Thursday, December 29, 2011

An Obsession

If we are friends, you know that I have a bit of a love and obsession for hats.  I thought about trying to photograph all of my hats, but I couldn't think of a fun way to do it without putting them all into a pile and taking a picture.  So the next best thing, I took a photo of my 3 fedora's (or padora's if you're my father).  I feel a little bad for my fedora's because they don't get as much wear as my other hats do, but they are still very cute and chic and I do like them very much.  What they are displayed on is a coat rack that is usually over-flowing with coats from the men folk in the house, but I decided my hats were more important tonight, so I arranged them, we had a nice photo shoot...they listened very well...and this is my favorite photo of the evening.  :)

Hats

We have been doing this blog for close to a year now, you realize this every time you pull a topic from the hat.  You wonder what you are going to get, and this week the hat gave us HATS.  Interesting topic, but nothing we couldn't handle. 
I will tell you a little story about a speech I once heard.  There was a man on stage addressing a crowd that has gathered in a gym on a warm spring day.  In my line of work I have seen many speeches delivered by politicians, celebrities, scholars and students-but the speech I heard that day was one that I will never forget.  His speech that day was about hats, how over the course of a life time you wear numerous hats.  I remember the man had a hat with a block S representing the college he went, So in my photo there is a hat with a block S on it, my alma mater   The man put an army hat on and talked about how the army had toughed him up-I was never in the army, but I was toughened up working construction, so there is there is my old hard hat.  The man talked about all the hats that he had to wear over the years, husband, father, christian, Tigers fans and more.  In my photo I have hats that represent me over the years, hats I wore to look cool, hats I wore for work, hats that I got from places I have been and teams I have cheered for.  The hats represent the life that I have lived up to this point, and hopefully I can add more hats to it. 
There is one hat on the rack that I never wore and never will wear.  But it is a very special hat, it is a hat from the man who gave the speech.  It was his brown police mans hat he wore for work.
The speech probably fell on many deaf ear that morning, but I listened.  I listened to my dad give the speech about hats at my 6th grade graduation, and never forgot it.   

Monday, December 26, 2011

Better Late then Never

   I know, I know...it's past sun-down on Saturday.  The first time in the several months we've been doing this blog and I slacked.  I can come up with many reasons as to WHY I didn't get this photo up on time, but it doesn't matter...I broke one of the rules.  It still has not been declared what my "punishment" will be.  But, I am here now, posting my Senior Photo Style photo.
   I'm not really sure when this "idea" started, but I remember when Adam and I went on the Grand Haven Photowalk and we had been to Grand Haven before and were kind of done taking photos of the surroundings, so we started taking "Senior Picture Style" photos.  That is my earliest memory of this photo style Adam has proclaimed.  So last week Monday I had the day off, and Adam has been in town on Christmas Break, so after a visit to our jewler Cliff at Chimera Design in Lowell we very briefly wandered around for a place to take our photo of the week.  This is my favorite photo I took because it shows off how good looking, stud muffin of a Fiance.  Who, in just 2 short months (yes, I said 2!!! months), will be my husband. :)  That's right ladies, he's all mine!


Wednesday, December 21, 2011

Senior Photos

Our topic this week was 'Senior Picture Style'.
Senior Picture Style may need some explanation, you see the best way to pose for pictures is to pose like you are a teenager having your photo taken for your senior photo.  A senior photo has to capture the personality of the person and this photo of Erica does just that.  Erica is a wonderful model and I do enjoy taking photos of her.   I could write about how much I love Erica here, or how beautiful and stylish I think she is, or how much fun I have with her while we are out posing in downtown Lowell on a Monday afternoon for our blog.  But I am not going to, I am just going to post a senior photo of the coolest babe I know....Erica Joy.

Wednesday, December 14, 2011

A weekly token

Every day I have three choices, front door, backdoor or thru the studio while entering the office.  The decision usually depends on a few factors but I don't have the time to get into them.  But if I choose thru the studio there is a chance I get see some flowers.  My co-worker always has flowers in a vase sitting on his desk.  These flowers are a gift from his wife, who also works in the office.  She has arguably the best flower garden in all of Mt. P. and every week a sampling of them are picked and positioned next to the computer screen.  When Erica pulled the topic this week, it was one of those things-flowers in December-lets go find a poinsettia.  But the other morning I opted for entering thru the studio door and saw flowers back on his desk, so when I walked by later in the day I broke out the iphone and snapped a photo.  I thought how nice, flowers again even if they are the kind that won't die or wither.


Tuesday, December 13, 2011

Who Knew?

