Your Substitute Monday Photo Shoot #1: What's New?

It is 2008 and John Scalzi, the blogfather, has moved on leaving a large hole in our little community. One of the memes that John used to do each week was the Monday Photo Shoot. Although I didn't always participate, I still enjoyed checking it out each week, and I was feeling a little sense of loss. Apparently so was Karen over at Outpost Mavarin. She has decided to take up the discarded meme (with John's blessing) and run with it. This is the first week she is hosting it.

So, let's get on with it! This week's Monday Photo Shoot is:

Your Substitute Monday Photo Shoot #1: What's New? In honor of the new year, show us something new. It can be a gift you got over the holidays, something you gave yourself, or even something that symbolizes the New Year to you. If it's new, it'll do!

Since I am currently without my trusty laptop {{{waaaaaahhhhh}}}}, I decided to cheat a little bit and go online and find a photo of my What's New. Yeah, I know it is cheating, but ya do what you can do LOL!

My What's New was a sort of Christmas present. We were shopping in the local B&N Bookstore on the Sunday after Christmas because I wanted to see if the calendars were on sale yet. They were, along with some nice Christmas cards at 50%. I ended up picking up a beautiful box of cards for next year, but no calendar. I decided to check the Mall on our next day off for a calendar, as they have the huge kiosk of calendars every year. I had technically done what I was supposed to do, but come on..... it's a bookstore! So I decided to browse for a little bit.

One of my favorite animal photographers is Robert Vavra. He does wonderful pictures, and I have a few of his books. People often think he only does horses, but I have not only Eqqus, but Eqquus Reined, The Unicorn of Kilomanjora, and.... Vavra's cats! Anyway, on the sales rack I spotted a Vavra book that I had never seen. It was huge. Not only was it thick and heavy, but it was in a large format to further emphasize these beautiful photos. I glanced at the price thinking I might beg for it later. It was only $29.99. My mouth dropped and I quickly pointed it out to G. He said, "Merry Christmas, get it!" I flipped thru the copies and picked out the one with the best dust cover and paid for it. I was happy to leave the bookstore now because I couldn't wait to get out in the car and look at this gorgeous book more closely.

 

 

After getting home I took the time to look and see when the book was published because I was surprised that I had never seen it before.... The publication date? Wait for it.... 2007! Hmmmm..... So I went online to Vavra's website and discovered the book being advertised as coming out in November of 2007. Now I was really curious. Quickly googling the book I discovered it for sale on a couple of sites, including Borders and Amazon... for $60. Why this book was on the discounted shelves and for half the price only 2 months after it's publication? I don't know... but I'm glad I grabbed it before anyone discovered the mistake.

The Book is huge and gorgeous. Admittedly there are no new pictures, it is a retrospective of the photos he has taken over the last 60 years, but many of the pictures are from books I haven't purchased, so they are new to me.

There you have it... my first (albeit cheating) entry in the New Monday Photo Shoot. Want to play along? Just snap a picture, post it in your blog, and pop over to Karen's and leave your link. She is extending this week's entries till Sunday night, so you still have plenty of time!

Your Monday Photo Shoot: 2003

Four years ago the Blog Father was born when John Scalzi started his Journal By the Way on AOL's brand new (then) blogging platform. To celebrate, John's challenge for this week is:

Your Monday Photo Shoot: Find a picture from 2003 and post it. Any picture is fine; it just has to be from the now-oh-so-distant year of two thousand aught-three. Surely you have pictures from then? Yes?

Wow... 2003..... My immediate thought was, "Cool! We were still with the circus then and traveling all over the country. I should have something really interesting from then I could post. I grabbed the DVD that has those pictures on it, blew the dust off of it, and inserted it in the laptop. I was busy going thru my mind what wonderful thing I would show you about my life way back then. But, the first set of photos I brought up reminded me of the most important thing that happened that year..... Puppy pictures of Morgan! She was so tiny when we got her in July of 2003 at barely 6 weeks old. Get ready to say "Awwwwwwwww!" 

 

 

Your Monday Photo Shoot: Geometry

Monday Photo Shoot: Picture something that shows off something geometrical. Squares, cubes, vectors, right angles, tangents and so on; basically, any picture that shows geometrical forms and shapes in an interesting and obvious way.

When I saw this week's Photo Shoot topic over at By the Way, I knew I had the perfect photo.... At the zoo last Thursday I saw a cute little 'extra' animal. If you keep your eyes open you sometimes see animals at the zoo who aren't 'officially' a part of the show! This little guy was hanging out next to one of the exhibits and I snapped a couple of shots. Actually you will see him again as I have a shot after he moved when he is surrounded by leaves that I like, but it didn't fit this particular assignment.

I almost didn't bother to put the photo up since I missed the deadline, but decided to do so anyway because: 1. I already had the photo ready to go and 2. I figured you would all understand the reason I wasn't online. I had the chance to go to the movies and see Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix with my favorite man! Ummmm... my impression? I liked it. Now I just have to wait one more week for the last book! LOL!

 

Your Monday Photo Shoot: Crowds

Taking a break from my Adventures in Vacationing, I thought I would see what John over at By The Way had up for this weeks photo shoot.

Your Monday Photo Shoot: Get a picture of a crowd or crowded event. Conventions, weddings, parties in cramped spaces -- you know, anywhere there's lots of folks doing something.

Hmmmm... well, that seemed simple enough! So, here is a picture of one of the locals here getting ready to rope a steer and the crowd behind him, Most of them were waiting their turns ;p

 

 

Want to play along?? Snap a picture, pull it up out of your archives, or scan it in. Once you have it in some form of electronic pixels and bits, put it into a blog entry and pop over to John's and leave your link! Now, get out there and find a crowd!?! 

