suggestions. And be quick, I start tomorrow!
My first full week of my photo a day project is complete and I'm here to share the results. Want to see?
January 4th, 2014: A close up shot of the Christmas decorations that I just can't bring myself to take down (more out of laziness than the fact that they are pretty, although they are.)
January 5th, 2014: This morning started out with some canadian bacon that my dad cured and my husband cooked (delicious!)
January 6th, 2014: After having company at my house for almost a month during the holidays, I needed a few days of me time. So after work I got lost in a good book. In case you are wondering, the book is Enduring Love by Ian McEwan and it is quite good.
January 7th, 2014: Just another lazy day with my pets and my books.
January 8th, 2014: It's been surprisingly cold for Georgia this week, and the weather inspired me to start a knitting project. I picked this gorgeous yarn, but the problem is that the yarn is very thin. I might be done with this scarf by summer, just when I don't need it anymore.
January 9th, 2014: With the house to myself this day, I consulted my Julia Child cookbook and made a huge mess of the kitchen, leaving not much time for anything else. I did happen to snap this shot of Blitz being cute though. He does it every once in a while.
January 10th, 2014: I wanted to play around with Bokeh today and using it as the subject of a photo, rather than a background. Technically that just means I took a blurry picture, but hey I think it looks cool. I took this using the Christmas lights since I still haven't taken down our tree. I should probably get on that before it dies, huh?
This week was a pretty slow one, but it is exactly what I needed. I spent some time in solitude, just relaxing and working on my own projects. It may have left me with photos of food, books, and cats, but that's not a life that I'll complain about. I could pull of crazy cat lady/librarian any day.
If you read my last post you know that in honor of the new year, I've started a 365 photo project in which I will get out my DSLR and take a photo of something, anything at all, every day for a year.
Seems like an easy enough task right?
Well I'm pretty bad at sticking to big, time consuming projects, so the idea here is that if I post about it on my blog all the time there will be something or someone holding me accountable.
I'm counting on you, people.
Anyway, I've decided that every Friday (yes I know, I'm a day late already, but in my defense I hadn't really decided what I was planning yet until today) I'm going to post a photo-dump of the seven pictures that I've taken for the week. They may come in collage form in the future, I haven't really decided yet.
When I'm done I'm thinking I'll create a photo book representing everything I saw this year. We shall see.
So this is Week #1 of my weekly photo dump.
Let the photos commence!
January 1st, 2014: This is a photo of a fallen bud from a plant that my aunt and uncle gave me during their post-christmas visit at my house.
Each time one of these falls my cats totally freak out. It's great.
January 2nd, 2014: I was making broth for Thai soup and when I dumped the spice packet in it just looked so pretty. We Americans have such boring spices, I think, because when I made this broth the house smelled amazing, in a completely different way than my cooking has ever smelled before.
January 3rd, 2014: So when I woke up the morning of this picture, I saw my cat playing in his water dish. I didn't think much of it until I went to put on my shoes (keep in mind this all happened at 3:45 am as I was supposed to be leaving for work) and found that they were completely wet and sitting in a puddle. It turns out this little bastard had been scooping water out of his bowl and into my shoes. Damn cat.
---
Ok so this was a bit of a short week seeing how the year started on a Wednesday, but it's a start.
I've also started my sentence a day project, which you can follow at my new twitter page: https://twitter.com/mikaelajoyphoto
Be on the look out for next weeks Friday Photo Dump!
(And if you don't see it, don't forget to give me a hard time about it! Really, it's for my own good)
Until next time!
