Photo-a-Day: Day 137 - "Daisies Are Her Best Friend"
05.16.12 (4:42 pm) [edit]Some ladies prefer roses. Some lilies. Others, still, carnations. My wife's preference, however, is the daisy. Simple, yet very beautiful. The flowers, I mean.
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Photo-a-Day: Day 136 - "Nailed"
05.15.12 (3:43 pm) [edit]Had a box of nails out, so decided to play around with them. These particular nails are magnetic, so maybe I'll do a nail sculpture, sometime. So much fun to be had...
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Photo-a-Day: Day 135 - "Can't Quite Reach It!"
05.14.12 (4:36 pm) [edit]My dog, Onyx, trying her best to reach the dab of peanut butter (if you look closely, you can see it on the tip of her nose) that was just out of her reach. She did eventually get it, with a lot of work and effort.
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What To Do?
05.14.12 (4:36 pm) [edit]I have a client for whom I have done a lot of work for, in the past. They approached me to do a photo project, for them. This particular project involves a lot of impossible requests and unreasonable expectations, but I have done everything I can do to accomplish their goals. I came pretty close, in my opinion. However, even after explaining the impossibility of their requests, they continue to guide me through the project, adjusting their expectations, as we go along. Until today. The project includes taking a photo from 1929, 1935, and 2011 and attempting to edit the photos to blend with one another. Hard enough to do. But, I came really close. As hard as I am on my work, I was very pleased. This was the 15th edit they had me do on the project, for the record. As pleased as I was with my progress, imagine my surprise when I received an email stating how disappointed they are in me at my apparent lack in trying to accomplish what they have in mind. As far as I am concerned, I am done with them. Whether they are pleased with the project, or not, I'm done. I fully intend to collect for the time I put into it (a total of 42 hours over the course of the past month). But, after being accused of not trying, I wash my hands of this entire project. Am I being unreasonable? Should I accept this as part of the owning-your-own-business package? How would you deal with such clients? Any thoughts would be appreciated!
Photo-a-Day: Day 134 - "Home Made Flower"
05.13.12 (5:33 pm) [edit]My middle daughter, like all of my children, has a very artistic streak about her. Drawing, sculpting, sketching, crafts - she does it all. She just finished putting the finishing touches on the flower that she is featuring in this photo. People say that you have to suffer for art. She makes art look effortless.
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Photo-a-Day: Day 133 - "Small Omelette, Please"
05.12.12 (3:46 pm) [edit]While taking our dog, Onyx, for her morning walk, we ran across this extremely tiny egg. My theory, judging by the beak-sized hole in the shell, is that a bird helped itself to an early morning omelette, this morning. Judging by the size of the shell, though, it was a small one.
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Photo-a-Day: Day 132 - "Nature's Camo"
05.11.12 (12:22 pm) [edit]Hidden well in the depths of the cedar chips, this moth thought it was invisible. It has so much faith in its camouflage, in fact, that it allowed me to get as close as my lens would allow me, to take this shot. Granted, I did take this photo with a telephoto lens, but the minimum focus range is only 1.1 feet away. Typically, any of nature's critters won't allow me closer than 15 feet... and that's if I am very, very lucky!
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Photo-a-Day: Day 131 - "No Evil"
05.10.12 (4:28 pm) [edit]Or, another title I could have given this, "Three Stooges - A Self Portrait."
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Photo-a-Day: Day 130 - "Fading"
05.09.12 (5:23 pm) [edit]The spring flowers have been steadily fading over the course of the past few weeks. A few beautiful specimen remain. The good news is, the fading spring flowers should eventually give way to summer heat and humidity. Bring it on!!!
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Photo-a-Day : Day 129 - "Blue Bird, Green Background"
05.08.12 (4:58 pm) [edit]My favorite type of bird, the Blue Bird, against young leaf buds, in the background. This little fella has been doing its best to stay out of the range of my lens. Today, I was able to JUST get close enough to snap off a few shots. Hopefully, next time, I can get closer, still.
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Photo-a-Day: Day 128 - "A Crayon of Another Color"
05.07.12 (4:39 pm) [edit]My daughter, Alexis, and her best friend are both very interested in art. They both have incredible drawing skills. But one thing that really sets them apart from other artists of their age, they really know how to think outside the proverbial box. Today's photo is of an art project the two of them recently finished. They created this art using nothing but crayons. However, instead of drawing with them, they melted the crayons down to liquid form, mixed various colors, poured the molten crayons into a cupcake pan and allowed them to cool. The result was a group of colorful pucks, some with glitter added to them for a little extra flash, others rely purely on the color play within the individual pucks. Very creative!
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Photo-a-Day - Day 127 - "Beauty Under a Gray Sky"
05.06.12 (2:16 pm) [edit]It has been raining for the better part of the afternoon. Having a break in the rain, I ran outside to snap a few shots of the flowers, while the rain water still clung to the petals. In contrast to the gray sky, above, the flowers' colors seemed almost alien. As a side note - I hope the poison ivy I was standing in didn't touch any exposed skin... just the psychosomatic paranoia is making me itch like crazy...