As seems to be a theme with my photo options I had many ideas going through my brain as to what to do with this topic.  How do you go about making a Flower more creative then just taking a photo of a flower and saying "this is a flower" in case you didn't know.  But where is the fun in that?  Where is the challenge in that?  So while I was sitting in a chair at home looking through emails I remembered something that a patient told me at work recently.  He was very talkative and somehow we got on the topic of plants and the odd things he has grown.  Now, I have to take a moment to share something...for the "G" rated viewers I apologize for this part of the story, but I feel I need to share it.  The gentleman was older and little difficult to understand, so when he first informed me of what he and his wife planted I wasn't sure how to react.  Why you may ask?  Well...I could have sworn he told me he grew "penis".  Yes, now you may understand my shock and lack of knowing what to say.  I just said something like "oh, ok...and what kind of plant is that?"  He looked at me a little funny and said..."You know, PEANUTS!, that you eat?"  OH!!!!  Now it makes way more sense!!!  So, now that we've established the type of plant we ARE talking about...he continued to explain that these peanut plants are generally only grown down south but he was able to grow them for a little while here and as many people don't realize (I didn't know this) the peanuts grow in the ground, much like a potato, and the plant buds small yellow flowers.  Now, they aren't anything beautiful, but it is a flower.  Being that you don't normally grow peanuts here, it makes it difficult to photograph a peanut flower, so I went to the next best thing....actual peanuts.  I realize these are already shelled and not the same peanuts that grow from the flower, but they are peanuts that come from the peanuts that are grown.  My flower photo this week is quite abstract but it has a story that leads us to the reason why it works for a flower photo. :)

Monday, December 12, 2011

A New Week, A New Topic

Throughout our many weeks of doing this blog adventure, we have had a wide variety of interesting topics.  Some that have taken a lot of thought, energy and planning.  And others that have been more of an after thought.  There are many days I think to myself "are our 52 weeks over yet?", but then I remember the whole reason we decided to do this was so that we were taking photos.  I, Erica, have found the past weeks to be hard to come up with something creative to capture, and even write.  But each week, something presents itself, and each week a little story is written about why the photo was taken.  So, let's hope that this week is no different.  This week is an "Adam Topic":
FLOWER
Check back later this week to see what blooms from this topic. (Sorry, that was cheesy) Till we meet again! :) 

Thursday, December 8, 2011

Last Minute Story

I am thankful for a fiance who reminds me of things that I need to do throughout the week.  This week was full of "things to accomplish", but unfortunately I forgot one pretty big thing that needed to be done...our blog!  How could I??  So once Adam and I hung up, mom ran downstairs and grabbed her wooden carolers figurines and after a few different spots in the house, different lighting, different flash intensities and came up with this shot. I will be honest, it is not my favorite, but it is a photo with a story.  As many of you know I love music.  But as I learned when I talked to my college roommates on the phone for the first time years ago, what my thinking of music and what most peoples thinking of music is is quite different.  When I think of music, I think of singing in a choir, singing in church or playing an instrument.  But to the majority of people, music is listening to the radio, your favorite artist.  So, if I had given myself a little more time I would have some how positioned and lit this photo with my music folder and music in the background, but I like having the Christmas Tree there.  I love Christmas, I love Christmas music.  These carolers make me think of growing up and I think in either grade school or with youth group in Highschool we used to go to the nursing home and sing carols for the residence.  Some people would be in their doorways waiting for us, others probably lying in their beds hopefully enjoying the sound of Christmas carols.  It's something I haven't done for years, but something I think would be fun to do again.  There is just something about Christmas time and Christmas music, as my friend once said, that just makes you smile.  God sent His one and only son to be born to a virgin so that he could die to save us from our sins and allow us to have a relationship with our heavenly Father.  So this Holiday season, remember what Christmas is all about.  And think about those memories where a song either touched your heart that maybe someone else sang, or a song that you sang that touched someone else. 

Wednesday, December 7, 2011

BMG CD's for a penny

This weeks topic is MUSIC.

The topic is music, but today I heard that Col. Potter passed away, he was one of the actors on one the greatest shows of all time, MASH.  MASH is hands down one of my favorite shows of all time, and when I think back on that program there is a scene that ties into this weeks topic.  In the series final Charles Winchester III teaches a group of POW to play music, those POW are later killed in an attack.  In a somber moment Charles tells the group of 4077 that "music use to be an escape for me..."
That is what music is to me, an escape.  I have figured out that I lose myself in music, I usually work with music playing, most people usually need it to be quiet to concentrate, I'm the opposite.  I need noise, I need music, there are fall back albums, artist and groups, but that is how I work best.  I can't answer who my favorite artist is, what my song is-it varies on mood, on activity and what I have been listening to earlier in the day.
Now for this photo, this is my iphone and home headphones (I have the same pair at work and if you are looking for a good pair of headphones get these, Sony Professional).  I love my phone cause I always have music with me, I throw on my headphones and can block everything out, and escape into the tasty beats that are filling my earholes.

