Z is for Zen

Last one! And I have to say, I'm relieved. Taking a halfway decent picture every single day is NO JOKE. I started off strong and about halfway through I felt like I had lost all my steam and my photos were getting worse instead of better. Some days I definitely put in more effort than others, and it showed.

But I'm so glad I took on the challenge and glad I stuck it out. I definitely learned a few things and got lots of both encouraging and helpful feedback from the class. I knew at the end of it if I had at least gotten one shot that I loved then it would be a win, and I definitely think I did that. If you're curious, here are my favorites:

S is for Sugar
L is for Lucky Strike
C is for Cookies and Milk
T is for Torture
H is for Humiliation
R is for Rain
Q is for Quiet
And of course, B is for Baby

Q is for Quiet

It was so weird this morning to look outside and see so much fog with the sun shining. I decided it would make a nice Q picture for a quiet morning in the cul-de-sac.

One more picture left tomorrow (Z). Then we get to move on to the really fun stuff -- baby talk!

K is for Keyboard

A long day/evening at work, combined with me being down to letters Q, Z, and K had me stressed. Then I realized I had been sitting in front of a K all day! This was an iPhone + Instagram product.

O is for Orchid

These are the orchids Lee gave me for Valentine's Day. I love how the first one almost seems to pop off the picture.

B is for Baby!

That's right, we're expecting! Due date is September 4th. More details to come :)

E is for Eerie

We're having some rough weather today, but the clouds rolling in was kind of a cool sight.

J is for Jell-O

I really struggled with this one. Who knew jell-o was so hard to photograph? This was actually taken in the refrigerator (the light in there isn't half bad!). I tried again this morning in the daylight but the pictures were even worse! Oh well, moving on...

M is for Main Street

I took my camera out of my bag to find a dead battery, so I had to rely on my iPhone instead. And this isn't really Main Street, it's the back of Main Street, but we're getting down to the short rows people, so I'm having to get creative.

A is for Afternoon Snack

Making fruit salad is one of my favorite things about summer. I never think to do it in the winter, even though it's definitely still possible (albeit with a smaller selection of fruits). I used a piece of foam core as my backdrop, so I feel all fancy now.

X is for (Railroad) X-ing

On our last visit to Fuquay, I had seen a train car stopped on these tracks and thought it would be a nice photo. But alas, when I went back the train was gone and only the empty tracks were left (how dumb of me to think it would still be there?). It's a bit of a stretch for the letter X, but at least I got it out of the way (Q and Z are still plaguing me).

R is for Rain

Sunday was such a washout, I knew it would be hard to get a pic. But I was fairly happy with how this turned out. By the time we got back to Raleigh the rain had turned to sleet and finally snow. Pretty for looking at, but not so fun for driving in. But we finally made it home safely!

G is for Green

We were in La Grange this weekend, so of course I had to get a farm shot. I was surprised that there was so much green already in February.

I is for "It's Bo Time!"

That melty cheese. That crunchy bacon. That buttery biscuit. A heavenly Friday-morning treat.

U is for Up

A different perspective of the Lucky Strike tower.

V is for Valentine's Dessert

Lee and I decided to keep Valentine's low key and do dinner at home. I came home to homemade spinach & artichoke dip and shrimp & grits, plus a sweet card and beautiful orchid plant. It was perfect.

My contribution? This teeny cheesecake from a local cafe. I was too full to eat it after dinner, but Lee said it was delish. I can't wait to eat my portion tonight.

This photo? It could definitely be better. I took it at my desk at work because I knew it would be dark by the time I got home. The windows provide some awesome light (not to mention the view), but I could probably have spent some more time getting it just so -- but I was in a hurry to get home to my Valentine!

H is for Humiliation

She loves going on walks, but hates her muzzle lead (it looks bad but it's the only thing we've tried that keeps her from pulling so badly, which makes for a happier walk for us and her).

I think the real issue though is when we see other dogs on our walk, and she looks up at me like "Really with the muzzle? This is so embarrassing. I have zero street cred now."

P is for Personal Pizzas

Lunch on Saturday. Yum.

