Project 365 - October 20, 2009

The Lost and Found Class of 2009

I can't really believe that eight weeks flew by so unbelievably fast. I really enjoyed myself in this digital photography class. We covered a lot of information and took hundreds of photos. I made a group of new friends and we vowed to continue on our photo walks together.

Here we are with our teacher, Jeremiah, in the center with the long blond hair. Next to me is Vanessa and then on the other side of our teacher is Sergio and then Alain. There were many more students, but they sort of dropped out class by class. Not sure why.

Oh well, more one on one time for us!!! We are hoping that Jeremiah will be able to teach a more advanced class soon!

Project 365 - October 18, 2009 Part II

My First Real Photography Job

My neighbor bought this car . . . a 1975 Caprice. It is really in mint condition. The engine is spotless, the spare tire is original, there is not a speck of rust anywhere on or under the car . . . and trust me, I took photos from every conceivable angle . . . even under the car!

So here is my favorite shot. To me it looks like a car ad that you might have seen in a Life magazine ad!!

We actually drove right up onto the golf course. I am so glad that no one noticed, we probably would have gotten arrested, even though my neighbor knows the owner of the course!


I took a slew of photos, and edited them a bit and burned them to a CD. About four hours of work . . . and I got paid. Not shabby for doing something I love?? Huh?

Project 365 - October 18, 2009

Sunday Afternoon in the Park

Ok, so I wasn't in a park, it was my neighborhood, but you would never know from the beautiful flowers I was finding! I only had about 45 minutes so I didn't go too far, but the weather was wonderful! After weeks of 95 degree temperatures and super humid air, we woke up to 56 degrees and almost no humidity. I couldn't wait to get outside fast enough!! It felt so so so good!











I loved this photo because in all of the green there was suddenly this burst of color and I used a slow shutter speed so that I could show the wind blowing the pinwheel.










As I was walking around I found a dead tree stump. I touched it and pulled a little piece off of it and found this spongy material inside. I liked the texture of it so I got as close as possible and then made sure I had enough light to show the craggy parts of it.











This flower was about the size of my thumbnail. I liked taking this because it was a real challenge. I put a 2X magnifying filter on my lens and had to hold the stem because the wind was blowing pretty hard. Then I focused the camera but moved in and out manually to find the exact spot to focus on. I really liked this shot because you can see all of the pollen spilling over onto the petals.











And this last shot was a close up of a very large bloom, but I liked this alien-like quality of the spindly petals.

Project 365 - October 16, 2009

2009 Titan Invitational

Friday and Saturday Nova High School hosted the Titan Invitational. This is the name of the Debate Tournament that takes place at our home high school. Because Nova is the host, our kids don't compete. Instead, they do lots of volunteering. They all wear their tee shirts and guide the visiting teams through the maze of the school grounds and help to serve food and clean up.

Parents also volunteer by judging, preparing and serving food or selling food and cleaning up too. I was supposed to judge, but they never called Joel or my name, so I ended up grabbing my camera and snapping tons of photos of the kids around the campus. I, of course, asked for permission first, the only thing I couldn't do was to take photos of the visiting kids since we didn't have their media releases.

Most of the parents thought that I was from the Sun-Sentinel! I just let them think whatever they wanted to think. Easier that trying to explain over and over.

Most of the kids love to pose, some were shy, but most just dove in and gave me their best smiles and silliness. I captured it all and burned the images to a CD for the teacher. This was my favorite because it is the only one with my daughter in it! Adina was so busy working that I didn't see her for five hours! By 11 p.m. I was REALLY ready to go home.

Project 365 - October 15, 2009

My Cup of Water

Ever since I was a little girl I always had to have a glass of water next my bed. I wouldn't be able to sleep if I knew that the glass wasn't there, or if it were empty. That weird habit stuck with me all my life. So there you have it. My glass of water is always there, to make sure that I won't be thirsty in the middle of the night and to make sure that I can sleep peacefully.

Project 365 - October 12, 2009

It Always Helps to Have a Good Subject

I missed my photography class last week so I went to two classes this week. Monday night we had a field trip to downtown Fort Lauderdale. Easy for me since I work there, I just had to go out the door to meet my classmates!