For an extra little treat while taking this photo and writing this post I listened to Bon Jovi-Bad Medicine, and Bed of Roses and then switched it up to Frank Sinatra singing Christmas tunes.

Wednesday, November 30, 2011

Soul of Devotion

Devotion has a lot of different meanings.  This was my topic, and I know that when I put this topic in the hat I was thinking of a Biblical type of devotion.  Someone reading a devotional, hands in a Bible, hands lifted up in devotion...all the possibilities to show devotion.  Devotion to God is vital in our time here on earth.  Devotion to God means surrendering your everything, every day to God's will.  Devotion is knowing that God will never leave you nor forsake you and walking forward in faith.  Devotion is coming to Christ every day in prayer and in word.  Tonight after praise team practice I recruited my friend Kelvin to be my model.  We tried a few different poses and this ended up being my favorite.  I think it shows devotion to God by the way he is standing, head bowed over the Bible.  And I love the smile :)
Soul of Devotion

Devotion


This weeks Topic is Devotion-that's why I took a photo of a toilet.  Let me take a moment to tell you why.  This past Monday on my lunch break I pulled a topic, it was Devotion, moments later I got the phone call I dreaded since I moved north to Mt. Pleasant, It was from my older brother, I answered and his voice cracked-"Dad had a stroke".  The next few moments are a bit fuzzy, I hung up with him, paced back and forth, called Erica, then I prayed.
I went back to work that afternoon, I did busy work and waiting for updates on his condition.  I know the news was he had a stroke, but the Miedema's have been here before and we know anything can happen. As my day wrapped up I got in my car and that stupid song about a sparrow came on the radio.
"Let not your heart be troubled,"
his tender word I hear,
and resting on his goodness,
I lose my doubts and fears;
though by the path he leadeth
but one step I may see:
His eye is on the sparrow,
and I know he watches me.

I have no idea what that song means, and a sparrow, just seems kinda weird, my plans was to stop and get orange juice on the ride home, but those words really got to me.  I got home, fought tears and paced again-I figured I did about a mile or so.  At this point I wasn't really praying, but talking to Jesus.  I wanted to know why this happened to my dad?  He is a good man, I know I am not suppose to question the great physician, my brother told me about a nurse who said that to him, but I had question.  I thought about how the weekend before I slept at my parents house and when I got up I found my dad sitting in a chair reading his Bible and his devotional.  (trust me I will tie devotion to a toilet)
I haven't seen my dad since this past weekend, I haven't been able to drive back to Grand Rapids, but I plan to see him this weekend and give him a big hug.  But I find myself thinking about him all the time now.  Thinking about the man that he is and he has been thru out my life, the role model, the hero, the guy that when other kids would say "my dad can beat up your dad" I just laughed and said a proud NO.  We tease a lot, and poke fun now, but I want to grow up and be just like him.  He loves his family and he loves the Lord.  As long as I can remember, he has followed a morning routine-(sorry dad I may be teasing here).  He has spent time every morning using his morning time on the toilet reading his Bible.  The book is so well used it is falling apart.  He is devoted to reading the good book, and this is why I photographed my toilet, I have the good book on the back of my toilet.  I don't read it every morning like he does, but I am going to work on that, I do want to be like him.
Since Monday I have been updated that my dads condition has been slowly improving, the    doctors say he is going to make a full recovery, I hope they are right, He has to walk down the aisle at our wedding.


Saturday, November 26, 2011

Fountain of water

This weeks assignment was to photograph a fountain according to the hat.   It took some time to try to find a fountain that was still being a fountain, so when an opportunity arose, I grabbed it.   This past week I had been working on  a project at work that kinda fit with this topic so when I found myself shooting video of a water fountain I shot a photo of what I was shooting.  Some times I  feel like I have the coolest job ever, I was wondering around campus shooting video of water fountains.    I think these water fountains are the neatest things, you can take a water bottle and easily fill it up right there,  there was a little LED on the top of this guy that said that this fountain had replaced over 9000 water bottles, I think that is pretty cool.  Gotta think green and help save the planet one little bit at a time.

Not So...

A baptismal fountain?  A drinking fountain?  A soda fountain?  All great ideas, but why not Fountain Street?  That was the subject of my photo this week, thanks to some brainstorming after my first wedding shower (which was such a blast! I am extremely blessed by such an awesome family), Adam and I took a drive downtown and found Fountain Street.  I jumped out of the car with my camera, snapped some photos of Fountain Street and this is what we've got.  "A Fountain".

