Jan 31, 2010

{day 31} my boys


{day 31} my boys, originally uploaded by MaggieRDA.

Ian and Mike came most often to see me. Poor Mike, I could just see the stress he was dealing with and worry. It's interesting the contrast between his worried face and Ian's smiling, carefree face.

{day 31} my boys
You can just see the love between the two sooo much here.

Jan 30, 2010

{day 30} artwork


{day 30} artwork, originally uploaded by MaggieRDA.

Emmy left me some anime artwork get well pictures ♥ Ian got into it as well. I love them and treasured them. ♥

{day 30}  bored
I'm so glad my kids came to visit me...I missed them like crazy. Here's Miss Em , taking a drawing break to watch Jeff Foxworthy.
{day 30}  mirrored view
I could see the horizon, the fields, sky and the beauty in the reflection of the building.

Jan 29, 2010

{day 29} flowers from friends

{day 29} Good day Sacramento
thank goodness for this show. They kept me occupied and happy and kept my mind off of things every morning from 6am to 10am. :D

{day 29} flowers from friends, originally uploaded by MaggieRDA.

and a book too!! Thank you Sherry & Yvonne. I LOVED waking up and seeing these every morning. ♥

Jan 28, 2010

{day 28} yup, still kicking!


{day 28} yup, still kicking!, originally uploaded by MaggieRDA.

Day 2 in the hospital. It may not be and enthusiastic thumbs up but they're up nonetheless.

Jan 27, 2010

{day 27} out sick


{day 27}, originally uploaded by MaggieRDA.

sorry guys...went into the hospital and was admitted. this day did not get a pic.

Jan 26, 2010

{day 26} long exposure; nightime

{day 26} long exposure; nightime
It was pitch black when I went outside to take this. I set my exposure for 30sec and came out with this. I like the star effect of the lights and the hues in the sky.

{day 26} long exposure; lights
So I pulled out my tripod but didn't go very far to use it. I zoomed in on random things...my lawn lights for example. Yeah, really exciting stuff, I know but I was just playing. I really liked how the light is soft on the leaves and grass.

cropped tight at about 1/4th of original pic.

Jan 25, 2010

{day 25} yup, this IS it.


{day 25} yup, this IS it., originally uploaded by MaggieRDA.
This is all I've got. we picked this set of 4 3D glasses up @ Target for the grammys (guess there's something cool in 3D going on). We probably won't watch them....but the glasses are cool.

I'm pooped. Was a long day. Good news regarding Emmys school progress (yea!) bad news because Emmy was throwing up at school and now is home sick with a fever (boo).

Jan 24, 2010

{day 24} busy day....


{day 24} that's one, big bus, originally uploaded by MaggieRDA.
{day 24} big tire, little boy
This was a good example of "bring your camera wherever you go". We were eating lunch across the street and saw this crazy bus doing donuts in a parking lot. What the heck?? We went over there and they were giving bus rides on this crazy "monster bus".
{day 24} closed
Nut Tree carousel, still a beautiful sight even when it's rainy and covered up.
{day 24} freaky clown light
underneath light @ Applebees. What else can I say except it reminds me of Stephen Kings book "it" *shudder*
{day 24} while i was sleeping..
at 5am my hubby and son were up. I was not. apparently my son spotted this awesome sky and yelled to my hubby "Dad! Dad! The sky's on fire! The sky's on fire!" To which my hubby grabbed my camera (it's ok...I'll forgive him...this time) and caught this amazing sky that i slept through.

Jan 23, 2010

{day 23} rainbows, hail and clouds...oh my!

well, technically it HAILED that hard. It got louder and harder the longer I stood on my porch photographing it. then, as if a faucet was turned. Nothing. All gone. All quiet again.

{day 23} forever chasing rainbows
so I get a call from my hubby who's out and about with my son "you need to get over here...there's this REALLY BRIGHT rainbow!" I look out my back window and see a snippet of it. Next thing you know...I'm in my car with my slippers on chasing rainbows. I caught this pic of it just on the outskirts of vacaville in elmira.

{day 23} looming

Maybe I should call this week the week of clouds. the weather has been so crazy and the sky so beautifully strange I can't seem to NOT photograph it.
You can see a little bit of the town on the bottom of the pic.

Jan 22, 2010

{day 22} sunset after the storm


{day 22} sunset after the storm, originally uploaded by MaggieRDA.
I'm getting a lot of "cloud/ sky" shots lately. It's because it's been raining cats and dogs during midday and the only clear thing I can get are the clouds and I seem to only get them well in the am or pm so here they are. No color adjustment; just defog and saved for web.

