I chose a random shot for my photo of the day because capturing these random moments is what a photo project is all about.
My cranes for the day were busy reading a literature anthology to prepare for class.
My photo prompt for the day was “hidden treasure.” Alice hid some treasure from herself out of fear that she would no longer fit into her skinny jeans. The fact that this treasure exists I blame on a child and those infernal chocolate fundraisers that are oh so delicious and horrible.
My dog challenge for the day was “words of wisdom.” So far Lucy Peanut hasn’t said anything to me that is repeatable. I came home from work and went right back out again. She peed on the kitchen floor to express her opinion, but I didn’t think anyone wanted to see a photo of that.
Instead of sharing a Lucy pic today, I’m going to revisit and revise my crane shot from yesterday.
I cropped this shot so that the birds would show up better. I wanted to write something about this particular image last night, but I was so caught up in saying farewell to David Bowie that I didn’t have the heart to focus on anything else.
The prompt yesterday was “black background.” I set this up in my kitchen and used a witch’s cape left from Halloween as the background. I arranged the cranes, shined a lamp on them, and took 36 shots. I knew how I wanted this to look when I started out. Of the 36 shots, though, only one turned out as I envisioned. Turns out it only takes one. I wanted the cranes to appear to be floating in the dark. So here you go…my colorful birds are floating in the dark. In the words of David Bowie’s last video, “Now ain’t that just like me?”
I’m particularly proud of this one because I colored the design on the cranes myself, so I was involved in three stages of the creative process. I colored the paper. I folded the cranes. And I set up and took the photograph.
My brother gave me a day-by-day pull apart calendar for Christmas that was a perfect square, perfect for origami paper. That gave me the idea to use calendars for my paper crane project, so I went to a bookstore after Christmas and found a 60% off sale on day-by-day calendars. I bought several. One of those is an adult coloring calendar. That’s what I used for these birds.
Lesson of the Day:
It doesn’t matter how many times you fail to get the right shot. It only takes one success.
Peace and love, my friends. Never forget to turn and face the strange.
