Foto Friday

I have been horrible about doing the weekly 'challenges' lately, and this week is no different. Too bad too, because last weeks SUNFLARE challenge, would have been really fun. It rained almost all week or was overcast or I was busy. SO it goes.

Thankfully, participating in the CHALLENGES isn't a requirement to participating in Foto Friday.


Here is my favorite photo for the week:

And here is one of my Adele' that I accidentally WAY overexposed but the result was an incredibly clear reflection of me in her eyes.

I realize that it is slightly freaky, but it is captivating to me as well. Kinda like a picture in a picture.

Looking forward to seeing more Foto Friday Favorites!

Winner #1: Our Peculiar Lives

This is one amazing photo. I want to sit right down and wait for the fairy tea to begin!

Winner #2 : Photos By Lindsey

Speaking of teaparties.... Um.... Can you be MY mom? What a delightfully sweet tea!

Thanks for all who participated last week! I love my weekly rounds!

Next Friday, join up with your favorite Foto of the week! It could be anything, really, or you could challenge yourself to snap a photo that "Reminds You of Childhood" in some way. ~See you then!

Foto Friday

I didn't take any nice non-work-related pictures this week (I didn't take any non-work-related pictures at all, in fact) so instead I will post a sunny archive picture. Only without the sun. The kind that make ME feel sunny.


I will be interested to see how many people did the challenge of SUNSET, because I was looking and there wasn't a single extraordinary sunset this week. Still, I hope to see plenty of FAVORITE photos. ;-)






And as for last week~ my favorites around blogland were:

#1~ Through My Lens

This is stunning! There are so many different layers to look at. Cloud layers. Mountain layers. Valley layers. Field layers. Beautiful.

I have vicariously visited so many places around the world and seen so many beautiful sights that I wouldn't ordinarily be able to see thanks to all of your photo contributions!

#2~ Our Peculiar Lives

Boy, do I wish he and I could switch places. I can practically taste that big juicy bite!

To participate in Foto Friday, you need only to share a favorite snapshot of the week and link up here each Friday. But because some have asked and enjoy weekly challenges, I include a weekly photo challenge as well, for the really brave.

Next week is......

FRESH FRUIT

Foto Friday

One of my favorite days of the week~ it is time to share your favorite photo of the week!

It could be any photo of any subject that you would like, but each week I offer an optional challenge for those who are in need of some inspiration.

Last week, the challenge was High Angle.

Once again, I found a few moments this morning to try the challenge out but I wish I would have taken time out this week to do a better job. It would have been a fun challenge to actually take my time on, especially since I tend to shoot from low vantage points. Probably because I am afraid of heights. Or falling from heights, more specifically.

And btw, I am really going to try to have these Foto Friday posts up earlier in the day for you from now on. Thank you for your patience.

Here are a few high angle shots:






Now let's see what favorites you all had!





And my favorites from last week:

Winner #1: Terri @ Hearts in Service

It can be a REAL challenge to capture winged creatures, let alone one with four wings (!) yet this picture is crisply focused. And I *love* the light shimmering in the wings. What a capture!

Winner #2: Miranda @ Memories by Miranda

Boys will be boys and this shot speaks volumes about them. The light is great, the composition is great and the skunk trap is great ;-)

To participate in Foto Friday, you need only to share a favorite snapshot of the week and link up here each Friday. But because some have asked and enjoy weekly challenges, I include a weekly photo challenge as well.

Next week is......

Sunset

We'll see how it goes!

Foto Friday

Last week I challenged you to find some wind and capture it. Did ya? If not, no worries-I still want to see your favorite photo of the week!

Here are mine:

Now let's see YOUR photos for the week!

I'll be honest with you, I have been having a HARD time coming up with challenges each week, especially ones that I am excited about. So when I saw this on Pinterest i knew it would be *just right* if I scratched the "day" and made them instead "weekly" challenges. I could have just written down the list, but golly she made such a fabulous graphic I had to admire it. So here they are for reference. I am super excited about the challenges now...amazing what a bit of objectivity can do for a person.


So for the record: if you are up to it~ this coming weeks challenge will be SELF PORTRAIT. Of course, any favorite photo would be a welcome contribution. That goes without saying.

See you then!