Thursday, November 17, 2011

Growing Up

For as long as I can remember, every Sunday, from summer to fall, the sound of cars going around in a circle has filled my families house.  And ever since cable has been available, and a channel called "Speed" has started broadcasting this sound can be expected to be heard every evening.  What I have found humorous for a while now is how someone SO into a "sporting event" can be lulled to sleep within minutes of the race starting.  But I digress, this weeks topic was "A Car".  There are some topics that inspire creativity within me, this topic was not one of those.  So, while I would like to take credit for this idea, it was alas Adam's.  So I grabbed Davey Allison's model car down from our computer desk and took some photos.  It's nothing special, but it is a car that represents my upbringing.  Davey was by far my dad's favorite driver, so one Christmas myself or my brother bought him this car, soon after Davey was killed in a very serious accident...which if I remember correctly was not while he was racing, but don't quote me.  So, while this picture isn't anything special, the car itself holds a lot of memories.

Wednesday, November 16, 2011

Lego Car

The hat plays with your MIND!  I pulled a topic earlier this week and it revealed the topic of CAR.  Now I am going thru a fun car situation right now, I am driving a sweet Toyota rental right now because my car is getting fixed as we speak, check the blog post from a few topics back about the accident.  So it seemed a bit to easy to photograph my car for this post.

I love Legos and when I have a reason to buy more I don't hesitate.  There is a certain joy of opening the box and dumping them on the table and going to work.  After the assembly, and driving the car around the coffee table while making car noises I got my camera and snapped this photo of the little race car flying thru the air infront of my laptop.  I plan to bring my new race car to work to add to my collection of legos I have there, so ask me next time you see me to see more photos of my legos.  I play with toys at work and take photos of them, please don't tell my boss I play with toys at work.

Monday, November 14, 2011

Bitter Sweet

Today I took a very big step and decided it was worth posting it to our blog, even though it is not a topic.  Today, I cleaned out my closet and dresser and started getting stuff ready to move to Mount Pleasant.  There were a lot of things that weren't so hard to say goodbye to, and some things that were very difficult to say goodbye to.  One of those very tough things to say adios to were my infamous green pants.  Now, some of you may be very confused as to why it would be so hard to say goodbye to something like green pants, and others of you are probably staring at this screen in dis-belief.  But it is true, I have thrown out the green pants. (Close your mouths and stop cheering!)

Here is the back story for those of you who do not know about the green pants.  I would say probably 4 or 5 years ago I bought this awesome very bright pair of green "lounge" pants from American Eagle.  I was so excited to actually be able to buy something from AE, let alone these super awesome pants.  I wore them a lot.  But they were most famously known as my softball pants.  The joke was that you knew when I had shown up at the Christian Reformed Rec Center because you could see me walking from the parking lot.  It didn't matter, I loved them.  I've never understood why I got made fun of so much for wearing them, but I didn't let it stop me.  I wore them until they were all stretched out, ragged at the bottoms and nearly falling off.

It's a very bitter sweet day.  I have lost a lot of weight since I bought those, so being able to throw them out because they don't fit anymore is a great thing.  But I really did love them.  So to see them go is closing a door on my memories of softball at the rec center.  But I have faith that some day I will find another pair of awesome pants that will create a reaction and carry many memories with them. :)

So, fair-well my green pants.  You were a dear friend.  You assisted me in my softball days, you comforted me on my lounge days and helped me make a statement for many years.  But today I am forced to say goodbye.  It is with heavy heart that I put you in this trash bag and send you on to wherever it is you will end up.  Know that I will carry you with me in my heart for a long time.  Thank you for everything.  Fair-well green pants, fair-well.


Now, to get back on track: our topic this week is  CAR.

Saturday, November 12, 2011

Contrast

Black and White photos are one of my favorite style of photos to do.  I wish I would have had more time and daylight during the week to be able to do something a little more creative.  But alas, it was a busy week, and it gets dark so early!  So, I decided to take some of our dried hydrangea flowers for the wedding and photograph those and turn it black and white.  Classic yet pretty.  Until next week.

Thursday, November 10, 2011

Black and White

This weeks topic was a black and white photo.

With a broad topic such as this the sky was the limit.  I did some thinking and when I remembered that Friday was Veterans Days I wanted to tie that in to my photo.  I recalled from this past summer that Mt. Pleasant had a nice park with a veterans memorial in it.

Now my thoughts - I refuse to support any fighting, any war or really any type of violence that is not in a movie.  But I will support the soldier and respect the veterans.  I have nothing but the upmost respect for the men and women that have proudly served for our country.  Growing up there was that moment on special days in church when the pastor asked the veterans to stand up, you looked around and saw all the men and women who had served - that was always a special day.  I looked around and saw the people who were the real stars of the war movies that I love to watch.  We owe all the men and women who severed  more then just a round of applause or a random day that you don't get mail.  So I am saying thank you to the veterans with this photo.

