Weekly Photo Project: January 2014

The weekly photo project is back! I started in this group on Facebook well over a year ago, and have previously posted here under the tag "weekly project" some of the photos that I've submitted to the project...mostly those that were chosen as the week's winner, as I'm particularly proud of those. 

Due to technical difficulties with Facebook and their changing how groups are done, we temporarily suspended the project, which was disappointing but understandable. However, right around the start of 2014 we realized the solution to the technical difficulty, and the project was back under way two weeks into the new year. Very exciting! I do enjoy this group of photographers. Many of us did the 30 day challenge that I have posted about on here a few times, but it was a lot of work to keep up with daily photos, and we missed the weekly topic. Plus, it's fun to join in some friendly competition :) So, I was glad to have the project come back.

I've decided that for 2014 I'm going to do a monthly summary here of the photos that I submit each week of that month, along with the theme. So, here are my 3 for January.

Week 1: "Shadows"

The rising winter sun slanting through our backyard fence.

Week 2: "Winter".
This is a lone tree near our pond, highlighted by the rising sun on the ice-covered pond.

Week 3: "Say Something" (i.e. tell a story with your photo).

My husband and son building with great concentration.

Macro photography: Ice Storm

Last night we were hit by an ice storm, along with most of the rest of the Mid-Atlantic and North East. Leesburg was right on the edge of the ice/rain, and what started as rain last night quickly turned to ice and led to cancelled school and everything glowing white this morning from the coating of ice. After (carefully) walking the dog, I went back outside to grab a few photos before work. I couldn't walk too far from the house for fear of slipping, so I took these shots in front of our house.

 

6th birthday bash

 In mid-January I brought my daughter to the 6th birthday party for the daughter of an old friend of mine. My friend always makes an amazing cake, and this year was no exception at the tea party-themed birthday party!

Foreground Bokeh

One day of the 30 day photography challenge in January was "bokeh". I've previously published here examples of the bokeh shots I did over Christmas, as Christmas lights make such a great background for beautiful blurred lights. Since I had recently done that type of shot, I wanted to try something different for this challenge and to experiment with foreground bokeh. In this scenario, the subject is behind the lights, but you still want to try for the nice blurred effect. I discovered that it's a lot harder to do than the more traditional bokeh, and I may not have used the most ideal light source for my bokeh, but at the end I was pleased with a few of the shots that I got. 

Self Portraits

This month, I participated in a 30 day photo challenge, which I had previously posted about so I won't go into tons of details again. As you can see on the description, the month starts and ends with a self-portrait, and has two self portraits (of a different type) in the middle of the month. I tried to do something different for each self portrait, and wanted to summarize the results here.

Self Portrait Day 1: This is the one I submitted to the challenge.

Sun + snow + dog = adorable

Yesterday I took my dog for a walk in the snow, which she absolutely loves. It's so much fun to watch her run around in it, and even better she is a good enough dog to pose for me (without a treat in my hand, even!) in the sun. Love this dog.

30 Day Photo Challenge: Hands

I'm currently taking part in a 30 day photography "challenge". It's through a photography group I've been a part of for a while now (well over a year), but this challenge is new. I like the daily topics and really enjoy the people who are doing this with me. There's a different topic each day, and you're supposed to take the photo for the topic that day. It's a really great way to force me to pick up a camera every day (even if it's just using one of the apps on my iPhone), and it makes me take photos of things I might ordinarily miss/ignore.

If you're interested in seeing all of my photos for this project, take a look at the Facebook album I created on my photography page: CLICK HERE.

Key West Wedding: Portraits

I wrote a post here earlier this month showing some photos I took at a very good friend's wedding in Key West. (Side note: thank you all for making that post the second highest viewed of all time!). In addition to the photos I took with my phone, I was able to take some "real" portraits of the bride and groom as I drove them around Key West. These were all taken at the Key West wildlife refuge - such a novel and lovely place to take wedding photos, and so fitting for the two of them!

Note: I was NOT the wedding photographer for this wedding; he was amazing, and posing all of these shots. I was simply fortunate enough to grab some of my own from the side! 

Craft project: Jewelry Box

I'm kind of tired tonight, so here's a quick post of photos I took after helping my daughter put together a mosaic jewelry box over the weekend. She and I had a wonderful time doing this project together, and I really like how it came out!

First birthday fun!

In a recent post, I showed photos I took of the Allen family. As we became friendly afterwards, I was invited to their daughter Zoe's 1st birthday party just a few weeks later. I volunteered to take some cake smash photos there, so her mother didn't have to worry about it. But before the smashing I was able to photograph the beautiful cupcakes, decorated by Zoe's mom!