Our Foto Friday challenge this last week was "diptych." At first, I was completely stumped, thinking I had to do a macro shot + wide angle shot, and neither of those sounded very appealing. When I started thinking about the opposing sides of self, I felt like it was a concept worth shooting (see a larger version of my shot here). It would be a really fun project to do a whole series of shots depicting the opposing sides of your personality. BUT. I think I'll save it for another time when I don't feel like I'm so far behind on everything else. Pretty much all my project ideas for this year have been stripped down to Project 365 and our weekly Foto Friday challenge (and Listography if ever I manage to get caught up on that one). Among other real life stuff. It's darn busy, peeps.

I love music. It never fails to inspire. Here is a short list of songs that I really do listen to over and over (in no apparent order and subject to change):

 

1. Jolene by Dolly Parton

2. The Cave by Mumford and Sons

3. White Blank Page by Mumford and Sons

4. Rolling in the Deep by Adele 

5. Crayola Doesn't Make a Color for your Eyes by Kristin Andreassen

6. Young Folks by Peter Bjorn and John

7. Pursuit of Happiness*** (cover) by Lissie

8. Are You Happy Now? by Richard Shindell

9. I'll Be Your Man by Van Morrison

10. Wings by Josh Ritter

11. All I Want is You by Barry Louis Polisar

12. Paper Airplane by Buck 65

13. Take Me Out by Franz Ferdinand

14. Da Ya Think I'm Sexy? by Rod Stewart

15. Proof of Love by Old Man Luedecke

16. Oh Marie by Louis Prima

17. Annie Mae by John Lee Hooker

18. Devil's Spoke by Laura Marling

19. When I'm Alone by Lissie

20. Candy by Paolo Nutini

 

*** Don't listen WITH your children or you will be MAD at ME

The Foto Friday theme this week is "yellow." Originally, I had it in my head that I would shoot a selfie with dandelions, but I never got past the pondering stage, and in my procrastination, the rain came and saturated my plans. I  decided to embrace the rain and shoot a cliche (see mine at the bottom).

Around here, it doesn't rain very much. Our two types of weather are snowing and not snowing. So, needless to say, I was ill-prepared for wet weather shooting. Still though, it was good. Did I mention that my remote is broken? (It probably wouldn't have survived the rainstorm anyway.) Yes, so I had to use the self-timer. I couldn't hear the timer over the rain, so I had to run back and forth and jump so damn many times. Good exercise, but I was really regretting that pizza I had for dinner. 

Our Foto Friday challenge this week is "nature," and back last year when I imagined this theme week in my head, there was a lot of green involved. It just hasn't happened yet. For the most part, the spring is still hiding under layers of dusty brown. But I will not complain. If I do, surely, Mother Nature will laugh and laugh and then promptly dump a load of snow upon my head. Today the weather is warm enough for capri pants, so it's certain that the green is coming soon, and it will be welcome indeed. There will be many more family nature walks, and I'm so looking forward to it!

You can see a larger version here. But only if you want to. 

"When you are a mother, you are never really alone in your thoughts.  A mother always has to think twice, once for herself and once for her child."  -Sophia Loren, Women and Beauty

For our Foto Friday challenge this week, the theme is "mother." Becoming a mother has been the single biggest change (and challenge) of my life. More of a transformation, I suppose, and a work in progress, of course. I hope that mothering brings out my better personality traits, although when I am honest, I know that sometimes it does not. We are who we are, and we try we try we try. 

There are two things I want my children to know: that I love them with every fiber of my being and that I try so very hard to be the best mother I can. 

Our Foto Friday challenge this week is "time," and I seem to have precious little of it these days! 

There are so many ways to interpret "time," but I saw this shot in my head when I woke up one morning to a blizzard of spring snow. (You can see a larger version here.)

We drove around the country south of the city looking for the perfect spot, which I was convinced I would "recognize." I settled for this spot with a great fence and an interesting line of trees because it was way too close to dinnertime to be picky. I would have preferred to be wearing a sundress and no jeans, but I don't actually own a sundress (is there any point in The Great White North?) and I had to make some concessions based on how frickin' cold my feet were.

There is nothing like the excitement of discovering a good book, and these are my favorites:

1. Water For Elephants by Sara Gruen

2. The Time Traveller's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger

3.The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan

4. Stormy Weather by Paulette Jiles

5.The Fruit of Stone by Mark Spragg

6. To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee

7. The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

8. When The Emperor Was Divine by Julie Otsuka

9. Buster Midnight's Cafe by Sandra Dallas

10. The Power of One by Bryce Courtenay

11. Last Year's River by Allen Morris Jones

12. Fried Green Tomatoes at The Whistle Stop Cafe by Fannie Flagg

13. The Well and the Mine by Gin Phillips

14. The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver

Our Foto Friday challenge this week is "blur," which really was really different for me. Intentional blur is something I've seen done, and I've seen it done well, but I've never embraced it in my own photography. I've been so focused (pun intended) on getting sharp, sharp images that I hadn't realized the artistic value in a little blur. It was really freeing, though, to step away from the quest for technical perfection and try something totally different: low light - check! - motion blur - check! - lots of grain - check! - imperfect crop - check!

You can see a larger version here. But only if you feel like it.