    

Saturday, November 5, 2011

20 Second Shot

One of my favorite things I learned when taking my photography class at Kendall was the "Long Exposure" subject.  This basically means your shutter is open for an extended amount of time, in this case 20 seconds, and if there is any movement it is blurred or if you wanted to take a true picture of a sunset you would us this method to accomplish all the colors.  So last night, after dinner with Adam, we went to my back yard, I set up my camera and proceeded to take some long exposure shots of me spelling out "Black" with a pen light.  It took several tries, but finally I focused my lens (kind of important), sped up the shutter speed and wrote a little faster, and this is what I came up with.  Kind of fun :)

Black Beauty

Driving thru the parking lot earlier this week, minding my business when all of a sudden I see and feel the impact of a Printing Service van.  I knew once I started to work at the University and work on the campus I was going to at some point get hit or hit a student.  Luckily I was hit, and it wasn't the other way around.

My Car is black, so I found it fitting to photograph the car.  I will just tell you that this photo was harder then it looked, I tried one night to take a photo, but I waited to long and ran into so difficulty and lost the light.  Other days and nights,  weather got in my way.  So I am just glad that this photo got posted, and said at the same time that I had the oppurtunity to post a dented car.

Sunday, October 30, 2011

A Color

It's hard to believe that we are coming closer to the end of our photo adventure.  We have photographed some easy topics and some not so easy topics.  Topics that have taken a lot of thought, planning and set up; but yet others that only took a couple clicks of the button and you've got your shot.  This week could end up being very easy, or very difficult; depends on which direction one would choose to go.  Come back later to see how the literal thinking and the "out of the box" thinker decide to photograph BLACK

Saturday, October 29, 2011

I failed...

I think outside the box, ask people-it's true.  Taking a photo of lips would be too easy, but that is what my photo is, you're looking at my beautiful future bride.  It was my fall back idea.  What is not photographed is what I spent wednesday night doing.  My idea was to carve lips into a pumpkin and photograph the pumpkin, it took forever to figure out how to carve the lips, the physical carving process and then the let down of seeing my design and carving not look anything like lips.  I tried, I didn't fail but the pumpkin, well, it put me in a fall mood-it gave me a reason to carve a pumpkin, and I love taking photos of Erica.

    

I'll Drink to That

Lips could be a really fun topic if you have really awesome makeup, maybe and airbrush kit and a model; all of which I do not have.  So I went for the 2nd best thing.  My own lips, lipstick, a glass, a chair, a dark sheet and a light from Adam.  Oh and of course, a beverage.  If you are a girl/woman who wears any sort of lip anything you know that when you take a drink out of glass after freshly applying lipstick you leave a residue on your glass.  It's an imprint of your lip.  So I decided that this is what I would photograph this week.  I must say I am proud of my "out of the box" thinking, because usually Adam is the out of the box thinker and I am the literalist. :)  Yes, I am patting my own back.

Tuesday, October 25, 2011

This week

We are still plugging a long at this project, so don't fret if you don't see an update to let you all know the topic.  We are trying hard, but sometimes life happens.  So stay tuned and later this week to find out how we photograph LIPS

Wednesday, October 19, 2011

Thanks but no thanks

Today was a rainy, windy day.  But, I had an idea and I could not let the weather stop me.  After getting a few groceries, I went home and recruited an assistant...my brother.  He and his girlfriend were out getting stuff for dinner, so I called him up and asked him if he would hold the umbrella while I took photos.  He obliged.  So we met at "my" hair salon, Hair Technique.  They are closed on Wednesday's, so I was betting on them having a "closed" sign.  And they did!  So I got my camera, Christopher got the umbrella, and we took photos.  It was a sight to see, I nearly fell in a puddle, but in the end, this is my photo. :) 

The End

Before the leaves fall, before football games dominated the weekends, before apples and pumpkins comes the first sign of fall.  Well not so much the first sign of fall, but the sign that summer is over.  The sight that comes to mind is the gushing water into the street, the puddle that forms on the way to the sewer.  All that water must mean that someone is closing their swimming pool for the summer.  I see that pool emptying geyser my first thought is a bit of jealousy, but quickly turns to concern.  What happens if we get a heatwave and they want to go swimming? 

An empty swimming pool indicates the end of summer, closing another season of fun, relaxation and an escape from the heat.  Pools Closed, bring on fall.  


Saturday, October 15, 2011

Delicious

So this week topic was fruit.  Fruit is fruit.  So how does one make fruit more "fun"?  I took a picture of (can you tell what it is?)  Then in photoshop did a little something with it.  So now we have fun and delicious fruit.  And that is all I have to say about that. :)

Friday, October 14, 2011

Ode tp Steve

I forget to update earlier this week, the topic was FRUIT

Over the years I have had the same argument over and over, Mac's are better then PC's.  In my mind there is no reason to own or operate a computer that doesn't have a piece of fruit on it.  Figuring that I will probably not convince people that PC's are stupid, I just say now-"I work on Mac computers" or once we are married I think I will say "as for me and my household, we use Mac computers".  But I digress, I photographed apples in memories of Steve Jobs, one of the founders of Apple.  Steve in my mind should be ranked up there with Ben Franklin as one of the great American minds that shaped how many of us work and live.  The iPhone, the iPod, the iMac, the Mac Pro, iLife, iTunes these are things that I use and rely on every day.  These are just apples, but they are a small token of appreciation to Steve Jobs, thank you Steve.

