#dogwood2017 Archives - Got My Reservations

I’m running a little behind on my posting, but I have a really good reason. Just in case you have forgotten or didn’t know, I live in a Chicago suburb. And, as Januarys are wont to be, it’s pretty cold here. AND — my furnace went out last week. More on that later, but today’s post is all about Photography Challenge Week 2: Straight Out of the Camera.

This week’s challenge as described by the Dogwood administrators:

WEEK 2

Technical: SOOC

Straight out of the Camera. No Photoshop. Shoot a compelling image and post it without edits. No cheating! (Be sure and save the image file for the end of the challenge!)

I took these photos with the challenge in mind, trying to get the best light I could and to crop in my camera rather than in post-processing. All of them would improve with some processing, so I look forward to touching them up later in the year. I’m not really a big processor, but I do improve lighting, color, and almost always do some cropping on my photos.

Taken at our table at the Tiny Tavern on Navy Pier in Chicago, this photo does a decent job of following the rule of thirds. It’s the best of the four I took.

I’m part of a crafting group at our church and I loved the POV on this photo of the quilt patch and the quilter’s tools.

The craftwoman’s hands as she starts a new crochet project.

Next up on the photography challenge:

WEEK 3

Artistic: Land

Your inspiration this week is land. This could be a landscape, or an image inspired by the land in some way.

Link up your photos in the comments or on my Facebook page if you want to participate with me. I’m always looking for constructive criticism and I know you will be kind.

As far as the furnace story goes, it took us three visits by the repair tech and two replacement parts to figure out what was wrong with our furnace. We were early adopters of a high-effeciency heating system and over the years our furnace has saved us a lot of money in gas bills. Since we sign up for a service contract every year, we have also received both warrantied parts plus labor and discounted replacements over the years. This time was a doozy — with our tech finally figuring out that we still had a first-generation electronics board when most of them have been replaced over the years because they failed. Carrier is now on the fifth-generation board for this furnace — versions one, two, three, and four were all faulty in some way or another. The tech never thought to even check the serial number on our board because he just assumed it had been replaced long ago. The board was unable to talk to our fancy thermostat and eventually just gave up in disgust and shut down the furnace. Obviously it was a relief to get it fixed, and then today, our tech came back again for our maintenance check and to fix our humidifier, which was also not working. I have asked multiple times if I should just replace our aging furnace, and our guys keep saying no.

I’d say that I’m assuming they know what they are talking about, but my experience this week tells me that assuming makes… wait for it… an A** out of U & Me. 🙂

Did you watch the first episode of the new PBS series about Queen Victoria? It looks good so far, and sent me and my friends to the internet to look up all those tangled family trees that got her on the throne.

Have a wonderful week!

This is my story and I’m sticking to it.

I got booted back into writing on my blog by my son who posted a very personal story on Facebook about his annus horribilis of 2016. It’s his story to tell, but I share it because I want to give him some credit for giving me inspiration to write again. I’ve also had a difficult year, but that’s no reason not to write. Actually, for me, it should have been a reason TO write.

Although I didn’t stop taking photos, I did stop posting them on photo sharing sites. I also began to curate who saw my photos on Facebook. What a knucklehead way to react to depression. Enough said.

Back in the photography saddle again

For 2017, I’ve decided to participate in the 52 Week Photography Challenge from Dogwood Photography. Each weekly assignment will include a thematic hook plus a photography technique. Week One’s task is to tell a story using the rule of thirds, a common photography technique.

“Story Telling: Good photographers can take beautiful images of something. Great photographers can take an image that tells its story. This category makes use of compositional rules and directed prompts to push you towards not just looking at the beauty of something, but to find a way to tell that something’s story.(https://dogwood.photography/52weekchallenge2017.html ).

Interpreting the rule of thirds at the Lincoln Park Conservatory

During the holidays, we decided to go to Chicago’s Lincoln Park to see the seasonal display at the Conservatory and the lighting festival at the Lincoln Park Zoo. The two venues are adjacent to each other and admission is free. They are Chicago treasures! I took my camera along hoping for some inspired rule-of-thirds photos.

Looking through the steamy and city-smogged glass of the 1890s-era Lincoln Park Conservatory, you can see the beautiful luxury apartment buildings along Lincoln Park West.

A visit to Chicago during holiday seasons should include a visit to the Lincoln Park Conservatory, which has special seasonal flower displays (and so does the Garfield Park Conservatory).

Garden Girl by Frederick C. Hibbard [1881-1950], Carved in marble: 1937. Location: Lincoln Park Conservatory.

Even Garden Girl by Frederick C. Hibbard [1881-1950],
carved in marble (1937), is decked out in a Santa hat.

Storytelling in the urban community

A rainy grey day emphasizes the geometric forms of the cityscape.

That’s it for this week — thank goodness there are no rules that I need to follow. Next week’s theme is straight out of the camera. No cropping, no color adjusting, no brightening up the lighting. I’m wishing myself good luck on this one.

This photography challenge is based in Flickr, which I do not use. I plan to share my photos here, on Google +, and on Facebook where I normally share my blog posts. Feel free to follow me on Facebook, but you know how it is with non-boosted posts. You may not see my feed. You will always see my feed if you use email or Google + delivery, or whatever you prefer for your social media feed. I appreciate all of you who stop here to visit and please comment on which photo you like better! Constructive criticism is welcome.