Corn on the Cob (189 of 365)

I thought that this one was cute.

Mighty Sky (188 of 365)

I couldn't resist taking a picture of these clouds. I took this with my iPhone as I was driving home. I was stopped at a traffic light and I snapped this from the sunroof. I love how the sun was behind the clouds adding a rim of light around them.

Abstract Refract 187of365

I didn't have much energy for my day 187 shot, so I did a quick snap of the bottom of a DVD with a long exposure and a shaky hand. Not my favorite, but it is the day's shot. :.)

So Much to See (186 of 365)

Old Steel (185 of 365)

If you follow my photostream, you have probably realized that I'm a sucker for these old National resonator guitars. These shiny National Style O's are a real pain to photograph because they're really shiny and there's a million different angles on them to shoot an unwanted reflection back at your lens.

This is lit with a single Nikon SB-600 (bare and zoomed out) from directly behind the guitar and pointed toward the camera. The lighting, however, is 100% indirect -- there are two reflectors, one on each side, reflecting the light back toward each side of the guitar. This creates sort of a clamshell lighting effect, which only uses one light source. It also gave me some fairly even lighting and the large, silver reflectors didn't cast and direct reflections to mess up the picture (actually, they both cast neutral reflections that were larger than the guitar, so you don't notice them When you have a source, like a shiny, nickel plated guitar, you're actually seeing mostly reflections.).

Pollen (184 of 365)

This flower got me in big trouble last week. I bought a bouquet of these last week for Jodi, my wife, and Ava, my daughter. I intentionally bought them before I started back up with my Project 365 because, if I bought them after I started the project back up, Jodi would think that I really bought them for myself. :.) Anyway, back to my story about how this flower got me in trouble.

When I got home from work last Thursday, Jodi ran upstairs and asked me to watch Ava for a bit. Ava loves smelling flowers and she asked me if she could smell this one. It doesn't smell like much, but who could refuse to let a little girl smell a flower. After she smelled it and I put the flower back, I looked down and Ava was smiling up at me with a face full of brown pollen. Not being quick enough on my feet to just blow it off of Ava's face, I panicked (I knew that Jodi would be back down any minute). I grabbed a wet paper towel and tried to wash it off -- big mistake. The situation went from bad to worse -- the pollen turned into orange paint that wouldn't come off. Now, instead of brown pollen all over Ava's face, her whole face turned bright orange and it wouldn't come off. Jodi came down a few minutes later and I had to fess up.

She laughed and gave me a look like "I leave you with her for 5 minutes and now she's got a orange face?" It took some real scrubbing to finally get it off. Needless to say, I'll have to find another flower for Ava to smell next time. :.)

Thirsty (183 of 365)

I am really happy to be back -- it was so nice hearing from a bunch of my flickr friends yesterday. Here's another Ava shot that was taken as I was running around the house and taking random pictures while I was trying to get the feel for my camera back.

Coloring (182 of 365)

Hey everyone! I'm back after my month away from flickr and photography. I was pretty burned out at the end of June, so I'm hoping that my batteries are now fully recharged. Wow, it feels like it has been a while -- they've even changed the flickr page layout on me.

This was a quick snapshot of Ava while she was concentrating on her artwork. The focus isn't great (I've got to get myself back in the groove of things), but I like the overall feel of the shot.

I can't wait to get caught up looking through my contacts' pictures from the past month. I hope everyone is doing well.

** Taking a Project 365 Break **

I've decided to take a month-long Project 365 break. I will start taking 365 pictures again on August 1st.

A Little Sparkle (181 of 365)

I didn't have much time for a photo today, so I decided that I would play with the sun a little bit. This is the starburst effect that you get with the Nikkor 105mm f/2.8 when you point it at direct sunlight.