Saturday, October 8, 2011

Tree

This is a photo of a tree, I pulled over on the side of the road on the drive to GR last night and snapped a few photos of a tree.

Friday, October 7, 2011

Falling

This weeks topic couldn't have been more fitting for the time of year and for this absolutely amazing week we have been blessed with.  So while this may be a very literal interpretation of "tree", I had to take advantage of the beautiful colors around me.  I love fall and the colors that God has painted.  Enjoy this beautiful time of year.

Thursday, September 29, 2011

Is it obvious?

As you read earlier, this weeks topic is for you to guess.  Once again I had the "ideal" photo in my head but my cat wasn't cooperating.  So I decided to take a photo of someone who didn't have a choice but to cooperate...ME.  Good luck figuring it out :) 

What?

This past Monday I sat down with an artist who had entered a photo collection into ArtPrize.  I was interviewing him for a video project, as I asked him about his work he discussed with me photography.  He teaches photography at the college level and has amazing photos, so I think he knows a thing or two.  One of the topics we discussed is that most photography can be categorized as 'documentary'-it is one instance in time; a place, an object a person.  This was the first time I thought about photography in this way, the concept of documentary photos left a bad taste in my mouth.  So this week I put my artist mind to work and my knowledge of how to use my 'tools' to create something new, something that wasn't so documentary.  This is what I got, oh yeah, and guess what the topic is.

Wednesday, September 28, 2011

?

After the fun that my 'wonder blue' photo caused last week, we are trying something new this week.  We will post our photos and then the fan will have to figure out what the topic is.  I will give you a simple hint, it was an Erica topic.

Wednesday, September 21, 2011

Wondering Blues

How should I be punished?  Already have, Erica got to it first.  I was saving the letter idea until there was a topic I couldn't visualize.  Thanks Erica.

No for my blue wonder-I didn't really care for blue the first time around, so I drew another topic and got wonder.  Another great topic, but this is a challenge not a walk in the park.  I had some ideas, moldy wonder bread was probably the best-until I started to think about wonder.  I was wondering about wonder and then the light bulb went off.  I will find something blue and try to make it a bit abstract and leave the fans wondering what it is.  A few tries later, and finding a bunch of blue things I share this.  Wonder away.

It's a Wonder...

Let me start out by saying, if you go back to week #1 when we first started this whole adventure, you will see in the rules that we are to do as the hat tells us to do.  So, by all rights, Adam cheated in a sense, broke the rules.  I do feel there should be some sort of punishment for this that benefits me of course :)  But, with all of that being said, I really had fun with this weeks challenge.  I wasn't sure when Adam first wrote to photographer "blue wonder" or "wonder blue" what in the world I was going to photograph.  How do you photograph "blue wonder".  My first thought was to go to a lake and photograph God's blue wonder, but that seemed just blazay.  Then it came to me.  I will do a spin off from a challenge Adam gave himself a couple years ago when we went to Charleston.  I will spell out the word wonder with things that are blue!  So, tonight after work, I wandered around the house and collected blue things that would help me spell wonder.  And this is the final product.  I'm happy with it and for the first time in a while, I had FUN doing it!!! :)

Monday, September 19, 2011

New twist

So by now you figured out that when we pull a topic out of the hat, the first question is "was that yours or mine?".  A week or so back we pulled the topic "something blue" and Erica asked 'that was mine wasn't it?' and I had to say no.  Then we realized that there was another "Blue" in the hat.  Well thats the topic I pulled this weekend, but I didn't like it, we just did blue, so I pulled another topic, "wonder" so I am throwing down the challenge-lets combine the two and have to get really creative and come up with a photo of 'blue wonder' or 'wonder blue'.  I am down for the challenge Erica are you?

A

Thursday, September 15, 2011

Warming your insides

My original idea was to bundle myself up in snowpants, a winter coat, a hat, gloves and a cup of hot coco and take a picture of myself.  But then...I got lazy.  It seemed like way too much work.  SOOOO, tonight I got home from work and grabbed the drinks that I go to when I'm cold.  Who doesn't love a nice hot cup of tea on a snowy winter night or a cup of coffee?  So, here is a photo of what my 2nd thought for "warm" is.  Cozy up tonight with a cup of yummy tea :)

Wednesday, September 14, 2011

A blog plug

I heard that many people follow our blog, fans if you will.  You tune in every week to see what Erica and I have taken photos of.  I thank you for that, it keeps us going knowing that we have you out there, we don't want to let our 'fans' down.  So today I am going to share a co-workers blog with you.  Dan and his wife both suffer from MS, and write this blog together.  A few weeks back I got the invite to join the couple for dinner, and I couldn't pass up that chance.  Now I want to share their blog with you so you can get the chance to know them, it will touch your heart-trust me.

