Project 365 - June 26, 2010

FAT Village

FAT Village stands for Flagler Arts and Technology Village.  It is located in downtown Fort Lauderdale just off of Andrews Avenue.  There are two black box theaters, several art galleries, a puppet artist and a bunch of warehouses that sometimes house temporary art exhibition.

Once a month, the fourth Saturday of the month, they have a gallery night event.  So we went to see if there was anything new.  There is always something fun to see and always artists to chat with over a cup of wine.

These photos were taken in Sixth Star Entertainment.  It is a HUGE warehouse of props and costumes and other interesting items.  We were told to have fun and touch everything . . . so we did!!  I took photos of Adina clowning around.  it is fun to see my almost 15 year old let her hair down and be her silly self!

And of course, I had to take an artsy fartsy shot too!

Project 365 - June 27, 2010

Black and White Photography Workshop

Last week I received an email from fotomission, a photography organzation in Miami-Dade.  I had taken a workshop from them in 2008 and really enjoyed it and I have been recieving emails ever since.  I haven't been motivated to go back again, that is until last week.

This particular workshop was focusing only on Black and White photography!  It is what I love to look at and what I have always wanted to do.  I have never attempted it because I know that you have to really know what you are doing.

So now that I understand my camera and the cause and effect of light and shadow, i felt that I was ready for this workshop.

The class took place at the Miami Beach Botanical Gardens which is directly across from the Convention Center and two blocks away from Lincoln Road (one of my favorite places to explore!).

The first half of the class we spent in the classroom learning the principals of tonal range and specular refledtion and textural range and dynamic range.  Then we went out into the gardens looking for subjects with a good focal point and shallow depth of field,  We also were looking for red flowers on green backgrounds or white flowers against the blue sky and so on.

Then the second half of the class we learned a lot of PhotoShop.  Not to add or take away from the photo, but to enhance the photo so that it is a better photograph.

Here are a few of my shots.  There is so much more, but after hours of editing, I needed a break!!  The last photo is my favorite because I took it on the fly as I was walking over to Lincoln Road to get some lunch.  This guy was hiding in the shadows and really didn't want me to take his photo but he kept peeking out so I snapped away.

Project 365 - June 21, 2010

More Bathroom

Here is the downstairs bathroom! Jimmy and George completely stripped it of everything . . . toilet, sink, tile, mirror. It was down to the wall board and cement floor.

This is Jimmy all alone with a workman's light and his coke on the ladder.  This has been what I have been coming home to for the past couple of weeks!  Everyday is a little tiny bit of progress.

Wonder what tomorrow will bring?

Project 365 - June 20, 2010

Happy Fathers Day

Fathers Day in our house always consists of a full day of Dad doing whatever he wants and in this case, Joel wanted to run errands. I was really good, I didn't complain once (except it was like 100 degrees outside).

After Lowes, Home Depot, Costco, Michaels and Publix, I was pooped.

Joel insisted on cooking a really great dinner and my Dad and Elaine joined us.

After dinner we had strawbery shortcake (Joel and Rachel made that!). And I don't know why, but the kids insisted on putting candles in the cake!

After the cake, there were lots and lots of presents. My Dad LOVED his new telephone and razor! Joel loved his "Charlie Sheen" shirts and the graphic tees that the girls picked out.

All in all, it was one really nice day.

Project 365 - JUne 19, 2010

Catching Up Again

I have so many miscellaneous photos that I wanted to upload. Some from my Blackberry and others from my camera.

This first image is of my two photos that are currently on exhibition at the Oakland Park Library.  Rachel's friend, Pearl, was kind enough to send me this photo of my work!  It is still up if you want to take a trip over there to see it.

These next few photos are of the finished bathroom upstairs!  We still have a few items to finish, like the towel racks and then a garbage can and maybe a shelf somewhere.  These were taken before Noah and Rachel painted the room.  Of course the funny story was on Friday when I received a call from Rachel and she asked me hypothetically if a can of Dr. Pepper were to fall into the can of paint, what should she do?  I told her hypothetically to scoop out the soda and mix up the paint really good!  And, DON'T call daddy.  Of course what does she do???  Called her father!!  Oh well.  He told her the same thing!!!

This last photo was taken at the Ilene Lieberman Botanical Garden. I was just finishing up my photo shoot and this guy was walking through the park. I wasn't sure why he was wearing this sign, but I liked the shot and he gave me a winning smile!

Project 365 - June 18, 2010

More Bathroom Renovations

And it continues! On Friday the workers ripped out the guts of the downstairs bathroom! When I came home, this was the site that I was greeted with!

Joel was explaining to Robert what needs to be done to make this a bathroom again!