Merge of 2 photos.

{click on pic and then click on "all sizes" to see large}

Jan 21, 2010

{day 21} reflecting


{day 21} reflecting, originally uploaded by MaggieRDA.

raindrops on my car hood...reflecting the tree above. Kind of reminds me of a watercolor painting.

Jan 20, 2010

{day 20} game night


{day 20} game night, originally uploaded by MaggieRDA.

(my first pic with the 50D - I attached my fish-eye to it)


it was Ians turn on game night (which is every wednesday). Tonight he picked Monopoly Jr. He picked off Dad, me then Em to win the game!

{day 20} come to mama!!


{day 20} come to mama!!, originally uploaded by MaggieRDA.

it finally arrived. My new baby. A canon 50D with 2 Tamron lenses. *sigh* I'm in love ♥

Jan 19, 2010

{day 19} storm clouds


{day 19} storm clouds, originally uploaded by MaggieRDA.

we received about and inch and a half of rain every hour for hours today. It's supposed to last through thursday. When I got home from work I snapped this. You can see the moon peeking through the top there as the next wave of storm clouds roll in underneath.

Jan 18, 2010

{day 18} i think i've made my point

Jan 17, 2010

{day 17} One day this will all be houses **best viewed full size**

{day 17} one day this will be houses   **best viewed full size**
sadly...that statement is so true. This used to be cow pasture. Look to the left; houses. Look to the right; houses in progress. A year from now the middle will be another subdivision. ug. Sometimes progress sucks.

I think on my 17th day of my project 365 it is appropriate that this photo merge is of 17 individual photos.


I tried to find a good hill to do a panoramic (by merging photos). This took 7 photos to make. I just love the cloud formations. I appreciate mother nature turning off the rain in the 10 minutes I was out there shooting. ;)



Be sure to view the full sized pics on my Flickr page ;)

Jan 16, 2010

{day 16} a mini minnie

{day 16} and we can't for get mickey


{day 16} a mini minnie, originally uploaded by MaggieRDA.

Whilst spending hours cleaning my 15 year olds room I came upon these two old toys. They're itty bitty disney characters and they used to belong to a mini Disney park (goodness only knows whatever happened to that. Probably still in my garage; aka: the black hole).

Jan 15, 2010

{day 15} rock n roll


{day 15} rock n roll, originally uploaded by MaggieRDA.
my little rocker at his finest!

Jan 14, 2010

{day 14} mixed bag


{day 14} mixed bag, originally uploaded by MaggieRDA.
leaves, leaves everywhere and not a rake around. ha. I thought fall happened months ago yet our ground cover seems to be covered in crunchy brown leaves. My poor jade plant even dropped a few (probably from those 30 degree nights). I'm sure it will rebound nicely come spring.

taken with my fisheye lens attached to my 50mm

Jan 13, 2010

{day 13} i ♥ tea


{day 13} i ♥ tea, originally uploaded by MaggieRDA.

it's cold outside. my toes are freezing as they always do when i'm at the computer too long so it's time for a nice cup of tea.

my hubby gave me this fun mug for Christmas. it has a writable surface on the outside (for chalk) so i can doodle on it anytime i want. :)

Jan 12, 2010

{day 12} "no capes"


"no capes", originally uploaded by MaggieRDA.
You know it's been a long day when I'm snapping my 365 pic at...oh...9pm AND that it's a pic of my sons Halloween bag. But, hey, here you go!

Is it really only Tuesday? Ug.

Processing: Alex's color pop, defog, edge sharpen, resize, sfw and framed in Flickr.

Jan 11, 2010

{day 11} field at night


field at night, originally uploaded by MaggieRDA.
I actually love this site when I leave work. I don't know why. Maybe it's the thought of something fun happening over in the football field, who knows. Thought I'd try and capture this tonight with my works Nikon D70 on a long exposure before heading home.

Processing: Defog, resize, edge sharpen, vanilla black and white.

Jan 10, 2010

{day 10} glowing

glowing
yeah, I know I already posted a bunch from today (this morning to be exact) but I have another late entry...taken over 10 hrs from the first.

My husband sent me outside to check out the lights from the prison nearby. With the combination of the fog and the prison being lit up like it is..we see this cool glow. The reflection is because I was using the roof of my car as a tripod. Fun side effect.

Processing: RAW, long exposure, fish eye lens attached to 50mm, defog, edge sharpen, resize and sfw.

