Day 1 - Hope

Hope's on clearance. — at Pier 1 Imports.

Beauty - Day 142 #CY365

A rose in black and white, unexpected beauty. 1/400 sec @ f/5.0, ISO 800.

Automatic - Day 128 #CY365

Trust in your skills, learn to not rely on the "automatic" mode of your camera. Canon 5D Mark II, 1/320 sec @ f/8.0, ISO 800.

May Flowers - Day 122 #CY365

Today's challenge was to photograph a flower from a different perspective. I saw these daisies in a pot outside of a bike shop in Raleigh North Carolina. Following Katrina's lead, I took my picture from below using the face cam on my iPhone. I liked the way it captured the sun's rays illuminating the daisy. iPhone 5s, Camera+ App.

Phone Art - Day 82 #CY365

Calla lily. iPhone 5s, Olliclip macro lens, Camera+ App with an LED flashlight for added illumination.

Diptych - Day 79

Diptych - "a work made up of two matching parts". This is my shadow of shadow diptych. This sharp shadow of a bike leaning against a rail was taken with my iPhone on a walk back from a meeting this morning. The bright morning sun was casting great shadows everywhere. I combined two images using photoshop, flipping the black & white image to make it a mirror of the color image.

365 - Day 78 #CY365

If you want people to look at you strangely, just hop on an elevator press the buttons for three different floors and pull out your camera and take a picture of the button panel. Works every time, guaranteed. Canon G15, 1/40 sec @ f/2.8, ISO 800.

Duplicate - Day 77 #CY365

Batman and his twin. Canon 5D Mark II, 1/50 sec @ f/8.0, ISO 400, 100mm macro lens.

A Shamrock - Day 76 #CY365

The tiny white flowers of the shamrock. Happy St. Patrick's Day. Canon 5D Mark II, 1/25 sec @ f/16, ISO 1600, 100mm macro lens with LED ring light.

Hard - Day 74 #CY365

Hard silhouettes of power line towers over the southern branch of the Elizabeth River in Chesapeake Virginia. Canon G15, 1/100 sec @ f/2.8, ISO 800.

Irish - Day 72 #CY365

Having a little "Irish" getting ready for St. Patrick's Day. First post with my newest camera an Olympus OM-D E-M1. The first new SLR I ever bought was an Olympus OM-2. In 1977 it was revolutionary for it's small size and high quality. I still have it and it still takes a great pictures.

Olympus OM-D E-M1, 1/1000 sec @ f/2.8, ISO 800.

Arranged - Day 71 #CY365

Today's challenge was to arrange something in a stack and use a shallow depth of field to create a blurred effect. I love photography books, well to be truthful, I love everything about photography. Anyway, I stacked some of my recent favorites, used a couple of LED litepanels, a macro lens and voila - we have a photo of the day. But back to the photography books - someone once said the two most important things you can do to improve your photography are: 1) take lots of pictures, hence the 365 project and 2) look at lots of photographs with a critical eye. While digital photos on a computer screen are pretty cool, in my opinion nothing beats the printed photograph for appreciating the work. Photography books are a great place to both see good photographs and understand how they were made.

Canon 5D Mark II, 1/250 sec @ f/5.6, ISO 400.

Asymmetrical - Day 69 #CY365

Asymmetrical - my Transformer cufflinks a gift from my grandson Robert were the perfect solution for today's photo prompt. I love asymmetrical cufflinks and have several pair from Würkin Stiffs and a few others. The first time I wore these to work last year I was sitting in a meeting and the guy sitting to my right asked me if that was an "Autobot" on my cufflink. I said yes, then showed him the "Decepticon" on the left cuff and he laughed out loud. Canon 5D Mark II, 1/1000 sec @ f/8.0, ISO 800, 100mm macro lens.

Drive - Day 67 #CY365

Night drive heading to dinner. I don't get to back seat drive much, so I took the opportunity to take some photos. Canon G15, 1/15 sec @ f/2.8, ISO 1600.

Muse - Day 65 #CY365

I had to find my muse on the Capture Your 365 project gallery today. It was easy because I have been admiring the work of contributor Pam Scott since joining the project in January. She has a great closeup eye for photos. I choose her Day 49 "In the Front Yard" photo of a pink camellia as my inspiration. Here's my pink camellia completely desaturated and presented in black and white. I was looking to capture the same texture and feel as Pam did but with my own view. Canon 7D, 1/125 sec @ f/8.0, ISO 400, converted to black and white using Silver Efex Pro.

Party! - Day 63 #CY365

Well it not exactly a party per se, it's lunch at the Chartreuse Bistro in downtown Norfolk, Virginia. It's one of my favorite places to eat. The food is wonderful, the tableware and decor are inspiring and the whole team make it a wonderful place for a relaxing break in the middle of the day. Chartreuse is locally owned by husband and wife team - general manager Karine Varga and executive chef Christopher Corrie. Just in case you're interested today's lunch was fish stew; a kale salad with goat cheese dressing, almonds, apricot, and onion; and an amazing mushroom & fontina focaccia. The menu is different everyday, you must try when in Norfolk.

iPhone 5 - with a newly cracked screen, Camera+ app.

Cattus Petasatus - Day 61 #CY365

Happy Birthday Theodor Seuss Geisel, a.k.a. Dr. Seuss, who was born on March 2, 1904. This is a Latin translation of the children's classic first published in 1957. It belongs to my son Michael who teaches high school Latin and it's looked over by my prized Lucky Cat. iPhone 5, one LED Litepanel and the Camera+.

Step Outside - Day 60 #CY365

Today challenge was "Step Outside" and the first day of month is always a self portrait. So here's my selfie taken in the front yard with my neighbor's bare pecan trees in the background. I captured the late afternoon sun which appeared briefly on an otherwise cloudy and gray day. Used the camera's popup flash to add just a little fill light with the flash compensation set at -2 stops. The camera's self timer was used, manual focus using the distance gauge on the lens, and of course, the camera was tripod mounted. Canon 7D, 1/250 sec @ f/8, ISO 200, 35mm prime lens.