*Project 52* week #8 / Austin, Texas Photographic Art

Last week I swapped letters so I could use 'H' for heart in celebration of Valentine's Day. This week it's back to 'G' with:
'G is for Glitter'.

In the past few years I've seen several images of people blowing glitter from their open palms, and I've been wanting to capture such an image myself. I had my younger son do the honors for me, and this is the result.

If you're guessing that our driveway was very sparkly and colorful afterward, you would be correct.
Until next time,
Enjoy!

*Project 52* week #7 / Austin, Texas Photographic Art

In the interest of celebrating Valentine's Day, I'm swapping 'G' for 'H' in order to feature the predictable 'H is for Heart' this week.

Actually, this week's image is entitled 'H is for Heart of Hearts'. Clever, eh?  ;-)

My younger son is doing the highly-anticipated Valentine's Day card/candy exchange with his class this week, and he decided on the ever-popular 'Sweethearts' candy message hearts to accompany his cards. Did you know that they have been around for almost 150 years? The very first conversation hearts were created by Daniel Chase in 1866, and the first factory-produced candy hearts came along 35 years later, courtesy of NECCO founder Oliver Chase (Daniel's brother). You can read more about it here and here.

Anyhoo....those candy hearts made this week's assignment way too easy not to indulge. I dressed it up a little, but it's pretty straightforward and quite fitting for our annual heart-centric holiday. BTW, I did not eat a single one of them. Their appearance is far more appealing than their taste, imho.
Here ya go:

Have a Happy Heart Day, and may Love bless you this week in ways unexpected.
Enjoy!

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*Project 52* week #6 / Austin, Texas Photographic Art

'F is for Football'
I was struggling a bit with what to do for this week's image, and it hit me as we were on our way to watch the Super Bowl with some friends: FOOTBALL! It just happened to fall on the right week—YAY!
Having two boys and a husband who love sports, we own lots of sports equipment, including several footballs. This one here belongs to my husband; I think perhaps it's from when he was in high school. It's slightly deflated but still has enough air to give it the proper shape, and I love how worn it is on the surface.....enough to show it's been used a lot, but not so much that it needs to be retired. It's actually great the way it is to teach kids how to catch because it's so easy to grip.
For those interested in the particulars, I captured this image with a Nikon D800 and a 60mm/f2.8 macro lens,1/80 second at f/4, ISO 1600, handheld with support, lit by north-facing window light on the left and with a white board angled from the front right to bounce some light back onto the football. Starting with the RAW image, post work included basic tweaks and conversion in ACR, then refining it in Photoshop with Nik plug-ins (Dfine, Viveza, Color Efex and Sharpener Pro). I wrapped it up with some layered textures that I purchased from a couple different suppliers.
Until next time....
Enjoy!

If you liked this post, let me know! If you loved it and want more, please subscribe. You can also find me on facebook.