Happy New Year! Like most everyone in the country right now, Covid-19 hit our household. When Curtis, Anna, and I were traveling to and from New Mexico, I was worried that we would pick up the Omicron variant and bring it home to Dominic and Nana. We were careful… we wore masks in public and washed/sanitized our hands, but this virus is so contagious. Over the Christmas weekend, Jenny and Wyatt got Covid in Georgetown so we had to delay seeing them. (In fact, we still haven’t celebrated Christmas with them yet because Jenny is still testing positive.)
Dominic and my mom mostly stayed in during the four days we were gone. The day after we got back (this was a Thursday), Dominic got his booster shot. The next day, he developed a sore throat which progressed to congestion and a low-grade fever which we attributed to the vaccine. By Sunday, he was feeling really sick and the sore throat was severe. So I took him to the doctor on Monday thinking it was strep throat. They swabbed his throat and nose, testing for strep, flu, and Covid. We were shocked to learn that he was Covid positive! Since school was supposed to start back on Tuesday, we decided to keep Anna home too. The population of Life Bridges is a little more vulnerable than most and we were being cautious. In fact, we all stayed quarantined for a week just to be careful not to expose anyone. We assumed we would all get sick. By Wednesday, Dominic’s fever broke and his sore throat resolved by Saturday. I ordered some home test kits which arrived Friday. And what do you know? None of the rest of us got it! All Covid negative. Huh.
I took this photo specifically for the New Braunfels Photographic Society. The January Assignment theme was Artist’s Choice which meant we could submit anything we wanted. (Go check out the gallery, there were some beautiful images shared!) I’m hoping to share all of my photos this year since I was hit or miss sharing any from last year. I thought it might be fun to show you what the Assignments were for 2021 and what I created. I didn’t win any Image of the Month awards last year but the club did award me with Member of the Year which is a huge honor. Thanks guys!
2021 Assignment Images
January: Something Old
Love Sustains in WWII
The photo in the background is my grandmother on my mom’s side. My grandfather carried her photo in his backpack all through WWII. The photo was in his backpack when he got shot at and actually has a bullet hole through the lower left corner. Pappy brought this little angel figurine home from Japan to my Grandma as a gift after the war. <3<3<3
February: Negative Space
441,000
As of February 1st, 2021, the death toll in the USA from Covid-19 was 441,000. I took this negative space themed photo in honor of those who died. This pandemic has changed the world, it will be written about in history books forevermore. As of today, January 12th, 2022, the death toll is 842,000.
March: SOOC
Wood Sorrel
SOOC stands for Straight Out of Camera… so no editing whatsoever. My mom cultivates a lot of weeds… yes on purpose! Her Egyptian tortoises eat a lot of various weeds and she likes to feed them fresh greens almost daily. However, this little tiny yellow blossom, called a Wood Sorrel, or Oxalis, is not safe for tortoises. The entire flower is less than a half an inch big. It is so delicate and beautiful! I used live view and my tilt screen on my camera to get low without having to lay down on the ground to get this perspective.
April: Glass
Mom’s Depression Glass
My mom has been collecting depression glass most of her adult life. She has red, green, and this pretty clear yellow glass. She pulls it out for special occasions. It’s very delicate and elegant.
May: Flowers
Rose Repose
We had an influx of worms and caterpillars last spring and I was lucky enough to get this caterpillar inching his way across one of our roses. I love the composition of this.
June: HDR (High Dynamic Range)
Did not participate… I’m not a fan of HDR.
July: Landscape
Paradise
This was from our trip to Key West. Isn’t that sunset spectacular? I love the sailboat and palm tree near the edge of the island. We were standing on the edge of Mallory Square with tons of people all around us. That was a fun trip!
August: Imperfection
Imperfect Petal
I didn’t have much time to shoot anything for this theme, so I went looking for imperfections in our backyard. This little flower is nearly perfect, except for one spot on the right petal. Normally I would have cloned that out and made it perfect but sometimes there is beauty in the imperfect too.
September: Inspired by Art
Did not participate, it was a tough theme from 2020 that our club members liked. I found it too time consuming. Maybe if I hadn’t been doing a P365, I might have been inspired.
October: High Key/Low Key
Baby Orb on Tiny Rain Lilies
My mom is always looking out for macro opportunities for me. She found this teeny tiny baby orb spider on a rain lily in the backyard and carefully brought it over for me to photograph. Since the theme was high key/low key, I put it on my white windowsill and used the window light to create a high key background. Then I rotated the image 45-degrees to the left. I was pleased with how much detail I was able to achieve.
November: Humor
Knock Knock
Every morning I take my mother a thermos of coffee from our full pot of Sumatra. Last Friday Anna and I took the coffee over before Anna went to Life Bridges and we saw this toad sitting on mom’s doorstep! He did not hop away when we approached him so I went home and got my camera to see if I could grab a shot. Not only did I get a shot but I got a little video, which most of you will see in November’s 1 Second Everyday project. Doesn’t he look likes he’s saying, “Knock, knock, is anyone home?” Made me laugh!
December: Stormy Weather
Hill Country Summer Storm
This is a panorama shot I took in July when we were having some big hill country summer thunderstorms. I was on Shady Hollow in our neighborhood and the sky just looked so dramatic that I stopped to get a photo specifically for this Stormy Weather theme (we are allowed to shoot anytime after the themes are announced). I was on a hill which is why the ground is curved near the left.
Thanks for looking!