*** I can't believe it but I forgot to post my favorites from last week...AGAIN! Boy, I need to get my act together! ***

Here are my favorites of last week:

Winner #1: Barb from My Journey~For His Glory

I for one think it is really amazing how this internet thing allows me to live vicariously through so many different peoples' lives. Not only was this a wonderfully interesting shot of a culture far different than mine, but it was well made: the subject was slightly off center, the rice was caught mid-throw, the subject was crisp and clear and the exposure was perfect (which is challenging to do with sunhats/shade among bright light.) Not to mention how difficult it can be to take a picture of someone we don't know. Kudos to Barb (it was her FIRST contribution too! Let's hope we see more of her!)

Winner #2: Dana from A NibNabit Life

This photograph is really well done as well. I love it for its artistic flare. The rule of thirds was implemented perfectly and I love the hard iron contrasting with the tender plant. It is a job well done when a photograph speaks to you, and this one did to me.

Well done everyone!

Foto Friday

Well, you might as well know, we Newmans are at the tail end of a very excruciating month and a half as Matt has been away for 5 out of the last six weeks. We kinda, sorta forgot what it was like to have him around~ so he took a week of vacation to remind us. (And to help keep his wife out of the looney bin!) Needless to say, I have had much more important matters to tend to this week than blogging. Did you miss me? Who am I kidding? You probably didn't even notice! I have good news and I have bad news. Bad news is, I am the worlds LAMEST Foto Friday host, without posting any of my own pictures. The good news is: this is the last week that I will have to. Soooo....what is your favorite photo for the week?

And now for my favorites from last week:

Winner #1: The View From Hidden Valley

~ What a fabulous shot of her husband! I love the blurred trees in the background and that he is looking away from the camera with a casual, genuine look on his face. What gal wouldn't love a portrait of their husband like this? It's a treasure, Amy!

Winner #2: A NibNabit Life

~Check out the blurry buzzing wings! Makes me long for those vibrant blooms again! Well done!

Thanks to all who participated last week! It is so fun to visit you all each week!

Next week's challenge is a free for all. If you want a challenge, make one up and go for it! (And I'll use this week to think up a few great challenges for the coming weeks.)

The NEW Foto Friday

When I stopped Foto Friday last fall, it was a much necessary sanity saver. But many of you were disappointed, and even I found that I missed it. There have been lots of requests/interest/hope for me to start it back up again but I just wasn't sure if I was ready to take the plunge of a weekly commitment like that again.

Being challenged each week can be....well, a challenge.

Then I stumbled across a Flickr pool called P52 where you post a favorite photo of the week each week. But I am just a little fish in that great big ocean, and personally, I like the feedback. That got my braincells swimming and I thought "duh! Why not do THAT for Foto Friday?!?"

So I am thinking, each Friday here on Renaissance I am going to post my favorite photo taken that particular week. If I feel the need to challenge myself to new heights, then by golly, I will. But if I don't have the time for a proper challenge, I won't have to stress myself out over it. (or feel guilty....)

Because I am all about less stress.

And since I am ridiculously pathetic about printing my photos, I am thinking a good (doable) commitment (for me) is to print that favorite photo each week (just one!) and at the end of the year I will be able to collage them into this one awesome 2011 remembrance board. Sorta like this:

photo source

So-if you are up for it you can join me. Challenge yourself and your creativity, or just get yourself behind that camera.
I'll start the Foto Friday linky back up NEXT Friday, for those interested in participating.

Get your cameras ready!!!

If you would like to use the Foto Friday button on your blog, simply copy and paste the code below directly into your blog post or sidebar.

<a border="0" href="http://zeahrenaissance.blogspot.com/search?q=Foto+Challenges" target="_blank"><img alt="Foto Friday Challenge" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4t0SG8DlhOpjlkyAVabWtbWIbOoAl2YMpzDP7tL7ysu96UjGfcANtNFGdP4wMyerLwnPgyQ9wJuI2MV47ivlSC2WimlYq0G_ojGfcbljyQIrLNlYzh7QlFRXQ4J-hILb50QHa/s200/IMG_2488.JPG" /></a>

Foto Friday Winner

It's time to announce the winner of the Foto Friday FAVORITES contest. Each participating photo got an entry into the contest and the winner was chosen randomly so it would be fair. I was GOING to have a surprise second winner (so I could pick my own favorite of all the entries) but the winning photo WAS my favorite! SO-there ya go. The winner was SUPPOSED to win. ;-)

Wanna know who it is?!?

