"Up Close"

Your new assignment is to get up close to your subject. Pick an everyday object and focus on a small part of it. Get as close as your camera will allow you to focus and shoot away. Try for different angles and unusual lighting to add to the mystery of this tiny world. From the whiskers of your pet cat, to a fragile Christmas ornament, to soap bubbles, there is an entire world that we often overlook because we don't get close enough.

Your new assignment is: Your Food

You know how Monet became an unstoppable Impressionist juggernaut? He painted the same stuff over and over again.
It works for photographers too — Cecile Figuette takes a Polaroid of everything she eats. Every. Single. Day.
Focus on one subject, and you’re forced to evolve your style to keep it interesting… change your perspective, change the way you see things, change everything!
Do it for a while and everything you shoot starts looking better, not just your spicy sopressata with Italian Fontina and pesto on country bread. (Fancy pants!)
Leftovers: The Prettiest Polaroid Food Blog You Ever Saw

Take some photos of your food this week and see if you can match the exquisite beauty of Cecile Figuerette's photos on her blog (linked above).

"summer"

This is my dog.

Your new assignment is "Summer"

Think about this for a bit. So many ways to share about what this particular summer means to you. It is a season, for sure, but for most of us a time of specific activities: sleeping in (or not--working full time), vacations, new or old friends, changes in direction, new ideas , hobbies, boredom, etc. Technically in the northern hemisphere, it begins with the summer solstice..the day with the most hours of light. (June 21st this year)

A solstice is an astronomical event that happens twice each year, when the tilt of the Earths axis is most inclined toward or away from the Sun, causing the Sun's apparent position in the sky to reach its northernmost or southernmost extreme. The name is derived from the Latin sol (sun) and sistere (to stand still), because at the solstices, the Sun stands still in declination; that is, the apparent movement of the Sun's path north or south comes to a stop before reversing direction. (Wikipedia)

Post no more than two images. Give some explanation about each.

Welcome Back

It's that time of year again when the locusts are buzzing and I know with some sadness that we are on the brink of fall. Still the fan is running all night in my bedroom window, and complaints about the heat abound. So, no worries, yet. I am excited to be back at school with some of my favorite people--STUDENTS!! Yes, really. Get ready for challenge, excitement, and fun on our blog.

Your new assignment is "Saying Goodbye"

Sometimes it's hard to say goodbye. It just feels easier to keep holding on. But in the long run it's usually a good idea to let go, it's the daring thing to do. It allows room for new things, for transformation. And maybe the goodbye isn't even forever, but you can't know until you really say goodbye and mean it. In some cases, goodbye is really the end, and good riddance!

For this assignment, say goodbye to all the things you need to let go of: bad habits, dead people, alive people, ex-boyfriends and girlfriends, self-destructive feelings and behaviors, jobs, projects, re-occurring thoughts, etc. Write it as a simple list…and then illustrate one or two.

Goodbye Bill.
Goodbye wetting the bed.
Good bye interrupting people when they are talking.
Etc……..

It can be as long or as short as you like. And, most importantly, take a moment with each one to really say goodbye. This isn't a catalogue of your fears and faults, this is a ceremony to bid them farewell.

Ice Cream...your new assignment..posted by me very late

"My advice to you is not to inquire why or whether, but just to enjoy your ice cream while it is on your plate - that's my philosophy." by Thornton Wilder (1897-1975), from The Skin Of Our Teeth, written in 1942

Ice cream or ice-cream (originally iced cream) is a frozen dessert usually made from dairy products, such as milk and cream, combined with fruits or other ingredients. Most varieties contain sugar, although some are made with other sweeteners. In some cases, artificial flavorings and colorings are used in addition to (or in replacement of) the natural ingredients. This mixture is stirred slowly while cooling to prevent large ice crystals from forming; the result is a smoothly textured ice cream.

I grew up in the cold-war 1950's and '60's, when "The Russians" were testing nuclear bombs, which sent nuclear fallout all over the world in the atmosphere. Somehow my mother overcame her fears and let me and my brothers bring in potentially contaminated snow to make "ice cream"...a dreamy concoction of snow, milk, sugar, vanilla, and even chocolate.

One other early memory of going to get ice cream, was dressing up in my spiffiest outfit of pedal-pushers, and crop top (age 4-5) on a summer Friday night. The place was called "Van's" and was located where Dominoes now stands. I would always get orange sherbet---never "real" ice cream. My favorite now: Young's Dairy.......cinnamon...the best.