The Response: Tiny Oceanscape — Jessica

The kids had the day off because of the HUGE snowstorm that hit the DC area overnight. Oh wait you didn’t hear about that? Yeah, me either, but nonetheless they had the day off. So I took the day off and spent some time looking at abstract photography. One particular artist that I found inspiring was creating “imagined landscapes.” That’s what I tried to do here – with a base photo of a clear plastic bag backlit by the umbrella and shot with the Edge 80. Then I used several different gradient map layers in photoshop to add the color. Finally put it back into lightroom to do the final exposure/contrast/color balance detail.

The Call: Small World — Cheryl

When I chose “tiny” as today’s Call, I imagined that I’d be getting out my 50mm lens and extension tube, but I wasn’t quite sure about what I’d shoot. Heading down the driveway after retrieving the mail, I was surprised to see a chunk of green moss (about the diameter of a fifty-cent piece) on the ground. Most of the landscape is covered with snow, after all. At any rate, the green stuff ignited a spark in my brain, so I bent and picked it up.

The Response: Sharing — Cheryl

I love it when Dennis and Stella spend time together. It was especially nice this evening, because Dennis had been gone almost all week.

The Call: Stolen Merchandise — Jessica

Danny loves music so when he saw that his older brother had left the kindle and headphones where he could reach them, it only took a second before he grabbed them. He had the headphones on in a flash and was pushing the play button with that little finger.

I love that I was able to grab my camera in time to catch that beautiful gesture of the finger touching the screen.

The Response: Deep in Thought — Jessica

Tommy has drum lessons on Thursday evenings which means that he has to start his homework as soon as he gets home from school. Luckily, homework in second grade isn’t all that complicated.

The Call: Assembled — Cheryl

I don’t like to complain that my life is busy, since we all lead busy lives. I’ve found, though, that there are comfortable, normal levels of busy, and then there are the when-do-I-get-to-come-up-for-air levels. It feels like the latter type of busy has been my lot in life for at least two months now. I’m always scrambling, always getting by, but never quite slowing down enough to savor anything. This evening, I worked on changing that, if only for 30 minutes or so. I guess Jessica’s last post inspired me. Tonight, before picking up Bridget from her play rehearsal, I thought about the still life image I’d like to create. When Bridget and I returned home, I got to work setting the stage. I then spent close to half an hour arranging and rearranging, shooting and adjusting, and shooting some more.

The Response: Lensbaby Leaves — Cheryl

Today, I decided I would say, “yes” to my Lensbaby (which, of course, implies that I stopped saying “no”). The winter landscape can be rather monotonous, and attaching the Composer Pro with Sweet 35 optic seemed like a good way to shake things up a bit.

The Call: Backlight Lilly — Jessica

I’ve spent a lot of time in the past two months saying “no” to the things I really enjoy doing in order to try to make money. I suppose that’s the whole point of discipline, right? Doing what needs to be done not necessarily what you want to do. Today, after spending hours decluttering and cleaning up after all the people and pets that live here, I’d had enough of saying “no.” I pulled out the flash and stole the lilies my daughter was using for her science fair experiment and spent some time doing what I love.

The Response: In Your Face — Jessica

I think basketball can be a very intimidating game. Our oldest two found it a bit overwhelming and confusing. The third son seems to be loving it and getting better with each game and practice. But still, all that noise, all that color, all those kids in your face trying to take the ball away…

It’s also an intimidating game to photograph. I didn’t try too hard to find an interesting location (mostly because there was only a small sliver of non-court real estate to sit upon!) but when my son had to throw the ball back in, I did shimmy all the way up to the line on my knees to get this view. I am very proud of the layers of things going on in this photograph. From the coach on the bench, to the ref, to the boys throwing the ball to the kids on the bench under the flags. Too bad the focus is a bit off… But, I’m not going to be thrown off by perfection so here it is. My intimidating shot. ; )

The Call: Canon 1Dx — Cheryl

When Bob the Cabinetmaker is here, working on the house, neither of us gets a lot done. There’s just too much to talk about, including photography. Today, he brought along his camera, so I could try out the lens he uses for portraits. I took a couple dozen shots, but I found it difficult to get comfortable with $10,000-worth of someone else’s stuff in my hands.

The Response: A Jump Start — Cheryl

The cold weather seems to have taken a toll on the minivan’s battery. We don’t use the minivan all that often, but not having it available when needed is a pain.

The Call: Dentist’s Tools — Jessica

I walked into the dentist’s office today expecting a crown for my chipped bicuspid. I walked out with a crown AND a root canal. I’m off to take more advil.

The Response: Color — Jessica

I’m not quite to the point of being bored by the winter landscape. Yet. It usually doesn’t hit me until late February and March. Nonetheless, I was looking for something fresh in the house to photograph today (in the few minutes I had before I had to do something else) and my eyes were drawn to the fabric bowl that Danny’s pre-school class made for Christmas gifts. I used the Lensbaby mount for my iphone (I know, my kids and husband look at me so weird when I put a lens on my phone!) and got this.

I find myself increasingly drawn to abstraction in photography. It’s what originally drew me in to the Lensbaby system — the almost impressionistic quality of the photos the lens system produces. But there is lots of bad abstract photography out there. What makes it good? What is it? Is it really pointless or can it be created to say something? These are the kinds of questions that keep photography fresh for me. I’m going to be sticking with this for the year and see where it leads. I even created a hashtag on Instagram in order to keep track of my work: #colorandlight2015.

The Call: Digging Up Fresh Thoughts — Cheryl

I’m starting from scratch with my desktop. No, I haven’t devolved to an old Underwood. I still have my HP Pavilion, but now, it’s unencumbered by whatever was dragging it down (a virus? bad scripts? who knows). Dennis wiped the hard drive yesterday, after saving everything over the last few weeks to an external hard drive or two: 86,000 photos or so; numerous documents related to everything from homeschool record keeping to posts from blogs I blew away long ago; downloads for fonts and brushes and other digital media. Today I reinstalled Photoshop and Lightroom and am basking in the luxury of a responsive computer. The feeling is so liberating, I’m hoping it translates into renewed passion and inspiration, along with gorgeous images and copious “pages” of writing.