Sunday, December 30, 2007

Two Things Challenge: Tidy / Ends

Jackpot! A 'tidy' little chunk o' change. Good for parking meters!


Cup o' color. My Tinkerbell mug with the 'ends' of my Crayola markers.

I was out of the house a lot this week, but never in any situations where I could find subjects for this week's Two Things Challenge. Finally, this evening in the cozy comfort of my home, I decided I'd try to find stuff around the house I could photograph. I thought about photographing book ends and the heel of the loaf of bread and rows and rows of books. I took pictures of my neatly folded t-shirts and my orderly collection of tea cups and saucers. Then I started noticing that my normal penchant for tidiness was way off the mark and I really need to clean and organize again! Ultimately, I chose a cup of colored markers to represent "Ends" and a pile of considerable pocket change to portray "Tidy."

And, as this is nearly the end of the year, my best wishes to all of you for a very happy and prosperous New Year!

Looking forward to next year's challenges!


Photo copyright: D.C. Confidential, 12/07

11 comments:

Bobbie said...

I'd rather have a tidy sum than tidy up any day. he he. And these crayolas are so cool. Good thinking!

Anonymous said...

Don't know how you got the "whirl-wind" effect on those markers...but it sure looks colorful!

Janet Kincaid said...

Bobbie: I just wish that tidy chunk of change had a little more cha-ching to it! I took about 15 pictures of the crayolas. Six of them turned out especially well. It was tough deciding which one to post.

Sandollar: What type of camera are you using? On my Canon A630, I have a setting called "Tv" which is allows me to set my shutter speed. I set the ss for 2 seconds. When I clicked on the pens, I then slowly moved the camera to the right until I heard the shutter close. The result is this "whirlwind" effect. Shutter settings are also great for night and low light shots. If you want lights to "twinkle", set your shutter speed for a 6 - 8 second exposure and you should get good results.

(I think that's right. Or maybe it's my aperture settings that make the lights twinkle. I can't remember. The next time I go out snapping pictures at night, I'll take notes. Debi?? Help? In terms of the picture on today's entry, though, it was definitely shutter speed.)

Lucky Dip Lisa said...

Good posts! I love these yet they are so different to your other posts which I also love. You are a fantastic photographer! Nice too learn a little more about you too.
Keep up with the recycling..I was pleased to read you took yours home! My husband is starting to worry that I will start taking other people's home too...lol
Happy New Years! I look forward to seeing your world through your eyes over 2008!

Anonymous said...

Lisa: These were fun to take. I seem to be good at the nature, monument, inanimate object kind of stuff. My next effort is going to be trying to take good pictures of people. That I'm not so good at.

Happy New Year to you and here's to more recycling in 2008!

Bev said...

Great entry for the challenge. Those coins look very tidy, they all look the same, and as Bobbie says, they make a tidy sum. Look after the pennies, look after the pounds, as they say in England.

Ends looks great, and great for noticing this. All the different colours, but the way you photograph them they look like some tropical plant on another planet. Sort of tubers. It must be the soft focus lol

Janet Kincaid said...

Bev: Thanks! I went sepia on the coins, which are normally all silver. This is a collection of quarters ($0.25), dimes ($0.10), and nickels ($0.05). I keep my pennies in a separate container.

I had a lot of fun photographing the markers. I just looked up tubers and you're right: they do look a bit similar in color, don't they?

(And now I'm laughing at myself and the fact that what I just looked up was potatoes! "You say tuber and I say potatoe...." Hm. Not quite the same as the original lyrics, is it?)

dianeclancy said...

These are great tidy ends ... thanks for sharing them!!

The colors are fun with both of them.

~ Diane Clancy
www.dianeclancy.com/blog

Anonymous said...

Diane: Thank you!

I've been back and forth to your blog a few times in the last couple of weeks and I have to say, I love your art! The colors are so vibrant and alive. What a wonderful talent you have and are!

Happy New Year to you, too!

Bev said...

I don't know why I said tubers. They're something to do with potatoes. Too much to drink over the festive period. I actually meant some sort of tubular (like a tube)plant lol

Anonymous said...

Bev: Oh, that's priceless! ROFL.

When I first read that, I thought, "Tubers? Hm. Well, okay. I'll see if I can't see that, too." I found a picture of some rather colorful tubers on Google Images and I thought, "All right, I guess I can kind of make the connection between the colors in my pens and the colors in the potatoes.... Besides, perception is in the eye of the beholder, right?"

Now we know, though: it was really the champagne!

Happy New Year to you, Bev! Here's hoping 2008 is totally tubular! ;-)