My Town Shoot Out - 1st Anniversary

This marks the first anniversary of a friendly competition to show off our home towns. I have chosen to dig through all of the posts I participated in and pick the best of my shots (IMHO).
I encourage you to go and see everyone's contributions here or here.

My First week was Churches, and I think this image garnered more attention than any other:

From J9 and stuff

Then we had People, and I picked our local homless man, who has since been joined by two others:

From J9 and stuff

Houses were up next, and I felt less inspired:

From J9 and stuff

Followed by graveyards and the beginning of my fascination with iron crosses:

From J9 and stuff

And though many people liked the goslings, I preferred the squirrel:

From J9 and stuff

Downtown was next on the list and I couldn't decide on the town where I now live:

From J9 and stuff

Or the town where I grew up:

From J9 and stuff

Next up were restaurants, and as I was combing through my posts - Barry's comment that he hadn't eaten solid food for a month at this point really made me pause. This was nearly a year ago, and he just recently completed chemo. What a long strange trip it's been.

From J9 and stuff

Then there was the free for all theme:

From J9 and stuff

Architecture was up next:

From J9 and stuff

Followed by gardens:

From J9 and stuff

Public Transit - and here is where I realize EXACTLY how many images I have to comb through, and that it is 10:23 at night, and I am tired, but still I go on ;-)

From J9 and stuff

Paint The Town Red came next:

From J9 and stuff

The next theme was and still is my favorite - Water:

From J9 and stuff

Begins with M was up next:

From J9 and stuff

Evidently, I had an emotional break last June and didn't participate very much in the shoot outs... But the next one I joined in on was Textures:

From J9 and stuff

Reflections was up next:

From J9 and stuff

Outdoor Food was next, and a bit of a twist from me:

From J9 and stuff

Power (and my theme choice) was up next:

From J9 and stuff

Relaxation had me breathing deeply:

From J9 and stuff

Signs were next in line:

From J9 and stuff

Incongrousness hit us all absurdly:

From J9 and stuff

Aged and Weathered had me thinking of elderly, but I went with a safer set:

From J9 and stuff

Domestic Animals got me a shot of my pup:

From J9 and stuff

My Favorite Place to dream of:

From J9 and stuff

Photo Study of a Building, and my fixed space for my current class:

From J9 and stuff

Silhouettes was next:

From J9 and stuff

Sunrise Sunset, and Fiddler on the Roof running through my head:

From J9 and stuff

Classics of Childhood had me looking at Our Gang:

From J9 and stuff

The entire month of November was all completely recycled, so the next original shoot out I put up was My Town Dressed for Christmas:

From J9 and stuff

Under Construction brought out this shot:

From J9 and stuff

Fences brought songs to my head, and this:

From J9 and stuff

The Birds theme got me crowing:

From J9 and stuff

Circles gave me great opportunities:

From J9 and stuff

And Aquariums rounds out the year:

From J9 and stuff

Whew that was a LOOOOooooooong post! Next year it will be a slide show!

This week

Has been grey and rainy, and full of feelings of hibernation. I really just want to sleep - and what is coming up?

This weekend - figuring out The Youngest's birthday party tomorrow, a TKD belt tip test for the oldest and a volunteer job most of Saturday. Saturday Morning, I have 2 new sets of photos due for class, and I STILL need to shoot some of those images (GAH!)
We bumped up to 4 days a week at TKD to prep for tournament at the beginning of April, and Black Belt testing at the end of April.

Rehearsals continue for The Oldest.

Baseball starts next week for The Youngest.

Swim Team sign ups are Monday.

All of our Saturdays are already booked in March, and through the first 2 weeks of April.
Work is tiring and a bit insane.
On the plus side, I have been continuing to walk my stress away while listening to music, we are traveling during Spring Break, and I have a couple of days off scheduled for March - even though they will be spent on field trips with The Boys...

Tableau Tuesday

Found out yesterday that Uncle Steve passed away. He called everyone in his address book over the past 2 weeks, and I don't have any more of the story, and likely won't. I'll scan some photos of him and post them at a later date. I miss his Hungarian ass.
Some shots I took at and around sunrise on Sunday:

Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

Music Monday Grammy Edition

I know it's a few weeks after the Grammy Awards, but these two performances are STILL stuck on my brain.

