Note: This week, instead of taking a specific photo according to the prompt every day, I was not inspired by what I could photograph in my house and it was a bit rainy and cold to want to get outside. So, I ended up running around at the last minute on Sunday after Mass to take photos to fit the prompts. To keep up our last minute theme of this week, I also didn’t get to upload these photos until 10 minutes before the 10 pm cutoff time where my blog was set to auto-publish (I did this to give myself a deadline on purpose). This means that all of my photos are currently unedited.

This might not be a bad thing, though. While they will not look as good as they usually do, when I do get around to editing them, I can talk a bit about what my normal editing routine is like and what I choose to change.

Week 2 Prompt: Patterns in nature

I had intended to use a different photo for this prompt, but as I was uploading them, there was something about the shape of this tree that I really liked and swapped it out at the last minute.

Week 2, Day 2: A quiet corner

Knowing that I was going to be taking these photos after Mass, I had thought that either the Divine Mercy chapel or the area in the church with the votive candles by the statue of Mary between the confessionals. Both of these are quiet, reflective places that are great for prayer and reflection. The Divine Mercy chapel is a favorite place of mine. I love how cozy it is.

This is the edited version of my photo, added to the post as a Flickr embed. To my eye, it looks like this is a bit soft or blurry, compared to the actual photo. So, as an experiment, I uploaded the photo directly to my WordPress Media library below.

To my eye, looking at this from my laptop display, this direct upload appears to be slightly sharper. Let me know if you can see a difference.

Comparing the edited version to the unedited photo, I had adjusted the tilt (because I’ve never been able to hold a camera level), added contrast and pulled highlights. This helped to provide a bit more detail to the Divine Mercy painting and the stained glass window.

Week 2, Day 3: Something you’re looking forward to

On our latest grocery run, I picked up some chicken and carrots with the intention of making some homemade chicken soup. In an ideal week, I would make some kind of soup or stew on Sunday that we could keep in the fridge and have throughout the week.

Week 2, Day 4: Hands holding something warm

It was pretty cold today, but the wind was strong and made it feel quite a bit colder. After Mass, we were hungry and Donald was wanting a nice bowl of chili. We tried City Barbecue for the first time. Donald’s chili was made with brisket, and he liked it. I had the chicken tenders and mac & cheese – also pretty good. We liked their Original barbecue sauce best (after trying all of them), and the honey mustard and spicy ranch that they gave me for the tenders.

I did have a vision for this photo ahead of time and it did take another photo at a slightly lower point of view. Sometimes playing with perspective can give different moods to your image.

Week 2, Day 5: A peaceful walk view

After lunch, we went to Raintree Park, looking for a walking path that was close to the parking lot (since the cold wind was pretty vicious). The sun had peeked out between the clouds, so we got some sunshine and blue skies. The dusting of snow on the ground gives a bit of texture to the grass.

This photo (like all of them this week, except for the chicken soup) hasn’t been edited. It looks a little dark and flat because of the bright light of the sun, so I would play with the contrast and exposure a bit when I go to edit this.

In my edited photo, I tried to bring out the darkened pathway and ground, while preserving the blue of the sky. This happened due to the difference in light between the sun and the ground; the camera meters for an average exposure value for the photo, not wanting to blow out the sun, but the result is everything else being a bit too dark. Some fixes for this in camera are to use a graduated neutral density filter, so that it evenly darkens the sky portion of the photo, to make the overall exposure values similar, or to take several photos in a row where you use exposure compensation (or just adjust your settings manually) to take the same shot a couple stops overexposed and a couple stops underexposed (from your metered value) and edit them together with your editing software later. In your editing software, you may have an HDR feature that will try to approximate this for you automagically.

Week 2, Day 6: Something blue

We were so excited to see the blue skies arrive a bit later in the day. Seeing the sun comes out really lifts our spirits, especially since Michigan winter days are so often gray.

Week 2, Day 7: A reflection

I had expected to have to take a photo back at home for “A reflection,” but when I took a look at the photos I had taken and looked closely at this one, I saw a lot of reflection of the woods in the windows and paint and kind of liked that.

I’ll try to draw more attention to these reflections in the edit.

Final Thoughts for This Week

This is going to have to be a week where I give myself some grace. Not every week is going to have the same success or level of effort as other weeks. I may not have the same time or energy to pour into it. But I want to be okay with that. That is real life and this should be a fun thing to allow me to rediscover my love for taking photos instead of a string of deadlines.

I would love to hear of your photography stories and see any images you’ve created. Are you doing a Project 52 this year?