It is...............

this photo....

By Jennifer @ All Things Under the Sun

Congratulations Jennifer! Email me at

sgrbear724@yahoo.com

to claim your prize!!!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

After 37 different challenges, I thought a few honorable mentions seemed fitting and so here goes:

Jemit definitely deserves the award for the most funny contributions. What a great sense of humor she has and shared with everyone through her photos! Some were so funny I nearly peed my pants. (no, not kidding)

Terri deserves the award for most faithful submissions~I always knew I could count on her to participate!

Bonnie deserves the award for most encouraging person~I always appreciated her commenting on everyone's work (as I am sure you all did too!)

Elizabeth deserves the most devoted award- she has a houseful of people and creatures, does daycare and throughout the challenges packed up a house, moved, and unpacked a house. I know because she is my sister. Thanks for participating so often, Elizabeth, even with such a FULL plate!

Marine Corps Nomads deserves the most exotic places award. She had to do silly challenges like "spring" and snow in the DESERT and it still she participated. Not to mention-I got a good look at the Grand Canyon. Gotta love her for that!

Tracy deserves the award for most mouth-watering photos-holy smokes can that girl cook! (And photograph the food, to boot!)

Amy's contributions consistently blew me out of the water. Amy could easily hold the award for blog I was most excited to check come Friday.

Victoria certainly wins the prize for best attitude as she started the very week I decided to end it (Still feel bad about that!) and miraculously isn't holding it against me. (Thanks Victoria)

I know I missed quite a few of you but I ran out of award ideas! :-) The truth is-all your blogs held gems at different times throughout the challenges and for different reasons. I loved visiting them all and getting to "know" you all through the glimpses you allowed me into your lives.

Thanks to all who participated in all the Foto Fridays. You all made Fridays so much fun and I enjoyed my Friday wanderings so much!

Foto Friday: The CONTEST

Today is the day when we all share a 'favorite' (or several) photograph(s) we have taken. Anyone who participates on this particular challenge, the last for a while, will get an entry into THIS contest and the chance to win THIS glass tile pendant, and every photo (up to four) you enter will get you a separate entry. A winner will be selected on Monday.

I wanted to pick a favorite photo that was captured as a direct result of extending myself through these Foto Friday challenges. It was hard to choose (and very fun to look back at them all!), but if I had to choose my FAVORITE of all the challenges, it would be these:



I love the brightness, the fabulous color, and how crisp the confetti and beads are despite them actually blowing out of the kiddos' hands. I likely never would have thought to do a picture like this had I not been challenged to think "outside the box" for the Foto Friday WIND challenge. Thanks for letting me share some of my silly little experiments with you.

Now!!! Let's see some favorites of YOURS~be they from the Foto challenges, this week, or from your archives. Again, each photo entered (up to four) will be a separate entry to the contest. Please link back to my blog within your blog post, so I know you are actually participating in the challenge. (I am a little slow, but hey-aren't these THUMBNAIL linkies cool?!? I'll know for next time...)



For those of you sad about no more challenges, take heart! A site called iHeartFaces.com has weekly challenges that look really fun to participate in. In fact, I would love to participate in them (and might) if ever the stars were to align just so. ;-) If I do, you'll be the first to know...and you can let me know too~if you decide to participate.

Thanks for your understanding about my time commitments and limitations. While I loved doing Foto Friday and am sad to see it go myself, my shoulders already feel a wee bit lighter. ;-)

Computer Malfunctions, Foto Friday and Mossballs

I am SO sorry that Friday came and went with no Foto Friday. I tried all day on Friday to get online and my computer would have none of it. Tried on Saturday too, but to no avail. The computer would come on-the internet would be available but nothing would show.

Thank you for those of you who expressed concern. Nothing bad has happened here, except that I am reminded how unreliable technology can be. (I was reminded also how unreliable technology is not all that bad a thing every now and again, if you know what I mean.)

Whatever happened, whatever "issues" my internet was having remedied itself after a few days and so here I am, posting Foto Friday for Monday morning.

***Stay tuned, all you Foto Friday participants, for an important message at the bottom of this post.***

Last week's theme was HAPPY.