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Photo-a-Day: Day 126 - Resume Head Shot"
05.05.12 (5:19 pm) [edit]My wife will be completing her Medical Assistant course in the next month-and-a-half. Wanting to get a jump on the job search, she has already sent out an incredible number of resumes. She has also joined many of the online professional networking sites. To make her profile a little more personal, she wanted a head shot photo. One that looks professional enough, without making it look like she is trying out to be America's next top model, or something. With that aim in mind, this is the result. She's pleased, so I am!
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Photo-a-Day: Day 125 - "Deep Breath"
05.04.12 (5:48 pm) [edit]Madison takes great delight in blowing the floating, fuzzy seeds of dandelions, when they seed out. The lawn care workers probably aren't as enthusiastic. They'll just have to deal with it, though. How can you take away such a simple joy as this?
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Photo-a-Day: Day 124 - "Fish Ladder"
05.03.12 (1:02 pm) [edit]Spent part of the day in Grand Rapids. While there, I stopped by the fish ladder and snapped a few shots. Even saw a few fish trying to head upstream, but without much luck. Sometimes I wonder if the fish ladder is any easier than trying to jump the small waterfall around which the ladder was built. Either route, the fish can expect quite the difficult time.
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Photo-a-Day: Day 123 - "Home Made Mountain"
05.02.12 (2:05 pm) [edit]When it comes to school projects, her philosophy is to go big or go home. This tends to get her into a bit of trouble, as projects of this size are not allowed on the bus. That means the project pictured here, Mt. Everest, had to be turned in, late. Luckily, the teacher understood that the project was finished, but school rules and home schedules worked against my daughter, forcing her to turn this project in a few days late. Extra points for creativity, though. Most students only turned in sketches of mountains.
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Photo-a-Day: Day 122 - "Ant's Eye View"
05.01.12 (5:02 pm) [edit]I tried laying down as flat as I could to get this shot. Just one of many species of flowers planted by our neighbors. Sadly, a neighborhood kid trampled many of the other flowers, but this one has, so far, survived.
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Photo-a-Day: Day 121 - "Mr. Finch"
04.30.12 (3:56 pm) [edit]While walking the dog around the Bark Park, today, we ran into this Purple Finch. My wife isn't exactly font of these guys, but I'm not bothered. I think they're pretty cool, anyway.
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Photo-a-Day: Day 120 - "I'll Bee Hanging Around"
04.29.12 (2:07 pm) [edit]A bumbler hangs on a cluster of flowers in its quest to gather pollen. There didn't appear to be much to get, the bee came and went all in a few seconds time.
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Photo-a-Day: Day 119 - "Alien Seed Pods"
04.28.12 (4:20 pm) [edit]Okay. They really aren't alien. In fact, I don't even know if you would technically call them "pods". Either way, they look pretty cool hanging off the branches.
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Photo-a-Day: Day 118 - "I Think We're Alone Now"
04.27.12 (4:39 pm) [edit]This bully of a bird kept a watchful eye on the feeder while enjoying his dinner. Any other bird that would come near the feeder would be chased away, before the bird would circle around to eat more.
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Photo-a-Day: Day 117 - "Where Are You?"
04.26.12 (6:32 pm) [edit]This is a photo that goes along with today's 'Odd Conversation of the Day". She was looking right at us... didn't see us. She rocked, as did the entire choir show.
These photos are usually posted on Facebook before being uploaded, here. This is the "Odd Conversation of the Day" in question:
Odd conversation of the day: This evening, we went to see our middle child, Alexis, perform in her choir concert. Alxis was upset that she didn't see us in the crowded auditorium. This conversation just took place: Me: "Alexis, you were looking right at us! We were even waving at you!" Alexis: I thought I saw some weird dude waving." Me: "Yeah, that was your mom."
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Photo-a-Day: Day 116 - "Safe and Secure"
04.25.12 (3:26 pm) [edit]Onyx, our Lab, will often do things that are funny and unexpected. Today, she decided to take her afternoon nap on the couch. Our youngest daughter's bear was on the couch. Onyx jumped up onto the couch, snuggled up with the bear, and slept (very soundly). Teddy bears for dogs... I may have found a niche market.
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Photo-a-Day: Day 115 - "Henna"
04.24.12 (3:16 pm) [edit]Shooting has started on the tattoo / piercing / body modification photo series I have been planning. Today's shoot was of a henna tattoo. I have always liked how henna looked, but didn't really know much about it. Today changed that. Now that I know a little more about it, I find it that much more fascinating. Cool stuff!
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Photo-a-Day: Day 114 - "Skeeter"
04.23.12 (5:10 pm) [edit]My eldest daughter pointed out this male mosquito that was clinging to the side of our building. Thankfully, males are not known to suck blood. If they did, can you imagine just how many gallons it would get away with?
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