This is apparently the surprise that Joel was cooking up for me. This will eventually become a bookshelf that will be in the alcove where the toilet is. You see, last year when we took Rachel to college and my dad was taking care of the the cats, he didn't notice that the tiny shelf fell off of the wall and all of the books fell into the open toilet and started to rot in the water during the week that we were gone. When we came home we were greeted with a smell that was beyond discusting! So we have been waiting since August of 2009 to redo this bathroom.

More photos to follow in the coming days!

Project 365 - June 9, 2010

The Bathroom

So . . . our summer will be filled with Home Depot, Ikea, Lowes, Bed, Bath and Beyond and Target.

Why you ask? Well, we planned on simply redoing the wallpaper in the downstairs bathroom. Once we pulled off the wallpaper, we found mold. As we traced it to a leak from the upstairs bathroom and then a second leak from the brand new air conditioner . . . we knew we had a problem!

After the insurance company sent out a "Leak Detector" and then assessed the claim, we realized that this would be a big job.

So here are a few shots of the workers in the upstairs bathroom. The girls picked out the tile. Joel and I picked out the sink, tub and toilet and then Rachel and her boyfriend, Noah, painted.

I will upload more shots in the coming days.

The first shot is a photo that I snapped of Adina while she was surfing the net and clearly ignoring me. I played with the star filter effect on the camera.

Project 365 - June 5, 2010

Fort Lauderdale Beach

I know that I am not uploading my blog in chronological order, but at least I am blogging!!

I have been shooting so much but I have not been good at downloading to my external hard drive and editing the photos! I won't make excuses, but I just haven't, so therefore, I am uploading in random order.

These photos were taken the same day that I did the photo shoot on the beach of my gym's Bootcamp. After the class, I walked around A1A and then drove up to Sunrise and found a free parking spot and went to my favorite place, St. Bart's. There are two St. Barts, one near Las Olas and one near Sunrise and I prefer the one at Sunrise.

So I had a few cups of coffee, in a REAL mug, and a hearty breakfast. While I ate I watched the people go by. Then I moved outside under an umbrella (more coffee too) and started shooting at whatever passed me by. These are some of the moments that I captured.

I really can not imagine living anywhere else. But I suppose at some point in my life I might want a change, but when I see the ocean and the palm trees and the familiar wave wall, I really can't imagine being anywhere else on the planet.

Project 365 - June 13, 2010

Our Diverse County

In Broward County you can be on the beach in the morning, drive west for about 30 minutes and end up in the Everglades and be surrounded by sawgrass and alligators or southwest and see a myriad of horse farms.

Well, Rachel and I had to pick up Adina at her friend's house after a party and right next to the pool is a barn and about ten horses. Rachel and I ventured into the barn area and these are the shots that I took.

The very last photo was taken in a park while I was doing a photo shoot for the City of Lauderhill. I just saw the reflection of the trees in the puddle and played with the color saturation and the sharpness and the contrast and this is the end result.

Project 365 - June 16, 2010

A Visit

Rachel's boyfriend came for a visit from Lafayette, Indiana. He was here for Spring Break too, so this is the second visit. I think he is much more comfortable this time.

The first three photos were taken after dinner with Aunt Marilyn and Uncle Howie (of course they had to meet Noah!).  The kids were comparing their tans.  It is a novelty for Noah!

Later in the evening Noah and Rachel were cuddling and watching movies online while Adina was creating artwork in her room.  The last photo is of the artwork Adina was creating.  Just as I was about to upload this blog, she came into my room to show me, so of course I had to share!

Project 365 - June 14, 2010 (i heart teens)

First Day at Camp (i heart teens)

I edited this post so that I can enter it into the weekly contest online.  The subject on i ♥ faces this week is teens.  These are my two teens who get along amazingly well for teens (most of the time)!  I hope you enjoy this post and subscribe to my blog.  The rest of this post is from June 14.

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Camp started today at the JCC and both Rachel and Adina are working there. This is a day of firsts!! Rachel is a counselor and Adina is a CIT.

So they came home completely exhausted, dirty, sweaty and hungry.

After a shower and dinner we had an assortment of summer fruits spread out on the table and lots of melted dark chocolate. It was yummy!

I ran to grab my camera and this one was one of my favorites!

Not only did I measure the white balance and correct it, I also stood on a chair to get as high up as possible to catch this angle. I played with the manual settings and held my breath so that I didn't need a tripod.

Project 365 - June 5, 2010

Beach Bootcamp with Tony

Once a month my gym offers a bootcamp at 6:45 am on Fort Lauderdale beach. Well this week, I joined them, but not to exercise (although it does look like fun), but to shoot these images.

I really enjoyed myself and took photos with two cameras at the same time, switching back and forth like a maniac, but it became second nature after a while. I really like the close ups.

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