A

Tuesday, September 13, 2011

Warmness

They say as long as your head and feet are warm, you whole body will be warm; thus the socks.  I didn't know how I was going to photograph the socks, then it hit me-lets nail them to the wall.  I stared at the wall for a bit mulling over ways to do this.  Should they go or across? I settled on across, it made sense to me this way, cause you walk on the ground.  Then I tried a few things, a few angles, flash or no flash and we ended up with this jewel.  It's a photo of some socks I don't have matches for nailed to my wall.

Warm

That is our topic this week, we got some good ideas so make sure you come back to see them

Saturday, September 10, 2011

Pick Me

There were a lot of blue things to take pictures of when wondering around downtown Grand Rapids.  Every few feet I would say to Adam, "there's a blue mailbox" and the list went on.  I took some different photos and decided this was my favorite.  I like how these all look like they are their own individual being hanging out on a Saturday morning just waiting for someone to "pick them".

Blue

When the hat gives you a topic, you have to listen, and we have listened.  Erica and I headed downtown in search of blue.  We found something blue, actually lots of things that were blue.  If you are not paying attention to it, you really don't notice all the colors that are around.  We found blue mail boxes, blue art, blue that Erica photographed and this.  I noticed all the dumpsters that were downtown were blue.  I walked by this alley and said, I like.  So here ya go-blue dumpster in cool alley

Friday, September 2, 2011

Enter if you dare

When Adam told me this topic I wasn't sure exactly what I was going to do.  Then, I had an idea.  I would take a picture of something I will miss when I move, and something I will not miss when I move.  You may try to guess which is which :)



Thursday, September 1, 2011

This old apartment

I now understand that home is where you lay your head at night.  I really do hate my apartment; it's small, it smells, it's dark, I can hear all my neighbors coming and going, - I could go on about my dislike of Apt. L, but I won't.  At the end of a long day or trip back from G.R. it is a good feeling to know that you are home.      When I walk thru the doors that let me into my Apt. and I lock the door behind me, I see this and feel like I at home, it's not ideal-far from it, but I feel at home.  

Monday, August 29, 2011

The Hat says...

The hat made me throw my hands up and say-REALLY.  It was my topic this time around and I have to say I don't like it.  Your house/home.  You would think that could be easy, but I live in an apt I usually hate.  When I came up that topic I lived in a house that had all kinds of character-gonna have to get creative I guess




Thursday, August 25, 2011

Dinner is Served

Sunday I had the house to myself.  Mom and Dad were camping, Christopher was at the races, and Adam was in Mount Pleasant.  So I stopped at the store after church and picked up a NY Strip Steak and a potato.  Mom had made a really yummy veggie side salad for Opa's birthday party.  I was very much looking forward to my dinner and I knew it would be a nice looking plate of food. :)  So I put the potato in the oven and a little while later, fired up the grill.  Once everything was done I plated my food, made sure the plate was clean, set it on the table and started taking photos.  Then, once I got my shot, I dug in.  It tasted just as good as it looks!  Don't be jealous :)


Wednesday, August 24, 2011

Random Plate of Color

I could have taken a photo of my diner, I had steak and potatoes, but that would have been too easy.  I instead took a photo of this plate of color food.  The plate is a representation of what was in my fridge after a trip to the store and before I made diner.  I went with color over practicality-I laughed to myself that I should cut everything up and make a salad or have to use everything on the plate in a meal-like the show Chopped.   I did eat some of the fruit on the plate and for some reason everything had a strong onion taste.

Sunday, August 21, 2011

Yummmm

This weeks topic involves, food, cooking, a plate and eating.  This weeks topic is an Adam topic:
A PLATE OF FOOD
The fun with this topic is not only do we get to photograph something, we get to eat and enjoy what we photograph. :)  Stop by later to see what our plates of food look like.  

Saturday, August 20, 2011

OFF!

