I told my photographer cousin about Project 365 right before I started it and was excited when she decided to join me on the journey! She was down to help celebrate my oldest brother's birthday yesterday so of course we had to take pictures of each other taking pictures! Ha ha :) You can visit her blog and see her photos here: Pretty Pink Cosmos Boutique and Blog.

We enjoyed a game night with our friends and I just had to get a picture of their lovely dining room fireplace! I told my friend about my 365 Project and she offered to move the grate for me but I thought the wrought iron was pretty too. I probably should have taken her up on the offer after this shot though just for variety, and maybe to get a close up of the flames and embers!  Oh well, maybe next time. :)

I had another busy day but wanted to get a few pics before heading to work so popped into the backyard.  Our neighbor's dog was barking at me and I noticed this fence slat was broken off allowing a little window into their yard.  My plan was to snap a photo of their dog peeking through the hole, but I guess he got scared and I couldn't get him to come over :-/ So then I decided to just take a pic without him, and maybe it's because it's so late but I found it funny that the nails and knot in the light-colored fence slat next to the hole look like a face bearing a surprised expression.  I'm tired so that's probably funnier than it should be ;-)

Another busy day today, not a lot of time for picture taking.  One of my friends had graciously invited me and some others over for brunch and this photo is more to help me remember the moments than anything.  I wish now that I had pulled my camera out earlier, as this was taken after clean-up was already well under-way.  I will also confess to taking some artistic liberty in Picasa - I didn't take many pictures and wasn't overly thrilled with any that I had to choose from when I got them on my computer. Normally I try to keep my editing to a minimum but I really liked the Lomo effect on this one and since it's more for memory than anything I figured I'd grant myself some leeway! ;-)

I have loved horses ever since I can remember and was recently blessed with an arrangement that gets me in the saddle about three times a week.  I had this image in my head earlier in the day and was glad to see it turned out much like I'd pictured it (even though I forgot to drop my ISO / adjust my settings again >.< ).

Not gonna lie - it's been a hectic week so far! I didn't have a lot of time for picture taking today so this will have to do :) I was cleaning up in our foyer and saw these, thought I'd try a glimpse over the basket edge. 

Sometimes it's a blessing when things don't go as planned.  What I originally had in mind for my photo today really didn't pan out how I'd wanted it to.  I was about to say "oh well" and go with what I had, when I started to think, "well maybe I could do something with a candle..." I love candles.  I started to look around and spotted my favorite verse etched in glass on a shelf.  I grabbed that, a candle, a votive, and matches and ventured upstairs trying to spot a suitable background.  My house is a wreck right now (finally finished the basement! now for clean-up...) so I was happy to spot a space I'd cleared recently inside my nightstand.  Once I started setting up I noticed I had the added bonus of a reflection in the black lacquer (probably should have dusted first though, oh well), but I needed something to block the white wall behind.  One of my throw pillows was next to me and it is black and burgundy, a combination I love.  Initially I was trying to adjust my tripod down to the floor, but then I realized a flipped laundry basket was the perfect height.  Sometimes just using what's around you can bring surprising results! Here's one of my favorite shots I ended up with:

A large blanket of fallen leaves along the path we walked today . 

Thanks to the comment from DiscombobulatedMom I remembered to check my ISO today! ^.^ I also shot this in RAW to start with, which is also a new experience for me.  I remembered RAW makes for big files sizes but I had forgotten just how big - yikes! I also don't have Photoshop to really work with RAW, so just did some minor tweaks using Picasa. Anyway, for some reason I just like this little pumpkin. Funny thing is that I still don't know how it ended up at our house or who gave it to us, but I thought it was cute :)

I think the hardest part of doing this project is going to be the choosing which picture or two to display in my blog! I think I've been staring at this screen for over an hour now trying to pick! Maybe this will help with my decision making skills too ;-)

I do want to mention here that I am one who really appreciates constructive feedback. I consider myself very much an amateur photographer, especially when it comes to manual mode.  Yes it's nice to hear what I'm doing right or what you like for sure, but I also really appreciate thoughtful suggestions or tips on how I can improve both my picture taking and my editing (note - I don't have Photoshop, at least not yet, so in the meantime I've been using Picasa).

Regarding learning to edit better - any recommendations as to whether I should post the original unedited version of the photo(s) along with the edited version? Not sure if that would be helpful as far as providing suggestions goes. :-/ 

Anyway, without further adieu, here are the two Day 1 pics I (finally) chose to share:

I just adore this little guy, he is such a joy ^.^  Don't worry though, I'll have other subjects.  Most of my editing for the above photos was the lighting.  This bathroom has no windows, one of the four vanity bulbs was burned out, and I didn't use a flash, so I felt like the pics were too dark once I got them on the computer.  They also look noisy to me :-/ I resisted using a lot of the other editing features that I felt could make these a lot more fun/appealing.  I figure I should focus now on learning to take quality photos rather than just playing with various features reminiscent of Instagram and the like. 

Okay, Day 1 down!