Just Married: Dina and Carl!

I had already enterred this shot for this week's Photo Hunt subject: something in motion.

But I got this unexpected panning shot from Dina & Carl's wedding this past Saturday, so I'm switching. Less potential bonus points, but sometimes, you just gotta go with your gut.

Congratulations, Dina & Carl!

Moon & Venus

From 2/25/07: this was my 2nd attempt at capturing this pretty pair. A month prior, the crescent Moon and Venus were much closer together, but I didn't have time to set up my tripod and all my shots were blurry.
Even with the tripod, I still experienced some camera jiggle (gotta remember the Timer next time!) - but a few shots - like this - came out ok.

Liberty Challenge - HOLD IT!

A couple of weeks ago, St. Joseph's University hosted the Hawk Classic - a massive high-school cheerleading event. After all the junior varsity squads performed their routines, they held the Liberty Challenge. All the Varsity squads performed a "liberty" - the move shown above - at the same time, and the squad to hold it the longest won.
Congratulations to the Kennedy Kennrick High School Cheerleaders for winning the "Lib" Challenge, and for placeing 2nd overall in the JV comp! Go KK!

Guy Fawkes

No, I am not the terrorist known as Codename "V," but I did play him for Halloween last year. Alas, no parties to go to, so only the neighborhood children witnessed the visage of Guy Fawkes in full "V for Vendetta" regalia.

I thought the mask (and some of the regalia) would make a good entry for this week's Photo Hunt.

3/20/07 - Woohoo! This photo earned 2nd place in the Week 10 Photo Hunt challenge!

Thanks to everyone that voted for it!

Tiles & Shards

From the same Philadelphia Area Photobloggers excursion that produced my Olde City Gravestone shot comes this cool wall mural. Note the reflections in some of the mirrored pieces.

I can't remember exactly where it was (perhaps Jorj can recall), but it's in the vacinity of 3rd & South. I'm using it for this week's Photo Hunt.

Update - 5/12/07: having been in that area recently, I can report that the above mural is at the Northwest corner of 4th & Gaskill, a half block above South.
For more photos from this jaunt, see my Flickr page.

I See(m) Red...

Portraits: definitely not my thing. Especially self-portraits. Eek.
So when Jorj posted "A Portrait" as this week's subject for the Photo Hunt, I blanched. I mean, the Hunt's been hard enough this season without having to shoot something I'm not into and don't think I'm particularly good at.
No wonder I'm angry!
But this Friday night, a bunch of the Philadelphia Area Photobloggers got together in Center City, and I saw an opportunity: the light from restaurant sign across the street was coming in through the window, and I thought it might make for a dramatic shot.
I might post more of my "typical" shots from that night here soon. Also - look for more on my Flickr page.

Trippy Rose

This past summer I was playing with the macro setting on New Camera, trying to get a good shot of the blooms on our rosebush. For reasons I'm still not sure of, I couldn't get the exposure settings to sync-up, resulting in shots like the one above.
In the words of the immortal Bob Ross: "We don't make mistakes, we have happy accidents."

I'm using this for this week's Photo Hunt .

Lighthouse Shadow

I dug this Old Camera shot from our 2005 Cape May trip for the week 6 Photo Hunt subject: a shadow. This was taken through one of the Cape May Lighthouse's windows, about two-thirds of the way up.

Pistachio Pac Man

Since I've been a bit lazy of late with my Photo Hunt entries, and with this week's subject being "Nuts," I figured I'd be a bit nutty and stage this shot. That's a big ol' honey-roasted Macadamia serving as the "Power Pill."

Of course, the hard part was not eating these before taking the pic.

Sitting Surfer (re-post)

For the week #2 Photo Hunt subject "black & white," I'm being lazy and re-posting this post-processed b&w shot from our California trip.
This is, however, one of my favorite shots from that series, so I don't feel too bad about giving it another go in the spotlight.

Triple Seven

For my first post for '07, I present 3 sevens.
This is the address for an apartment building in Plymouth Meeting, PA. It is also my entry for the first week of the Jorj.Org Photo Hunt, Season 4.

St. Stephen: My Namesake's Namesake

Merry Day-after-Christmas!
Not only is today Boxing Day (feel free to speak "Canadian" all day, eh), it is also the Feast of St. Stephen, who is pictured above from the Philadelphia Museum of Art.
It is also my late grandfather's (dad's side) birthday - hence he was named after St. Stephen per Catholic tradition.
And I was named after my grandfather. (The "Umlaut" came much much later.)

