#Dogwood Week 7, Portrait: Faceless

#Dogwood Week 6, Artistic: Candy (Macro)

The challenge for this week took me a while, it was a challenge.  I just couldn't find anything that I really wanted to take pictures of.  The challenge suggested candy and I am not the kind of person that enjoys taking those pictures.  If I don't enjoy it I'm not going to do it.  So I put this one off a week to give myself more time to ponder it.

So I came up with some things that I do enjoy.  Legos and the beach ... LOL!!  I have recently got the New York Skyline Lego set that had the Statue of Liberty, Empire State Building, Chrysler Building, Flatiron Building and the Freedom Tower.

Flatiron Building

Statue of Liberty

I'm still not crazy about these pictures.  I think they could have been more clear and crisp.  But ... I'm still learning.  

The next set of pictures are of seashells that I have collected through the years on the beach of Hatteras, NC.  

Again ... not real happy with how these turned out either.  But ... at least I tried.  This was a definitely a hard one for me.

This challenge is hosted by Dogwood Photography and called the Dogwood 52 Week Photography Challenge. 

And if you want to check out more of our challenge pictures please click this link.

#Dogwood Week 5, Landscapes: Black & White

The #Dogwood Week 5 challenge had us back at Landscapes.  This time they wanted you to take some that made good Black and White pictures.  I was excited about this from doing Black & White Sunday since we started the blog.  We are normally pretty regular posting to that blog hop with missing a day here and there (like last week!).

The hard part about this assignment was picking the right picture for it.  So, as usual I have several I want to share with you.

We went on a hike just days after Winter Storm Jonas blew through and it gave us some pretty contrast with the snow. I have some darker picture and some lighter pictures.  And of course the collies had to get in a  few.  Its weird sharing pictures without them in it.

This challenge is hosted by Dogwood Photography and called the Dogwood 52 Week Photography Challenge. 

And if you want to check out more of our challenge pictures please click this link.

#Dogwood Week 4, Portrait: Headshots

The #Dogwood Week 4 challenge is a Portrait of a Headshot.  They wanted this to be different than the selfie and to take a picture of someone else.  Since I normally take dog pictures, that's who I used for my head shots.

I've done some research on taking dog head shots on how to get it just right.  You focus on the eye and you try and show shoulders up.  I did that with Teach and Tucker, but Roxy got a little different kind of head shot.  

For this challenge I waited to complete it until this weekend when I got my new 35mm lens.  I've been wanting one of these since I got my camera.  I've seen people take pictures with them and I just loved what it did for a picture.  Especially how the f-stop goes to f/1.8.  Makes for fuzzy backgrounds and really brings the subject into focus.  My other lenses would do this as well but not this extent. 

 

This challenge is hosted by Dogwood Photography and called the Dogwood 52 Week Photography Challenge. 

And if you want to check out more of our challenge pictures please click this link.

#Dogwood Week 3, Artistic: Red

For the #DogwoodWeek3 photo challenge it is something red.  Something that inspires us.  Well red is not my favorite color so seeking inspiration in red was going to be hard.  At first I set off to just take a picture of something red.  So I took the picture below.

But I just wasn't feeling it.  Yes it had red in it, but I didn't like it.  Taking pictures like that isn't what I want to do.  So I decided that I would share it only if I came up with something else.  And of course that I did.

We went on a snowy hike Friday at Little Beaver State Park.  After Winter Storm Jonas dumped around a foot of snow on us last weekend we were ready to get out and stretch our legs.  I, of course, had my camera in tow (which I need to find a better way to carry it while hiking).  

The dogs and I were walking up at the camp group when in the distance I saw this:

Now without zooming up you can't see what I saw in the background and even with zooming up its hard to tell.  But ... I'll show you.

My something red this week is:

My lesson this week for the photo challenge is just wait something that inspires you or says "take my picture" is around every corner.  We have hiked this area countless times and I can't believe I didn't even remember seeing it up there.  

This challenge is hosted by Dogwood Photography and called the Dogwood 52 Week Photography Challenge. 

And if you want to check out more of our challenge pictures please click this link.

#DogwoodWeek2: Traditional Landscape

So we are on week 2 of the #Dogwood Photo challenge.  The challenge this week was: Week 2, Landscape: Traditional Landscape. This week's seemed pretty easy (and thankfully no selfies!) except with the weather I was pretty much stuck at home.  So my landscape is just that ... a picture of the back yard.  The first picture I took last Monday when it was hovering in the single digits.  I tried decreasing the f-stop to increase the depth of the picture (and I'll be honest with you I can't tell a difference when I do this!).

And the picture below was taken yesterday after Winter Storm Jonas blew through.  This one I also decreased the f-stop to increase the depth and if you look really close you'll see Tucker in the picture.

I've never been a big landscape person.  I'd rather be taking a picture of "something".  If I had been able to get out I had an idea of where I wanted to take a picture at, but that didn't work out.  I'll save it for a later assignment.  

This challenge is hosted by Dogwood Photography and called the Dogwood 52 Week Photography Challenge. 

And if you want to check out more of our challenge pictures please click this link.

#DogwoodWeek1: Portrait Take A Selfie

Last year we attempted to keep up with the 52 photo challenge and it just got too much for us and I'm sad to say we didn't keep up.  So this year I wanted to try another one that wasn't as strenuous.  And our friends over at Cascadian Nomads started doing a challenge that looked fun.

Bethany was kind enough to tell me some about it and that its exactly what we're after.  Something that isn't very strict and lets you work at your own pace.  And it lets me use my new camera even more and by the end we may even figure some more out about it.

This challenge is hosted by Dogwood Photography and called the Dogwood 52 Week Photography Challenge.

The first week they said was to take a selfie and use the self timer on your camera.  Okay, so it already starts off getting me out of my comfort zone ... I HATE SELFIES...LOL!!!  But for the spirit of doing it I sucked it up and had Teach pose with me (and you can see Tucker's ears down below the couch!).