Monday, August 29, 2016

My Sweet, Sweet Lucy Girl

Lucy
10 December 2000 ~ 29 August 2016

Good bye my sweet, sweet girl. You were the best!! You were so loving, a wonderful companion and great family member to Tony and me. I can’t imagine my life without you. I’ll cherish you forever. I will always remember how you made me laugh and smile. You comforted me when I was down. You loved unconditionally. I couldn’t have asked for a better girl. 


We both love you Lucy girl. Rest in peace.


Mommy and Daddy


Rainbow Bridge

When an animal dies that has been especially close to someone here, that pet goes to Rainbow Bridge. There are meadows and hills for all of our special friends so they can run and play together. There is plenty of food, water and sunshine, and our friends are warm and comfortable.

All the animals who had been ill and old are restored to health and vigor. Those who were hurt or maimed are made whole and strong again, just as we remember them in our dreams of days and times gone by. The animals are happy and content, except for one small thing; they each miss someone very special to them, who had to be left behind.

They all run and play together, but the day comes when one suddenly stops and looks into the distance. His bright eyes are intent. His eager body quivers. Suddenly he begins to run from the group, flying over the green grass, his legs carrying him faster and faster.

You have been spotted, and when you and your special friend finally meet, you cling together in joyous reunion, never to be parted again. The happy kisses rain upon your face; your hands again caress the beloved head, and you look once more into the trusting eyes of your pet, so long gone from your life but never absent from your heart.

Then you cross Rainbow Bridge together....

Author unknown...



















Friday, August 26, 2016

Straight Out of Your Camera

Friday, 26 August 2016

I recently signed up with a photo club on Meet Up (https://www.meetup.com/Frederick-County-Photography-Club). Actually I’m on their 30 day trial. Annual membership fee is $25. Having met some of the gang twice now, I’ll be paying my dues next week. So far I’ve enjoyed the meetups.

This past Wednesday seven of us did a photo walk challenge in Adamstown Maryland, “straight out of your camera”.  No post processing at all.  

Jamie is the organizer of this club and provided instructions. Everyone had to select three words/phrases and write each one on a separate paper. We ended up drawing four words from the ‘hat”: Red, Window, Light, and Glass. We had to photograph subjects that included those words with a minimum of two words.  

Jamie passed out 256mb (or smaller) cards to use and had to shoot jpg only. What made this interesting is that it leveled out the playing field. Those with full frame cameras/higher megapixels had a lower number of shots to take; while those with entry level cameras/smaller megapixels had a larger number of shots to take.

We spent an hour walking around town. Adamstown isn’t much to look at, but I was happy with what I photographed.  At the start of the walk, I headed in the opposite direction of the group, catching up with a few later. 

We were limited to submitting three of our best photos at the end of the challenge, deleting the rest off the card. These are the ones I submitted:





What I liked about the challenge is that it forced me to carefully look at a scene/subject and take the shot knowing I couldn’t make any changes to the photo. I took my time looking at the subject, framing, moving in/out, looking from different angles, etc, before hitting the shutter. 

While out for the hour, everyone could swap the memory card for their own to keep. I did that but I also uploaded my three challenge photos to my smartphone.  

Group voting is going on right now and will end on Tuesday.

I'll update this post next week and let you know if I won the challenge or not.

You can see the other photos I took that day at this link: http://www.pileggiphotography.com/MarylandScenes/Adamstown-Maryland/


PS: 10 September 2016: The firetruck came in first; the red bike came in 5th.