Fingers Crossed

I absolutely love where I live.

Hopefully wherever we move to next will be able to give me sunrise views like this! 

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Winner Winner Chicken Dinner!!

I don't remember if I ever posted about a photo contest my base was having, but I remember asking a lot of my friends for their vote in terms of several pictures I considered entering. Between the support board that I own and dozens of emails sent out, the majority of the pics that were picked came down to the top three, which was the picture of my backyard, a castle from the Netherlands as well as a pic of some red tulips.

 Well, I got an email the other day informing me that one of my pictures actually took FIRST PLACE!!! AHHHH!!! I'm so excited!! I kept thinking it was my Belgian backyard:

But in fact, it was the picture of Hoensbroek Castle! 

Yay!!

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Photocrastination

I'm finally putting more pictures up around the house. Yeah, really. We've lived here for two years already and I'm just now getting around to adding pictures to frames and hanging them. I guess in my mind, I think "We're here for three years. What's the point?". Well, three years is now four, ha. So, two more years here, might as well put 'em up. By the way, I had SOME up, but not nearly as much as I've seen in other peoples homes. Growing up, we barely had pictures in my home. I dunno what it is, but the only things we really had were various sports cars or air craft hanging in our home verses family pictures. Meh. 

There's a SMSgt on base who actually does a pretty good job at photography. Whenever there's a "Going Away" event, people usually buy one of his pictures as a going away gift, have the matt in the frame signed then have it all put together for the person whose leaving. I've been trying like crazy to get a decent picture of the church in the town we live in. It's pretty much the "icon' of Peer. Eric and I really like it since we can clearly see it from our backyard in the distance. At night, it's pretty cool cause there's awesome spotlights on it and you can see the weather vein on top glow from the reflecting lights (it's a giant rooster on top). With the Belgian weather being as cooperative as Californians with paying their State taxes, I've been rather unsuccessful with getting a nice picture of it. So, after talking to the SMSgt, I found out he had a nice picture of it. Not only did he have a pic of it, it was nicely done with a metallic under-coat so it has a nice "shine" when the light hits it. 

Once I brought the picture home, I quickly realized I didn't have a frame large enough for it (it's 16x20), so, a trip to IKEA was in order so I could get this thing framed and out of the way. The longer it stayed exposed, the bigger the chance of something ruining it. That's how things go in this house, lol. So, a friend of mine and I went over to The Netherlands today, shopped around for a bit (spent wayyy too much money) and I managed to find a few frames I liked (one for the church picture, another for a water color painting). Here's the finished picture :)  ....now, all I need to do is find some nails!

After IKEA, we stopped off at an antique shop that was just down the block. I've checked it out a few times while driving by, but the place isn't very convenient when it comes to parking because it's on a VERY busy street. We managed to find a parking spot near the train station and walked on over to it. They has some pretty cool stuff, was really digging the old wardrobes and hutches they had...then...I found this:

It's an old chalk board menu sign! It's obviously old and beat up, but I love it! Gives it some personality. It's rather fitting for my kitchen since I've been seriously looking for a sign to display whatever I'm making that night considering John and Eric always ask "What's for dinner??". Plus, the pigs made me laugh cause those guys can really eat like piggies. I debated on it for a few minutes, then the gal who works there asked "Do you know what the sign says?" ....no, I can't read Dutch, lol. "It says, 'When in doubt,always buy' ". I thought she was jerkin' my chain cause she could tell I was really debating, but it sold me, lol. When I got home, I checked to see what the translation was and she wasn't screwin' with me..it actually means what she said! Go figure! Eric came home from work and gave his thumbs up on it, so, that tells me I did a good job with picking cool / funky things for the kitchen :)

So, today worked out well in terms of decorations for the house. Not so well for our bank account...opps :)

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Homework

John has been back in school for about two weeks now..and out of his six classes, one of them is Photography.

He came home the other day with a list of different things he has to take pictures of over this coming semester. Luckily, we live in an area where he has alot of opportunities to get pictures of these particular things (this is the syllabis that his teacher gave him to use) : 

 1. Use of line - Lines guide the eye such as sidewalks or paths or window panes. Lines could be the area where light meets shadow or a path of color in a flower bed. The lines do not have to be the object of the picture.

2. Use of texture - Texture is not a structural element like line or shape, but it add to a photo. Structure added feelings of hardness, softness, sharpness or slippery.

3. Shape or pattern - Round, square, triangles, etc, or repeating patterns.

4. Light and shadow - Combine light and shadow. Use back lighting to get light and dark, side lighting to get long shadows. We are looking for a shot with both dimly lit and brightly lit objects. Try black and white. 

5. Motion - Move the camera while you shoot a moving object for a blurry back round. Use slow speed or shoot in dim light. The photo should indicate something in motion. 

6. Perspective - Shoot from different angles than normal - get low, get high, shoot from behind or above things. 

7. Things - Objects; animals, houses, toys, playgrounds

8. Places - Document some of your travel or places in your town like parks, buildings, stores, Main Street, etc.

9. People - You may not photograph other students at school. Examples: family, crowds people watching parades or watching animals at the zoo. 

10. Events - Carnivals, school games, ceremonies, concerts, Christmas markets. 

11. Breaking the rules - Placement of objects, exposure, focus, etc. 

12. Color themes - Look for colorful objects, be creative. 

13. Black & White - Some of you can use your cameras to create black and white photos. You can also use Photoshop. Good black and whites have areas of a good range of tones from dark black to white. 

14. Landscapes - The countryside or cities in the distance. Think space with lines. Pay attention to where you place objects like trees or buildings in the photo. 

Extra Fun: Try to find numbers and letters in nature and photograph them.  

So, after reading that layout in terms of his pictures.. we ventured out around our neighborhood yesterday and let him go crazy with the camera. Once he was all finished, I scanned through his pictures and here's the best ones for two topics:

 Objects (picture 1)

Objects (picture 2)

Scenery (picture 1)

Scenery (picture 2)

Not bad for a 13 year old, eh? :)

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