3 Quarters Today

My Life, my photography, my passions

365project

Day 100/365: The Great Goose Chase

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Canadians and Snow Geese in Nebraska
Canada and Snow Geese in Nebraska

You know spring is close when the Canada and Snow geese start heading back north.  Nebraska is in a migratory flight path for many species of birds, including geese, who use the corn and wheat fields as feeding and resting grounds. So on my 100th day I bring you the great Nebraska goose migration.

This year, because of my 365 project, I had a purpose for driving around chasing after thousands of geese and getting a photo of this spectacular site.  Thousands of geese fly over and then start to gather and spiral as they descend in what actually looks like an organized landing pattern. They are very skittish and typically chose sections of land that are difficult to gain access from the gravel roads.

Trying to walk out and sneak up on them is not easy. Goose hunters normally set decoys and sit in blinds waiting for hours. I don’t have that much patience, and you never know where they are going to land. So you watch the skies and chase the clouds of birds in the air. Many of my photographs the past couple of days were part of my goose chase.

The geese  don’t stay long in one spot, some flocks will stop and rest and others will be taking off and continue heading north. In less than a week hundreds of thousands, if not millions of geese will fly over.

Below is a video a friend across the road from her house at a neighboring pond.  Turn up the volume to enjoy the sounds of nature.

Day 98/365: McDonalds Shamrock Shake

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Day 98: The Shamrock Shake Has Returned
Day 98: The Shamrock Shake Has Returned

This year my Connecticut friends on Facebook have been talking about the Shamrock Shake, I bet few knew it was invented in 1966, in a Connecticut McDonalds.  I didn’t. But it didn’t get it’s nationwide acclaim until 1975. I love milkshakes and the thicker the better, give me a different flavor and I’m right there. (Eggnog shakes at McDonalds are also one of my favorites)

The  Shamrock Shake bring back memories of childhood, when there wasn’t a McDonalds in every town and going to eat at the Golden Arches was a treat. Once a year, for a very short time, the traditional chocolate, vanilla and strawberry shake flavors would give way to minty green wonders that made your teeth hurt and give you a brain freeze if you drank it too fast.

There is quite the cult following on social media circles this year the humble shake has over 35 Fan Pages (I stopped counting) on  Facebook  and even it’s own website, Find the Shake, as people track it’s appearance at various franchises.  It appears that not every McDonalds carries this much loved shake and in 2010 there was the Great Shamrock Shake Crisis, as well as the great shake hunt.

The appearance has been enhanced over the years, and I’m sure to some traditionalists that is pure sacrilege. But, I really like the added Redi-Whip and the cherry on top.

What people will do to go back to their childhood. Since we’re going down memory lane, enjoy a video from the early 1980’s

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Day 97/365: Antique, 1889 Silver Dollar

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Effect: On One Photo Tools

My Mother had a collection of Lady Liberty silver dollars from the late 1800’s and I thought this was a good example on how photo editing tools can subtly improve on the original.

I used the Super Sharpen, and Fill Flash tools on the PhotoTools 2.5 Free Edition then spot lightened to the hair on Lady Liberty and the stars to give them more definition. In the regular workspace of Photoshop I cloned out the dust and artifacts on the left side.

Can’t wait to play around more with the program. This is fun! (Maybe I’ll even post my son’s senior party invitation from the pages and templates download)

SOOC original

Day 96/365: Midnight Snack Starts Off Right With Squeezie Cheese

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Photoshop Poster Edge

Yup, almost midnight and I forgot my picture of the day. Oops.  I quickly get out my camera and snap a quick pic of my favorite snack, in the dark, couldn’t even see through the window. So it’s blurry, but I like the arrangement, so it goes through Photoshop. Is there any improvement? Probably not, but it’s a reason to play around with effects. You be the judge, open to suggestions. This can be a lesson how to make a blurry, crappy photo look decent.

By the way, did you know that Party Cheese, cheese in a can, squeeze cheese is actually real cheese? I thought it was fake cheese, nope. First ingredients: milk, whey, water, milkfat. Wow! I’m impressed!

On One Photo Tools 2.5

Used the On One Phototool plug in tools I just downloaded thanks to the suggestion of my blogging friend at 365Project .  Just used the color boost and sharpen, with a fill flash, as you can see you can’t make a blurry picture sharp. I haven’t had a chance to really the program on a special photograph yet, but the free tools there are awesome and work in CS2 and up. Below is the original straight out of camera (SOOC)

SOOC orginal

Day 95/365: It’s High School Speech Season

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Day 95: Speech Poses
Day 95: Speech Poses

Competing in Speech takes poise, confidence, concentration, composure, and self confidence which I believe prepares students for a life and their future careers much more than any athletic sport.  Elmwood-Murdock High school has a strong athletic program, with many teams competing at the district and state levels, but their academic extra-curriculum activities such as speech, FBLA and FCCLA are just as strong with many students participating in overlapping contests.

Normally a speech meet is not a spectator sport. Yes, it is a team activity, and while not normally physically draining it is always mentally draining. Speech meets are often all day affairs, requiring the students to leave at six in the morning and not getting home until nine that night. This is my daughter’s first year in speech and this year she  is doing Humorous Interpretation, “What Makes the Perfect Parent.” I thought having three characters to portray would be plenty, but next year she said she needs to add more.  I watched her classmates duet rendition of  “Hansel and Gretel, Open to Interpretation” and was in awe with over 20 characters and voices depicted in just ten minutes.

Now I know, that duet is probably over done, and judges probably hear the same scripts year after year? So the trick is to make the presentation fresh, make it your own, and do something no one else has done. This is where speech team support comes into play. Teammates suggest changes, dialects, inflections, and special added touches. I nearly died when I heard the Austrian Body Builder version, “I vill pumpp vu into ze oven vitch, ohh (strike pose)” and I think the judge did too. The Elmwood-Murdock duet team placed has placed in the finals during most of the season.

Project 365 Lesson: At the last minute I decided to splice my daughters various poses together from my camera video to add to the end of the post. This image was so much better than my original “planned” image of three girls talking to the “wall” that I totally changed the focus of the essay. So lesson learned, sometimes your unexpected, last minute inspiration will win the day.