{day 10} foggy sunday morning


gnarly, originally uploaded by MaggieRDA.
crick...okay creek
drip drop

I was out and about in the freezing, cold and very foggy weather to try and get some good fog pics. The gnarly tree I snapped sitting in my car at a stop light out in the country whereas the drip I was glad I had my long trench with a hood on because the fog was so wet the tree was drip dripping all over me and my canon.

Processing: Canon, RAW (for drip only) Landscape mode for others, crop, resize, sfw, defog, bloom effect action on gnarly tree and crick.

Jan 9, 2010

{day 9} goodie, goodie...


goodie, goodie..., originally uploaded by MaggieRDA.
gumdrop along with other miscellaneous candies leftover from making Gingerbread men. Taken on my kitchen stove top with my fancy foam bounce card ;)

Processing: RAW mode, 50mm 1.8 lens,  foam bounce card on speedflash, alex's "Jazz it up" color action, defog, sfw, and resize

Jan 8, 2010

{day 8} fish eye'd palm


fish eye'd palm, originally uploaded by MaggieRDA.
Looks like a big ol' storm is whipping around my palms. Nope, it's the fish-eye effect (I seem to be getting lots of use out of my fish eye lens this week).

foggy morning
trying to capture the foggy feel and the crisp weather.

Processing: (palm: fish eye attached to kit lens, RAW, Professional Retro action, defog, SFW, framed. Tree: fish-eye attached to kit lens, Gradient map to B&W, my own tint action, defog, sfw and framed.)

Jan 7, 2010

{day 7} choices...choices...


choices...choices..., originally uploaded by MaggieRDA.
a basket full of Scentsy candle samples to smell. Yummmm. They are all so yummy smelling.

Processing: defog, frame. Shot with Nikon D70

Jan 6, 2010

{day 6} pipe


pipe, originally uploaded by MaggieRDA.
outside my office...

Processing: JPEG, color pop, defog, resize, SFW, framed

Jan 5, 2010

{day 5} xtreme fish eye


xtreme fish eye, originally uploaded by MaggieRDA.

xtreme fish eye II
torturing Emmy's poor Beta fish by snapping it's pic. What a better subject to use a fish-eye lens on then a fish?

Processing:fish eye attached to 18-55mm (kit lens), RAW, defog,popped colors, resize, SFW, framed

Jan 4, 2010

{day 4} mmmm....bao


mmmm....bao, originally uploaded by MaggieRDA.
There's this little hole-in-the-wall oriental store that looks a bit shady and unkempt (from the outside). It looks extremely unimpressive, a bit scary and, frankly, not a place you would expect to find delicious food.

Well, in this place in Sacramento (and don't ask me where it is, I only know how to get there, not exactly where "there" is address-wise) that I would GLADLY drive the hour ,to and from, after a hard days work to buy their pork buns. They are heaven in a glazed wonder. I *heart* them. Seriously. The last time Mike and I went there we brought home 2 dozen because we feared one wouldn't be enough. We kept track of how many each person had and not one of us dared to sneak an extra for fear of punishment. ;)

Well, in perusing Costco the other day I found these. No, they are not oriental-hole-in-the-wall heaven but they are quite delectable and today I called them LUNCH.

Processing: Shot with my fish-eye on my fixed 50mm, RAW, defog, resized, SFW and framed.

Jan 3, 2010

{day 3} Ian having fun painting his plane


Ian having fun painting his plane, originally uploaded by MaggieRDA.

it's nice and colorful isn't it?

Santa brought Ian a wooden plane that you pieced together like a puzzle. Well today we decided to let him paint it! Wow, he had a blast and it was VERY colorful.

Processing: fixed 50mm, RAW, defog, resized, SFW and framed. I used my "better bounce card" method to photograph these (using the thin, white foamy stuff, not paper). Unfortunately I'm still stuck working on my netbook which has an uncallibrated monitor so I have no clue what the colors are looking like :(

Jan 2, 2010

{day 2} Dads slide holder


slide holder, originally uploaded by MaggieRDA.

For those who know and those who don't, we lost my Dad to cancer in October. Since then Mom has been "cleaning house" (so to speak) and giving certain things of Dads to me or my brother. I inherited his camera, equipment and accessories. These were the latest in the handover. I love cool stuff like this.


Thankfully my husband bought me a special scanner for slides and negatives so I can archive all of these (I don't think he ever printed any of his pictures!). It's sure going to be a lot of work but I can't wait to see all of his pictures he took.

Processing: Kit lens, RAW, defog, vignette, resized, SFW, framed