Your Monday Photo Shoot: Orange

At first glance I wasn't sure about what to do for this weeks Photo Shoot from John, but luckily for me the perfect photo opportunity presented itself on Tuesday. They came to break ground for the new barn, and low and behold.... one of the big earth movers was ORANGE! But, not being satisfied with just a picture of a big orange machine, I wanted a horsy reaction to it. Unfortunately, all of the horses met the coming of the big orange monsters with.... boredom! Sigh! Still, I did get a shot of Boo at least lifting his head from his supper to take a look at one of them!

Your Monday Photo Shoot: Orange

Consider Orange. It's a fine color, but of all the colors in our cultural spectrum, it's the one that seems to get the least respect -- sure, you wear it for a safety vest, but you're not especially likely to wear it to fancy ball (especially if you're a guy). So this week's Photo Shoot is about giving up a little respect for the color:
Your Monday Photo Shoot: Picture something in orange. As a challenge, don't take pictures of actual oranges (the fruit), and picturing actual pumpkins seems a little too easy too. Other than that, go for it.

Want to play along?? Just pop over to By The Way on Monday's and check out the topic and get out there and take a photo!

Side note added later: It's harder to see in this pic because I downsized for the internet, but in the original larger file you can -really- see Boo's tongue sticking out LOL!

Your Monday Photo Shoot: The Letter "B"

Your Monday Photo Shoot: Take a picture of something beginning with the letter "B". That shouldn't be too brain-busting, right?

It's especially easy if your favorite horse is named.... Boo! LOL!

If you want to play along, just pop over to John Scalzi's blog By The Way and join in! 

Your Monday Photo Shoot: Blue Skies

Well, this assignment from John was a no brainer:

Your Monday Shoot: Picture some blue, blue skies. Wide stretches of blue are the goal here. Fluffy clouds are great, too -- but try to get the skies mostly blue. Interesting stuff in the foreground is groovy, too.

What's a picture of a pretty blue sky without a couple of horses up front for contrast?!? And, as luck would have it, yesterday morning showed me a beautiful, cloud free sky... Perfect for Mr. Scalzi to fly thru. Unfortunately for him..... He was flying somewhere else and had to spend some time sitting on a runway in a plane that wasn't moving. Oh well, at least you get to enjoy my pretty blue sky AND my pretty horses!

Your Monday Photo Shoot: Blossoms and Blooms

This week the blogfather offers up a chance to bring a little Spring into our blogs. I had taken a few pictures of new blooms last week, but couldn't decide on just 1 to use... heck, I had trouble picking 6!

 

Your Monday Photo Shoot: Take a snap of some of the latest blossoms and blooms near you. If for some reason it's still too chilly where you are, one, you my sympathy, and two, go ahead and use a picture from your archives. But everyone else should go out and take a fresh picture if they can. Let's see what spring looks like here in 2007.

For my entry, I give you an explosion of color!

 

Want to play along?? Put up a pic, pop over to By the Way and leave a link!

Your Monday Photo Shoot: Night Shots

John over at By The Way offers up this Monday Goodness....

Your Monday Photo Shoot: It's Night! Take a picture. Naturally, taking a picture inside at night (i.e., where it's well lit and indistinguishable from day) won't do; take a picture that captures some of the quality of the night time. Also: No sunset photos. We'll save them up to do another time

The minute I saw this assignment I knew exactly what shot I was going to use. This was taken with my 18-55 lens. I hadn't gotten my new lens yet, which was too bad because the shot would have been even better with it. I'm sure I'll get another chance at clouds and moon again ;p

Your Monday Photo Shoot: Such Great Heights

From the Blogfather comes this weeks Monday Photo Shoot:

Your Monday Photo Shoot: Show off a picture taken from a height. "A height" you can define as "Higher than I could shoot a picture by holding the camera over my head." Pictures from planes, from the observation decks of skyscrapers, from the roof of your house (although I don't want to put yourself in physical danger to take a picture) or wherever is up there in the air.

I knew immediately which picture I would use for this! This picture was taken at the top of the Pyramid of the Sun. what you see is the Pyramid of the Moon.. which we also climbed. We took a day trip to the pyramids during the time we worked in Mexico. That would have been the spring of 2003. Oh, and the walk to the top of the Pyramid of the Sun??? Wow!

Want to play along? Take a picture, find one in your archives, steal one from the neighbors! Put it up in an entry in your Journal/Blog and then pop over to John's and leave some linky love....

Your Monday Photo Shoot: The Eyes Have It!

Gee it's nice when John puts up a Monday Photo Shoot that is a picture I've been meaning to post anyway ;p  So, Here's the assignment for this week:

You're Monday Photo Shoot: Get a really really really close shot of someone's eyes. Try not to use the flash. Or, you know, poke them with the camera. Some judicious cropping will do the job too.

And here is my entry.... It's only one eye, but it is a very cute eye LOL!

 So, get out there, take a cool picture and then drop the link over at By The Way

Your Monday Photo Shoot: Out Your Window, Redux

Blogfather John's Monday Photo Shoot is an easy one this week...

You're up. Grab a camera, pick a window, snap a photo, put it on your blog or journal, and then come back here to leave a link. Let's see the view from your rooms.

So I opened my front door (our windows are the crank kind and wouldn't allow much of a picture) and snapped this:

The horses I take care of are just on the other side of the fenceline that you can see.

Want to play along? Grab your camera, snap a picture and drop your link over at By The Way.....