Moving stinks

'nough said.

Definitely a picture just to stay in the contest because who on earth documents boxes of books, drawers and exercise stuff? Ugh!

Mother's Day

The longer I live, the more I become like my mother. I can't help it! I just randomly do something to make myself look ridiculous:) But the more I see her gentle spirit, the more I see her selfless attitude, the more I see her do funny things to get a laugh, the more I realize...I do want to be her someday. I want to be the one who makes silly jokes and hums without realizing I am. I want to be the one who makes little kids giggle and adults roll their eyes with a smile. Mostly I want to be the one my daughter depends on, for strength, for faith, and for the example of how love should be given and received.


My grandmother, another pillar of strength in my life, chose the chinese buffet for dinner today (she is finally admitting that she likes chinese food) and we all met for some lunch and fun. I was trying to get Madilyn to laugh which is when I had the epiphany that I am becoming my mother. She then grabbed the camera and began her quest to digitally idolize my stupidity! This is called an animated gif, like Joel (thephotositake.blogspot.com) did a few weeks ago. Great idea for time lapse photography and weird series like this one:




Then I tried my own: Actually only one of these pictures was taken by me! Mom grabbed the camera and started shooting away, so Mom, here ya go! I love you!

Who said anything about New Jersey?!?

Must be losing my mind...when I agreed to chaperone a field trip with my RPI students, I guess I missed somewhere in there that we would be traveling to New Jersey! But we did, to the Buehler Challenger and Science Center in Paramus New Jersey. The center is dedicated to the Challenger astronauts and their mission and what a great experience it was! The kids spend some time learning to work as team, just like a real command crew would. Here's an example:

Crossing the room like that is no easy feat! There were other challenges and then we divded up into two teams, a mission control team and a space shuttle team. My team went into the shuttle simulator first.

Wow, that was cool. Each of us had a different job, from communications to robotics to probe building to navigation. Oops! Emergency! A water vapor leak endangers our communications systems.

After about 45 minutes, we switched and entered Mission Control. Here the kids and I get a lecture about what our job will be as we complete the mission of the lost Challenger crew.

One interesting thing that happened was we had an oxygen tank go out and had to fix it within 5 minutes. The crew in the shuttle and the kids in mission control did some math and figured it out...with just 5 seconds to spare! It was a great experience, the kids had fun, and it really was all about the team work. Though I'm tired and cranky now, I'm thankful for the chance to go and for the smiles, laughter, and learning we ALL had today:

Goodbye, blue sky

Running in the shadows, sad something

Steve's assignment for today was shadows, inspired by his favorite person, of course, Stevie Nicks. The lyric above is from the song, Golddust woman. Thinking of that, plus the shadow assignment, I had no idea what to shoot, but was envisioning soft golden shadows and suddenly remembered a recent moleskin I found. Moleskin books have been around for about two centuries and were written in by many famous artists, composers and writers. I have a few around and I randomly write things down: beginnings and endings of stories, songs, whatever is on my mind. I've never filled one up, but I imagine my children and grandchildren finding them all over the place when I am dead and gone and reading the scattered pieces that were once my life. I love this assignment by the way, Steve, because I feel like a shadow myself these days, wondering if anyone truly does see the real me.

The first two I need help deciding on: The first one, the candle is slightly out of focus and the words are in focus.

The second, the candle is sharp with the moleskin blurred.

Which do you like?

These last two I just like alot. More golden shadows and a halo-ed candle with very low light settings. I hope it counts for a shadow.

(Enlarge for full filter effect)

Walking on the wild side

First, let me say that I am a total chicken when it comes to photography. I am definitely not a "Trish" if you know what I mean...lying in front of 1500 pound beasts and all that. So today I had to muster up my courage to walk on the wild side. I have been walking about 3 miles a day for a little over a week now and I have been passing by this beautiful, derelict old fence with a quite obvious posted sign on it. It lies a good distance from my chosen and legal walking path. I decided hey, if Trish can risk her life, then I can leave my path and take a few shots (hopefully the landowner does not own a gun, right?). I got these...

Which do you like best?

Enlarge for best views. I turned the contrast up just a bit on all of them to emphasize the wood against the green leaves and the last one has an "angled strokes" filter. Believe it or not, I was too chicken to get "the shot" I was actually looking for but there's always another day, right? ~Courage doesn't always roar. Sometimes courage is the little voice at the end of the day that says I'll try again tomorrow. ~Mary Anne Radmacher

(And the little voice that says, "don't stop trying" when life gets hard).

Pill spill