Jack Frost Was Here

To celebrate the Winter Solstice, pictures of Mr. J. Frost's handiwork on my car window.

These were actually taken last year, with Old Camera from inside the car. The blue came from that morning's clear sky, with the car still in the shadow of our house.

Mantle Candles

For the Week 13 Photo Hunt challenge, a shot of our mantle decorated for Christmas.

This may just seem like an obvious grab for the bonus points (there are actually ten candles visible, and smoke from the "jar" candle on the left), but I'm pretty happy with the warm, home-for-the-holidays feeling I captured here, too. And we liked the way it looked so much, we're leaving it this way!

The Finished Product

And here are the finished kiffles!

...Uh, this plate's mine. Get your own. (ha ha!)

Kiffle Day, 2006

Kifli (or Kiffles, as we've come to know them) are German cookies consisting of a pastry dough rolled around a walnut filling, then doused in confectioner's sugar. They have been a tradition in my family for generations, and we look forward to them every Christmas. [I don't have time to type up the recipe right now, but a similar one can be found here.]
They are very labor intensive - dough balls and filling are made the previous day and refrigerated overnight, then each cookie must be individually rolled and filled.
To expedite all this, we schedule a Kiffle-making party every year on whatever free weekend we have in December. This also serves to make those who eat the kiffles work for their cookies! ;)

Our recipe yields 70 cookies, and this year we made 4 batches. And it still doesn't seem like enough!

This photo is also my "Party" entry for the 12th week Photo Hunt challenge.

Cotter

For the Week 11 Photo Hunt challenge: the cotter pin that holds the left side of my lawnmower handle.

Man and his dog/Kelly Drive

Taken during my jaunt to Kelly Drive to find a megaphone: for a few minutes, I watched this guy and his dog as they watched the world go by - by foot, bike and boat.
I thinkd there's something about this shot that captures some of what Kelly Drive is all about...

For the entire series of shots of the Man & dog, see my Flickr page.

Embossed Propeller

For this week's Photo Hunt, challenge - a leather-bound book, I dug out my well-worn copy of "Fighting Jets" from the Time-Life Epic of Flight series that I got as a gift from my aunt in my early teens.
I really like the propeller motif - the irony of a propeller embossed on a book about jets notwithstanding.

Running Late

This harried young man echoed my own sense of urgency as I tried to find a suitable photo for this week's Photo Hunt challenge: a skull cap (with bonus points for it being worn, being a yarmulka, and for varied coloration).
This picture was taken this morning in Lakewood, NJ, which is something of an Orthodox Jewish enclave.

Update – 11/28/06

TO ALL JORJ.ORG PHOTO HUNT PARTICIPANTS

Firstly, thank you to everyone who voted for this picture. First Place! Wow. I must say that I’m honored… and to be honest, a bit confused. More on that in a moment.

But to all of you – is it just me, or are all of you being driven completely batty by the Photo Hunt challenges of late? I mean, finding the subject is difficult enough – but to also photograph it interestingly…?

(I know that snapshot gratitude has felt my pain on at least one occasion!)

As the weeks go by, it seems my goal for each challenge falls into one of the following categories

a. try to capture the subject in a smartly-composed, well-executed (dare I say artistic) manner, or

b. to hell with the art, rack up the bonus points.

Ideally, these categories don’t have to be mutually exclusive. And I see that many of you have managed to create very striking photos that also earn the multiple, frequently arcane criteria required for big scores. I am often inspired by the shots I see entered every week, and I salute you for them.

I think I’ve approached this Platonic ideal a couple of times, most notably here and here. But sometimes, it’s just not in the cards and you make do with what you have.

Which is what I thought this photo was – my attempt at an entry that was very firmly (in my mind, at least) in category (b).

Maybe it was the difficulty I had getting it (see my Comments for that story). Maybe it’s because I typically don’t photograph people, unless they’re doing something really interesting (like this).

I guess you guys see something in this shot that I don’t. Maybe this is art after all… ? (The jury will take a while with that one... Meanwhile, I'll still be Finding My Way...)

So again: thanks. And extra special thanks to Jorj, for driving us (and driving us mad) every week!

(And thanks for indulging me in this rant – I didn’t mean to get all “bloggy” like this.)

Now if you’ll excuse me, I gotta go dig through my garage for a friggin’ cotter pin…