These photos were taken in the span of three hours. I had a ball and I was absolutely filthy and sweaty when I got home because I was crawling around on my stomach on, on my back and on my knees. On the dock, on benches, running and dropping my lens cap and a homeless guy picked it up for me and gave it back. It was truly exhilarating!

Hope you enjoy.

Project 365 - October 8, 2009

Fun with Homework

Doing my homework for class is fun! All I have to do is play with all of the different settings on the camera and shoot and see what I end up with. Then I started using the techniques that we talked about in class and worked on. Thankfully my daughter and her friend were willing subjects.



This first photo was taken at a very slow shutter speed with the aperature all the way opened to allow enough light in to illuminate the ropes on the hammock. Then I didn't look through the lens and twisted the camera as I snapped the lens. It took a little practice to not shake the camera up and down, but I finally got the image I was attempted to get.













In this photo I wanted to distort the length of the hammock so I leaned as close as possible without touching the camera to the hammock. The girls were hamming it up for me by this point!




And in this shot I picked a focal point and zoomed in as I snapped the shutter. I must have taken 25 shots before I got what I wanted. But I had fun. Fun with homework!

Project 365 - October 8, 2009

Community Forum Meeting Part II

The meetings continued at the Coral Springs Center for the Arts. Residents were equally as passionate about their feelings about the future of the arts. The arts consultants engaged the audience in many conversations that went on for a couple of hours. In the end, new contacts were made and old ones renewed.

Project 365 - October 7, 2009

Community Forum Meeting

We have been working nonstop with our arts consultants to get them to meet with all of the different segments of the community. There will be six of these Community Forum Meetings held throughout the County. Here we are at the African American Research Library and Cultural Center. It was an excellent meeting and we had many wonderful conversations. I liked this shot because you can feel as though we are in the center of an intense topic and we were all connected for this moment.

Project 365 - October 4, 2009

Just a Normal Leshinsky Evening

Joel needed to get some information quickly off of his computer, so he just plopped down on the floor next to my side of the bed and made himself at home and started surfing. I was just about to plug in my camera's battery but decided to catch this shot. I know that he didn't look very happy, but he was just concentrating.



And this last shot before the camera went away, was priceless. Grace gets turned onto her back and she falls asleep in this position. If no one bothers her, she will stay in this position forever!

Project 365 - October 3, 2009 Part II

Adina's First Debate

When we returned to the high school after our adventures of wandering around Bayside, Adina was almost done. We sat with the other parents, reading newspapers, working on crossword puzzles and reading email. At 12:30 they were done and before we took off, I snapped a few photos of Adina and her friend.

Then I took a photo of Adina and Joel walking just ahead of me back to the car. I was surprised to see how tall Adina was next to Joel. I know that she had heels on, but suddenly she seemed so grown up!

And then the one of Adina beaming at me with the bright blue sky above her . . . well she looked angelic to me.

On the way home we took Adina to her friend's birthday party which was at the Hollywood Beach Resort. I love the way the outside looks because it reminds me of the way Florida looked when I first moved here 30 years ago. I took that photo from the car.

Then, still in a vacation mode, we stopped at Grampa's Bakery for lunch and then Dairy Belle for soft serve ice cream where you sit outside until a canopy. It really was like an old fashioned trip to Florida!

Project 365 - October 3, 2009

A Morning in Miami

Adina had her first debate tournament and it happened to be in Miami. Once we got there and dropped her off, we had about four hours to kill. It was an almost cloudless day, scorching temperatures and the early morning sun looked absolutely wonderful against the brilliant architecture and contrasting colors of the paints against the sky.

I had fun and Joel made suggestions of what to shoot. It was sort of a team collaboration but he backed off and let me do the shooting. I had fun. Nice to see Joel relaxed too.

Project 365 - October 2, 2009

Lunch Break

I was having a very long and stressful week. Jumping from topic to topic, planning Community Forum Meetings in six different cities, editing magazine articles and press releases . . . saying good-bye to good employees because we can't afford to keep them on the payroll . . . it was just a tough week emotionally.

So, Jose and I decided to take a long walk around downtown with our cameras. These are the results of our efforts. Anyway, these are MY efforts! It was the first day since before the summer that we actually felt a drop in the humidity. It was cool in the shade, but terribly hot in the sun. But it was wonderful to put my mind of the photography and off of the office.