My muse(s)

Well, 2011 hasn't been the easiest year so far. Between surgery, strep, and other viruses, my little trio of a family hasn't been feeling that well. But much like marriage vows, we keep on loving each other through sickness and stress. Because life can't always be happy-go-lucky.

Project 52's theme for week 5 was "Muse". Everyone has a different definition of what inspires them. I've got two things that inspire me constantly. Even when they're under the weather...

Orlando Amtrack Station

I posted earlier this week about participating in Project 52. That shot was taken at the Orlando Amtrack Station. I  thought I would feel a sense of relief in posting it. Like, well now, I'll just check that off my list. But instead, I felt oddly guilty. I felt like that image didn't really do this railroad station justice.

I have a soft spot for history - places, people, memories. I feel sentimental about buildings that have been around before I even existed. I always try to imagine how they must have looked back in their heyday. It makes me sad to see places that were once so integral to people's lives now stand isolated and neglected.

So I have a few more images of this 85 year old building I want to share. I guess, in my mind, it's my way preserving the memory and honoring the history of this place.

"You have to know the past to understand the present."

Carl Sagan

Project 52: Shades of Gray 3/52

Last year I saw a lot of great photos from photographers who were participating in '365' projects. Their goal was to take and share a new photo each day for a year. I love the idea, but talk about overwhelming. Seriously, where do they find the time? Every day?!? The only consistent thing I've done every day for a year is wake up.

Then a few weeks ago I stumbled across Project 52. The same idea, but with one photo a week. I thought, Perfect! That's what I already do (or try to).

MCP Project 52: One Photo a Week – It’s a way to encourage creativity, make photography fun, and provide a challenge without actual pressure. Participants will share their art work and images weekly while inspiring each other.

The thing I like about this one is that you can be as creative or as simple as you want. You can follow their theme each week, or do your own thing. Ahhhh. Few rules and no pressure - right up my alley.

So I'm starting with week 3 - the theme is shades of gray.

We went to the Orlando Amtrack Station for the first time this weekend. It's a very old building (1920's) done in Spanish Mission style. Not too many people are riding Amtrack these days and it very much looks like a place that time forgot. But something about it's isolation makes me want to board a train there. Maybe in a few years, if the planned SunRail every gets up and running, this place will be bustling once more. Anyway, the shot below is of one of the old, curved, wooden benches in the waiting area.

The Seasons of Lake Greenwood

A little over a year ago I took my first HDR photo of Lake Greenwood in winter. My friend Ryan introduced me to the process through some of his awesome photographs. For those of you who don't know, HDR (or High Dynamic Range) is a method where you take multiple exposures of the same photo and merge them together to create an image with intensely exaggerated luminance. The process is pretty cool. It's a little complicated for me since I don't have a fancy pants camera with auto exposure bracketing built in! But I really like the effect it gives.

Anyway, after I did the first one I thought it would be a nice experiment to document the changing seasons reflected in Lake Greenwood's landscape. So every few months I went back to this lake and tried to set up the same shot. This is the compilation of those four shoots. Visually, I like the cooler seasons better than the warmer ones. But overall I'm happy with the finished piece. If nothing else, it proves that we do in fact have seasons here in Florida!

Lake Greenwood in January

Forgive me blogland, for I have sinned. It has been two months since my last post. That sounds like a really long time as I type it, but it flew by in the blink of an eye. Life has been a bit of a whirlwind since October. But, it seems like it's always that way now. Regardless of the time of year. The older I get, the faster time seems to move. It's not fair, really. Youth is wasted on the young...

Speaking of time, that is a good segue into my first post of this year (which, coincidentally, is the finale of my first post from last year). This is the last in the series of the HDR project I started about the changing seasons reflected in the landscape of Lake Greenwood. I'm pleased with the way this one turned out. I love the reddish-orange colors. Unfortunately, I was supposed to shoot this in November. I'm sure it would've had a lot more color then. Oh well. My next post will be the final project - showing all four seasons together.

Lake Greenwood in January ~ HDR (5 shots - 2 up, 2 down)

Random Act of Kindness in the Jardin des Tuileries

So I've been slacking on the post this week. There are several reasons for this, really. But I would like to place the majority of the blame for my laziness on PHB - Post-Halloween Blues. It's a serious condition and it affects thousands of people worldwide. It's like I blew all my creativity in the frenzy and excitement of my favorite holiday. And now, I'm just blllaaahhhh. Oh well, I'll get over it. In the meantime, I'm going to pick up where I left off before the most awesome month of the year took over, with pics of Paris...

Whilst strolling through the Jardin des Tuileries, we happened upon this lovely little scene that was just waiting to be photographed. There's something special about capturing strangers in random acts of kindness. This sweet gentleman brought a big bag of birdseed to the garden just to feed the sparrows. If that doesn't make you make you tilt your head and sigh, "aw" then, well... I don't know about you.

This last one reminds me of a line from the movie "Roxanne". When Steve Martin's character is coming up with twenty jokes better than "Big Nose" one of them is:

 "Complimentary: You must love the little birdies to give them this to perch on!"

That's a great movie, by the way. If you haven't seen it, you should.

Halloween is the fairest of them all...

Halloween is over. Uggh, it pains me to even type the words. But all good things must come to an end, I suppose. I bid my favorite time of the year adeu and leave you with some of my favorite shots of my best (of the three I wore) costume - courtesy of Photo Booth.

me as the Evil Queen from Snow White

Would you like an apple?

Looks like someone had fun in the photo booth! Yes, I know I'm a dork.