January 2009 Mosaic

Katie posted a great tool on her website, and I have become quite a fan very quickly: the Big Huge Labs Mosaic Maker. I have decided to make a mosaic to summarize each month's photos, and I'll be posting it both here and on my main blog. Because months vary in length, and I like to keep things uniform, and the mosaic maker conveniently holds a maximum number of 36 photos, I'll have to use some "filler photos" to fill in the rest of the spaces. Oh, gee darn, I get to use some of the other great (I hope) or interesting photos that I took during the month but that weren't chosen for the POD. Click the mosaic to "biggify." And here on this blog, you'll get to see a larger version of each of the fill photos, with a little blurb about each. Enjoy!



This was a total lucky shot. I couldn't even see the screen of my camera when I took it. Bengal was sleeping behind DH's recliner (seen in very top left of photo), so I sat in my recliner, set the camera on the carpet, tilted it back, and hoped to have more than just an ear in the picture when I looked. And *this* is what I got! The even more remarkable thing is that this picture is straight off the card. Absolutely no tweaking. As I mentioned before, I prefer not to do a whole lot of tinkering with my pictures. A little cropping, maybe some contrast work, frequently some post-shrinkage sharpening (it can look a little muddy after resizing), and the occasional fill light when needed. Not on this one. Just shrink and post; that's it. Maybe I should take photos without looking more often!



Now this shot was actually intentional, and I'm quite pleased with it. I like the way they seem to glow just a bit, and the interplay of the shadows of one leaf on another. This was at Olive Garden, the same day I took the cheese and crouton shot of Luke.



I was just walking through the mall (same day as the game photo of Luke) when I caught my reflection. I thought it was really neat how far down the walkway you could see due to the curvature of the column. Notice that, due to the seam, you actually can't really see me at all! But can you see Luke? He snuck into the picture as I was taking it. I didn't notice until I flipped over to review the shot and saw the bright orange dot just to the right of center. That is the focus assist beam of his camera. Apparently, if Mommy was taking a picture of it, then so should he.



Pretty obvious what this is, I think. Just in case some of you are tilting your head sideways, it is an oil spot on wet pavement that is refracting the lights in the parking lot. I was just thrilled the photo turned out so well! It could have been a little more in focus, but given the longer than average exposure time, I think I did pretty well. I turned off the flash (which ruined the refraction), set the timer for 2 seconds (so that pushing the button wouldn't cause the camera to shake), held my breath, and waited for the image to appear on the screen. Not too bad!

Wow, I still can't believe I made it! And entire month of taking photos every day (save one). I can't wait to see what the rest of the year looks like. Thank you for coming along with me! It really means a lot to know that all of you are so supportive and interested in this project.