W is for Willy Wonka

Catching up from my SFS pics over the weekend.

This was taken at 9:00 on Friday night, as I scrambled to try and get a picture in before the deadline. Pictures in the dark = no bueno. Trying to be more mindful from now on about planning my pictures out ahead of time.

Y is for Yellow

I had to take this in the morning before work (on the side of the road, no less) so I didn't spend the time to get it right. I'm not happy with this one, but at least I got it done. On to the next letter...

F is for Fungus

So, it's obvious that I've completely abandoned my theme of "love." Instead the theme is "whatever semi-interesting thing I can find to take a picture of every day before the sun goes down."

But still, this tree fungus is somewhat pretty, don't you think? I could probably grow to love it if I had to.

C is for Cookies and Milk

Redo of my cookies and milk shot. The white background was causing me all sorts of trouble, so I decided to use the farm table instead.

I'm happy with it, although I think we can all agree the version with the puppy was much better.

T is for Torture

I was determined yesterday to take a "milk and cookies" shot for my SFS picture. I even baked cookies from scratch and had my milk bottle styled just so. But it was cloudy all day and I had basically no indoor light. I had to move my setup right next to the back door and poor Sugar was tormented. This actually turned out to be my favorite shot of the day. And judging from the reactions from my classmates (and teacher) it's the happy accidents that often turn out the best, right?

Hopefully I'll get to try the milk and cookies shot again when the sun cooperates (and sans puppy).

D is for Droplets

It was such a dreary day yesterday, but I was determined to get outside for my SFS shot, even in the rain. Green pine needles and water droplets made for a nice subject.

N is for Newel Posts, New and Old

On Friday I toured the historic home of a coworker that he's renovating in downtown Durham. It was very impressive and inspiring and I'm hoping to share more pictures with you this week. I fell in love with these newel posts (the original and two replicas) and decided to use this shot for my Souvenir Foto School Day 3 picture.

L is for Lucky Strike

I walk by this tower every single day on the way to and from work and have never once stopped to take a picture. This was taken from the top of the parking deck at sunset.

While it doesn't exactly fit my self-imposed "love" theme (I definitely do not love Lucky Strikes), I do love where I work and am lucky to have this view every day.

S is for Sugar

There are few things in this world I love more than this dog, and few things she loves more than attention from her Daddy and playing fetch with her ball (both of which she's eyeing longingly in this photo).

P.S. - I was so nervous to share this with the class, but I got tons of positive feedback which was so encouraging. Or maybe it's just my dog is so darn cute?

Souvenir Foto School

So I've done terrible on my resolution to blog more. But today is February 1st and that changes today! Why? Because I HAVE been doing well on my resolution to try and improve my photography.

First, I took an intermediate photography workshop in downtown Raleigh this weekend. It was short and sweet (just 2 hours) and honestly wasn't life-changing. But I did learn a thing or two I didn't know before (or had forgotten) and I did take this pretty cool picture of the instructor.



Second, I bit the bullet and signed up for Miss B's Souvenir Foto School. This session of Foto School is centered around the theme A-Z, and you commit to taking one photo a day for 30 days, each relating to a letter of the alphabet. You upload you photo each day to a private Flickr group and get feedback from the instructors and the class.

I've been thinking about signing up for the past year or so, but could never get the nerve. I just now submitted my first picture and even though some participants are solely shooting with iPhones or point-and-shoot cameras, I'm already feeling out of my league! There are some seriously creative people in the group! (And one of my blog idols, Jules from Pancakes and French Fries, is even in the class. Yikes!)

But I signed up because I want to practice and improve, and that's what I intend to do. And if we're being honest, I also signed up because I knew this would provide blog content for the entire month!

We were encouraged to pick a theme for our alphabet series, to narrow down our subjects and give us some guidance. Since it's February, I decided to choose Love. It could be things I love, photography techniques I love (wide aperture!) or straight up Valentine's candy.

So tomorrow I'll show you day 1. We have until midnight each day to post our pictures, so I'll post my photo here the following day. And I'll still be popping in with regular blog content here and there.

Here goes nothing!