Category Archives: Pets

365?…not!

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Everywhere I turn lately someone is throwing down the gauntlet for a 365 challenge. Doesn’t matter if it’s a challenge to upload an entry a day, a photo a day, a recipe a day…you just have to say I’m going to do such and such every day for 365 days and then plan on sharing it on a blog or something.

Doesn’t sound too bad in the excitement of the New Year and goal setting but having just completed a 365 project I can tell you it WILL GET OLD!( This is my link to  my 2011 project:  http://project365challenge2011.blogspot.com/)

Last year when I heard about a 365 photo challenge I enthusiastically embraced it. I was puzzled by the number of people who said they started it and only lasted a few weeks. My thought was  that it would be a piece of cake.

Well, I have just about finished the challenge. Today being December 28, I only have 3 more days to go. That’s not to say all of the shots have been uploaded. The last one I uploaded was Monday’s. I’ve taken one for yesterday and one for today but both are still in the camera.  I’ll probably wait and upload the last of them all at once on Jan 1, 2012.

I didn’t have a problem taking pictures. My camera travels with me all the time but lots of days I took many, many pictures. Sometimes over 100 so to sort through them and chose just one for my photo of the day, well sometimes it seemed overwhelming and I would procrastinate.

Right now I’m cleaning off my hard drive so I can start 2012 with a clean slate. I think I must have 5000+ images. Sort, delete , copy, label disc…I need a better system in place for next year or at least not wait til year-end!

But back to the 365 challenge. I enjoyed it but got frustrated at times. It definitely improved my camera skills. My photos are much , much better than back in January 2011 still I don’t want to commit to that again, at least not right now. I have too much going on in my life between my full-time job and an upcoming project launch. (More on that in a future post)

I am thinking a 52 week challenge. Instead of posting a picture a day …good, bad..or awesome…I think I’ll continue to take daily pictures but I’m going to push the envelope. Snap shots need not apply. I want really good quality shots suitable for gallery prints (those are big enlargements for the non photo bug). If I complete the challenge then I will end the year with 52 really nice photos. To reach that quality I will have to improve my skills even more and that’s really the reason to take on a challenge like that.

So what do you think? Anyone starting a 365 project for 2012? What kind are you going to do?  Love to hear your thoughts and ideas.

A cat Named Autumn

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As you know from my post yesterday I’m being kept quite busy trying to wrap up the pet calendar. It seems that dog owners are more willing to have their pet photographed than cat owners but I do want to include some cats. To that end I had pictures of my 2 if no one stepped up.

I took  the last dog for the calendar on Halloween. Maddie is a beautiful chocolate color and a sweet, sweet dog.

Maddie

After  Maddie, I headed over to my friend with the cat. This cat is an indoor /outdoor cat and as anyone who is a cat owner can tell you, cats have a mind of their own. Miss Autumn was out “catting around” and wouldn’t come home. Who can blame her? It was beautiful day.

I waited until around 4pm when the light began to fade but still no cat. I agreed to come back the next day and try again. That morning I got a call. The cat was in the house and would not be let out until after the photo shoot. No getting away this time.

I thought my cats were great subjects. When the camera comes out they drop everything and look at it. But Miss Autumn was a real Diva. What a little ham. She even let me use “fill flash” without blinking something I can never get away with when I try taking my cat’s pictures.

Autumn

I’m trilled Autumn is going to be in the calendar. Now comes the really hard part…Picking the pictures to use.

Smokey’s home from the Vet

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The news is all good at least for now. Due to  Smokey’s age he is starting to develope kidney problems. This is not unusual in older cats but there was no infection or anything like that. For now he is in the early stages and all are going to do is make some adjustments in his diet to try to reduce the stress on the kidneys.

He will have to have another blood panel in 6 months to monitor any changes so we can stay on top of it. As the condition progresses there are medications that can be introduced but we don’t have to go that route yet.

Rocky was happy to have his buddy home and calm seems to have returned to the household.

You can see Smokey’s picture in the gallery of Yankee Magazine’s cutest cat in New England photo contest. Rocky’s is there too.

http://www.yankeemagazine.com/ecard/index.php?action=See%20Photos&sortby=&category=108

Thanks for all the well wishes and support. Hopefully Smokey has a few more good years ahead of him.