Playing at the Park

Yes, I know there is already a self portrait post in the"Assignments for Readers" category that was suggested by Dot. But here is another one from the other day when we met with friends at a playground for dinner. This could also fall under suggestion from Firefly to photograph Jamie without her knowing it, she is in the brown shirt in the back ground. :)

Mamiya Camera

This is the assignment Jamie wanted me to do as one of the Assignments from Readers. If this camera could talk I would love to hear some of the stories. Jamie's Grandfather bought this camera in Japan when he was stationed there during the war. We were talking about this camera one day and how it made some of the best pictures. He also told me that if he could find it, he would give it to me. Well after he left us last month to go hang out with God, Jamie's mom found the camera in a box and gave it to us. I will always remember Mr. Sykes' smile and the talk we had about cameras. The camera will have a special place on our bookcase (once I build them) and a special place in our heart.

Large Task

Here is another post from the "Assignments from Readers" category. Cheryl said she likes close-ups of everyday things. The other day I was walking across the parking lot and saw this ant dragging a crumb, small to me but a large crumb to the ant. I watched the ant drop the crumb several time while moving it across the parking lot, and I thought, what a determined little fellow.

Then something came to mind: am I like the ant and go for the big things in life, or do I play it safe and only choose things that I know are safe? I decided that I should go for the big thing and go at it with all I'm worth, then if I fail I will probably be better off than if I would be if I went for the safe choice.

Self Portrait

Here is the second Assignments from Readers post, this suggestion is one of the two from Dot. She said that self portraits challenge a person. I decide to take my self portrait without a tripod, hand held. I used a hot shoe flash on camera, but did bounce it of the wall next to me. I'll tell you this, my arm is almost too short when holding the camera with a 50mm lens attached to still have a nice framing of my head. I guess you could call this a self head shot. Thank you Dot for the suggestion, I'll have to give your other idea a try soon.

Chess

This is the first in the Assignments form Readers posts that I will be doing. Debbie had the idea of "Joy". This picture reminds me of the joy Kathryn had when I recently taught her how to play chess. She was especially excited when she captured my queen, I was the black chess pieces and that is my queen sitting closest to the camera off the board. I better watch out or she will be teaching me how to win games before long.

Thank you Debbie for the idea. I have about five more assignments already some are more difficult than others, but I will get through them, so keep them coming.

New Blog Idea

Now that I've had a Photograph a Day for a year now it's time to try something a little different. I still want this blog to be mainly around photos, because I'm a man of few words. Just ask Jamie, but that might have to be another post.

I would like a little help from my blog readers out there. Call it class participation without the awkward looks from the others in class, maybe that was just me in school. I would like for you to give me photography assignment ideas to work on during the week and post them when completed. I will try to do at least one a week but that would depend on how tough y'all make it on me. It can be a simple as one word or as complex as a scene that you have in your head. Remember I have a budget, which is very low, so don't go too elaborate on me.

To help with using more words part of blogging, I will try to write more about the photographs that are going to be posted here.

Thank you everyone in advance,