One particular photo from the week stuck out for me. This one:


The rest of the photos don't really continue with the HAPPY theme, but they do show "the rest of the story".

What is WAY better than snowball fighting, I find out? MOSS ball fights.


Not only do they not HURT like pelting with ice would, but they are fun to squish while making, they make a huge SPLAT on contact and they STICK, splattering your victim with goo. (Watching the victim try to unsmear sticky moss splatted right in the middle of their back is a riot too.) An all around FEAST of the senses. The bigger and mossier the ball, the better.


Corynn was a champion moss ball thrower and almost always hit Andrew. How could she not be, with such form?


Andrew on the other hand, threw at Corynn but unfortunately, the balls usually managed to head in the opposite direction.


Once, though, at the end of the fight, he finally GOT her...and that is where the Foto Friday HAPPY theme came in. Boy, was he.

Littlest sister was merely content to check the weird stuff out:


Anyone want to participate three days late???

~~~~~~~NOW, for an important note from our sponsors~~~~~~~har, har, har

The summer is kicking my butt, and I haven't even gotten to the BUSY part of it yet. I just don't have time like I used to (in winter) to devote to photo challenges and things. I tried changing Foto Fridays to include archives as a way to extend it, but the fact of the matter is, it is still taking up a huge chunk of time (that I don't have). From the recent wane in participation these last few weeks, I am wondering if you all might be in similar boats. Hopefully, I won't be breaking any hearts when I say that next week will be the last of the Foto Friday challenges. If not forever, at least for a good while.

BUT. The good news! To say thanks to all who participated, and to give one last big HU-RRAH before we close, I propose we have a COMPETITION!!! We will call the theme for next week's Foto Friday FAVORITES.

Post a favorite photo or photos (limit FOUR) of ANY subject or in any genre of photography you have taken, (you may use photos already posted for previous Foto Fridays or new ones) next Friday, and the winner selected will receive one of these:

a glass photo tile pendant, made by me.

The winner will have the option to customize the pendant by emailing me a personal photo of their own OR to chose one from a selection of my own photographs for their necklace. Like these:

Contest closes Friday at midnight. Winner to be announced Monday.

(Not trying for suspense, only going out of town! hehe)

Foto Friday: STILL LIFE

Last week's challenge was STILL LIFE.

I learned a few things this week:

#1~ I hate still life photography
#2~ A prime element of still life photography is dramatic lighting, so waiting until 10:30 am Friday morning isn't exactly "PRIME"
#3~I really STINK at still life photography
#4~ I am going to leave still life photography to the professionals

Seriously, I learned what is NOT my forte' this week. I like my photos to have LIFE and to be FULL of life and still-life photography is so....unnatural and forced (to me). I am glad this week is over.
Granted, I only had 45 minutes to work with because I am a procrastinator and Matt has had all week off and I haven't even thought about Foto Friday until...now.

But still.

;-)

Here they are, in all their pathetic glory!

This one is called ODE TO OMA. Oma, my grandmother, was Dutch. Her favorite color was orange and so I bought my own mother orange poppies for Mother's Day....so she could remember hers.

But first, I stole it for a few photos. :-)






Listen UP!!!! I am making a few changes to the FOTO FRIDAY rules that will go into effect...TODAY!

With good weather comes my busy, busy times when blogging and other projects (like challenging myself in photography) have to take a back seat to hanging laundry on the line, growing a harvest, using a harvest to its' fullest, preserving everything I wasn't able to use fresh from the harvest, and, THIS year, birthing a baby and caring for a newborn.

Incidentally, I can't promise that I will be able to participate in these challenges each week. I thought about just stopping Foto Friday altogether, but would hate to do that after all the positive feedback people are giving me about it. Therefore, from henceforth, people can participate by posting a relevant-to-the-topic photograph(s) no matter WHEN it was taken, as long as it is relevant to that weeks' theme. Please feel free to continue to challenge yourself and to seek out opportunities within that week according to the theme, that is the most beneficial part of Foto Friday after all, but don't be deterred from posting a great archived shot if you weren't able to get out specifically that week.

As always, please link back to this blog {you may use the button if you like} when you post your blogpost. Then simply link to your Foto Friday post with Mr. McLinky here so that we all can visit you and compare notes...

This weeks theme is........... SKY/CLOUDS