First, the opening of the show with Lady Gaga and Elton John:


And P!ink performing Glitter In The Air:

My Tree

Ok, I have posted this image several times, but for a challenge of Trees, I can really think of NO OTHER tree image in my entire library that speaks the way this one does...

Come join the Community Photo Challenge

My Town Shoot Out - Town Plaza

So this week has slipped through my hands rapidly bringing me through with many more ideas than ability to complete them. I have my first 10 images due to my class on Saturday, and this weekend is a MAJOR software release that I have to be involved in, up to 7 scheduled calls including one at 4:30 in the morning. I may have to sleep all day Monday just to avoid getting sick! The really bumming thing is that I thought the release was last weekend, which was particularly quiet. No such luck - this week has been a flurry of activity in preparation, and I am not looking forward to these calls...

So no plaza here in Dublin, CA. There isn't neccessarily one in this town anyway, though there are places where people gather. They are mostly at parks and sporting places, but I do meet up with people I know and may not have seen in a while and it is nice to see friendly faces out and about.

Happy Weekend All!

Tableau Tuesday - Yes on Thursday

OK, I'm only a couple of days behind, with Mardi Gras last weekend, Music Monday, and a post for Barry - to keep him warm, I thought I'd try to squeeze this in today, before the week is completely gone!

Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

I've scheduled this to post at the same time I will be outside ringing my bell for Barry!

For Barry - a warming posture I learned in Tai Chi

I promised Barry that I'd post this with pictures, and I figured out a way to do it!

Stand with your feet shoulder width apart, pointing at 90 degrees from each other, weight evenly distributed on each foot, as well as between both feet.

Bend your knees, like you are sitting back into the posture, keeping your back in alignment from bottom to the top of your head.

Don't forget to breathe.

Your left arm will be in fromt of your chest, palm facing down, tip of fingers of left hand in front of your right shoulder. Left arm parallel to the ground, and a couple of inches from your body.

Remember again to breathe.

Your right arm will be near your private area, palm facing up, elbow bent so that your upper arm is perpendicular to the floor. Your hand is a few inches from your body, and directly below where your left hand would be, if your left hand were aligned at the center of your body.

You will be looking over your right shoulder.

Your hands are in a modified "holding a ball" posture, and I hold this in a relaxed manner, shoulders relaxed, breathing, for as long as I can, or until I am quite warm.

Don't forget to Ring a Bell tomorrow for Barry!

Music Monday Aquarium Edition

While reading everyone's take on this week's MTSO theme, a couple of songs came to mind.

From Mark, Butler, and Bagman's post:


And from Patience's post:

My Town Shoot Out - Aquariums

This week's shoot out theme is courtesy of ChefE of Creative TMI. "An Aquarium or fish tank can come in many different shapes and sizes. Common types are glass and acrylic. We have them in our homes, we have them in our communities. Granted this time of year where I live is not as popular to go on a road trip to visit the one we have in Camden, NJ, but I have been wanting to go.

If you think about it we are all living on one big giant fish bowl, and viewing each others lives through our blogs. We also have probably been swimming and taken a few underwater photos! My new phone has an app that allows me to take fish bowl photos A puddle, or even just a lonely beta or goldfish will suffice. Get creative, and I am sure whatever you all post will be nice!"
I encourage you to go and see everyone's contributions here or here.

I won't get to Monterey Bay Aquarium until next month, so I tooled on over to Aquarium Concepts here in town and got some great shots!
This shot of a ray is completely unaltered, which is something I cannot say for a vast majority of my work.

Was playing with sharp filter on this clown fish:

This is only one rack of corals that AC has, and they are all fascinating and beautiful:

I love eels - I know I'm weird that way:

This little guy made me think of Spongebob's favorite hobby:

The anemonae are lovely as well:

Really filtered for contrast:

Soft coral:

This coral was waving in the current:

A fuzzy image of a shark:

I thought the mouth on this guy was cool:

You can even buy salt and brackish water:

Happy Weekend all!