I will be honest, there were a lot of ideas that went through my head.  A condom....birthcontrol...a US ARMY tank....a bible...but last night at my Opa's 83rd birthday celebration I looked over at the picnic table and there sat 3 bottle of OFF bug spray just begging to have their photo taken.  So being the nice photographer I am, I obliged their begging and took some photos.  Then, after talking to Adam he told me it better be an interesting photo.  Therefore, I played around with some photoshop stuff and came up with this.  Probably not as "shocking" as a condom, but it's still PROTECTION :)

Friday, August 19, 2011

No Pass Protection

There were a lot of funny ideas for this weeks topic, (your mind can wonder) but the idea I had didn't work out.  I drive by a high school every day and on Monday their football was practicing.  I thought to myself I will come by tomorrow with my camera and photograph their practice and call it "Pass Protection".  Well from my photo you noticed that didn't happen.  Long work days, dinner parties and the team not practicing I never did see that team again.  That gets us to this photo-My apartment protection.  That folks is a state of the art dead bolt.  It protects me from intruders and the common thugs that hang out in my apartment building hallways.  It makes me feel safe.

Sunday, August 14, 2011

Laughter...

that's not our topic this week but the reaction we both had when the topic came out of the hat.  PROTECTION, is this weeks topic.  How does our mind work?  Come back later this week to find out. 

Saturday, August 13, 2011

Done

I needed Erica's help for my self portrait, and hopefully you can tell why.  I am always entertained when I have to stand in a photo and the self timer is set so the photographer has time to make it into the photo.  Thus i had an idea;  Using my self timer how far away could I go.  We went over to the soccer field to try it out.  Took some trial shots, set the timer and took off.  Here is what you get.  What I can say now, you can make it pretty far.


Thursday, August 11, 2011

Who am I?

It was Adam's topic this week.  Self Portrait.  I take lots of self-portraits, but mainly for facebook.  And never have I had to explain why I took the particular photo.  So while this was an "easy shoot", it was difficult at the same time.  What does one do?  Adam is always making fun of me and my, what I like to call, eclectic, style.  I have a bumper sticker on my car that says "High Maintenance Cowgirl".  This was back when I was really into cowboy type stuff.  But I like getting dressed up and being edgy and fashion forward as well.  Therefore, my selfportait.  If I were thinking I would've work heals.  But, this kind of shows a fashion forward, high maintenance, cowgirl. :)

Sunday, August 7, 2011

We scream for ICE CREAM

This is Evan, I am proud to call this little boy my nephew.  He is good kid, he loves his parents, his sister, his family, Jesus, tractors, guitar music, cob corn and ice cream.  It wasn't hard to convince him to eat an ice cream cone.  He was busy eating and I was just busy shooting photos of him, in the past I had a hard time photographing him cause every frame I shot he wanted to see it, the fun of digital I guess.  Well today he was more into the cone...I like to tell people a good photo captures a moment.  I look at this photo of Evan and can tell he has reached that point when he realized he ate the cold ice cream a little to fast and he has a bit of the brain and tummy freeze.
I have to thank my siblings: one for providing the child and the other for the ice cream and cones

Enjoying Summer

Today, Sunday, we spent the day at Adam's sister and brother-in-laws house celebrating Adam's mom's birthday.  Being that Adam lives in Mount Pleasant and doesn't have "easy access" to children to photograph, we made an exception to the rule and decided to wait until today to photograph our topic.  I had a major blonde moment this morning and didn't even think about the fact that I needed to bring my camera along.  Lucky for me I have a very loving, understanding and sharing fiance.  Adam allowed me to use his camera to capture some photos of the kids eating ice cream.  So after Alaina's little snooze on me, we got up, got her some ice cream and went outside to enjoy it.  I took a bunch of photos, looked through them on Adam's photo and chose this one as my favorite.  When Adam got home and settled he emailed me the image...and this is what we have.  A photo of Alaina enjoying summer with a yummy icecream cone and sprinkles. :)  I love kid :)

Update...

We missed our deadline last week, we have already been punished.  We don't have any good reasons, so we won't make excuses, we will try not to let it happen again.  We apologize to our many fans and know we both feel horrible that we let you down, we hope it will not happen again.  

We do have a fun topic for this week, SELF PORTRAITS

A&E

Saturday, July 30, 2011

Cooked

I didn't believe it until I tried it.  A warm day, direct sunlight and a hot, I mean hot brick it all came together.  I was tempted to eat it, but passed, the brick didn't pass for clean exactly.  I have cooked some fun stuff-pizza rolls in a camp fire, that was one no one thought would work, but everyone wanted to enjoy, the egg in the back yard was a first. I is not the quickest way to cook an egg, but made for a fun photo.

Wednesday, July 27, 2011

"The Female Bobby Flay"

I enjoy cooking.  When Adam and I first started dating I enjoyed cooking for him, and shortly after this Adam described me as the "Female Bobby Flay".  I was very confused by this and later had to ask for an explanation.  Come to find out Adam noticed something that I had never noticed.  In the words of one Adam Miedema this is why I was labeled the "Female Bobby Flay": She always has to make herself a cocktail before she starts cooking.  So, short of photographing myself once again, I decided to take a photo of my mid-process cooking...as you will notice there is a cocktail :)  And in case you are wondering...dinner was delicious!  ENJOY