That's right!  I don't think I'm out of my funk but blowing a tire going down the interstate while driving to work yesterday morning ended up being just the thing I needed.  I normally would be off today, but I took yesterday after getting stranded on the side of I-65 for an hour and then taking about 2 hours to get a new tire.  After all that drama was over I decided that I'd get the things I was planning on doing today done and then go find me some pictures.

It was hard (it's been raining quite a bit with a lot of flooding around here for the past couple of days), but I think I succeeded in finding some wonderful subject matter and examples for Pablo's Highlights and Shadows challenge.

What do you guys think?  Did I find some photos or just take some shots?  Let me know honestly, I'm all ears!  I have more of both subjects, but I thought these fit the challenge the best.  I plan on posting them for critiques as well.  I find when I'm in a funk and I take pictures, they're not exactly up to par.

Suggestions explored:
highlights lightened       and cropped

 My New Toy , given to me by my sister Vicki...  We need to all take time to enjoy the simple pleasures in life that can give us so much joy...    blessings to you all...   Ms Judi :)

PS  We are getting the house ready for Chester's visit... he should be here next week, the same time as my daughter from New York... we will take lots of photos for all of you to view.. I might be able to sneak him to the wisconsin casino ..

 WisconsinSundown  ByMsJudi 

Happy New Year to everyone !  :)

I do a bit of wood carving as you might have guessed. It helps to take photos in the progression of various works using Highlights and Shadows to see what needs to happen next in the process. I've taken several shots of this particular project which is still underway and thought this would be a good one for the challenge. I set it up using only a small flourescent desk lamp and setting the exposure for 2.5 seconds and worked with a telephoto on a tripod. I then took some sheets of paper folded in half and set up a couple of spots of reflected light in the lower left and lower right of the picture. Let me know what you think.

 winter_dragon 

Thanks for looking!!!

Don