26/52 of 2010: Nature

Bug on leaf. The theme 'Nature' marks week 26 of 52. That's the first half!

Happy Summer!

The

longest

day

and

the

shortest

night

of

the

year.

.

.

It's

all

downhill

from

here!

25/52 of 2010: Pairs

A pair of flags (U.S.A. and Michigan) on a cloudy day. This is the Wenonah Park "Friendship Ring" fountain in downtown Bay City (Michigan, U.S.A.) looking out over the Saginaw river. The water feature seems to have been suffering from a broken pump at the time of this photo but according to the The Bay City Times it was at the repair shop.

24/52 of 2010: Black & White

My picture for the theme Black & White is in color.

CRAZY, isn't it?

23/52 of 2010: Toy or Game or Childhood Pastime

MY childhood games had to be pulled out of a basement cabinet for their photo opportunity. Makes me wonder where Operation went. Perhaps the trash?

22/52 of 2010: Ground Level or Low Point Of View

Memorial Day on Main Street U.S.A.

Actually this pic is from Ferndale Michigan (which is one of just five communities from across the nation chosen for a "Great American Main Street Award" by the National Geographic Traveler Magazine this month) but represents any and all American towns celebrating Memorial Day with a parade.

21/52 of 2010: Jump!

All of a sudden the hood here was overrun by these Red Admiral butterflies. As another area blogger put it "they were pretty skittish" and that made me think "HEY, these butterflies were Jumpy." So here is my pic for JUMP! because soon after the click of my shutter this bug jumped and flew away.

20/52 of 2010: Soft

Soft is the new spring growth on a Picea Glauca 'Conica' (the Dwarf Alberta Spruce) but the softness soon fades into prickly. This one was a Christmas gift back in 2005 and came complete with decorations and lights. Below is a full view.

19/52 of 2010: Green

The theme is green. So many things are green this time of year and I went with the obvious: the green of spring plants. It also follows the midweek post of early crops. So here are more early spring harvests from my garden (all green): spinach, mint, chives, thyme and oregano.

Cinco de Mayo Crop

A first harvest of Cinco de Mayo radishes! I think usually I'm just planting seeds this time of year. Nothing like getting a head start. Sure, radishes aren't the usual Cinco de Mayo food choice but the cilantro and peppers aren't ready yet. It's TOO early in the season!

18/52 of 2010: Season 2 - Spring

Nothing says spring like a dandelion. Sure, most probably think of crocuses and tulips and thunderstorms but dandelions are everywhere. Well almost everywhere! Of course there are none in MY yard so I had to go find a garden full of them. I won't mention names.

17/52 of 2010: Hands

Analog hands. What time is it?

Earth Day 2010!

The Grecian Windflowers are one of the first plants up and about in the spring here near Detroit. Just in time to help celebrate the 40th anniversary of Earth Day (and the 2nd annual celebration by This is Eric's Blog! click here for the first)

16/52 of 2010: Bench

This week I didn't wait until Sunday afternoon to find a subject for the weekly theme! Good thing since here in Metro Detroit it looks like we're going back into winter for the weekend. At first I thought "bench" was a pretty lame subject but after looking at all the submissions in a row I changed my mind on that. Pretty cool to see all those different benches from all over the globe.

(Click here to see the Bench flickr page.)

15/52 of 2010: Depth of Field

I assume when they say Depth of Field (the range of distances within a scene that will record as sharp) as the theme of the week they mean a small DOF since a large DOF is just an in focus photo. For sDOF I present spring viloas from my backyard.

14/52 of 2010: In motion

Capturing light in motion.

13/52 of 2010: Jagged

Rainy spring days and Sundays drove me to the basement to look for jagged things on the workbench. Seems there's a lot of jagged things on a work bench. Also seems that a plastic garbage can and a hand-held work light makes for a cool light box.

Backlit Me

Last week in my pursuit of the theme "backlit" I captured another self portrait similar to week #3.

12/52 of 2010: Backlit

I thought backlit would be more interesting. Just wasn't feeling it this week. Onto the next theme please.

11/52 of 2010: Blue

This week is blue. Although I went for the color blue for this weeks pic it was a rather blue day (emotionally) full of gray skies and cold rainy weather. But even the gray skies today lit up this opaque shower curtain enough for my blue theme picture.

1st sign of spring (crocus)

It must be spring (even though after three days in the 50's there's still snow on the ground in places.)

10/52 of 2010: Work or People at work

As noted last week I spent a week in the Caribbean looking for the wrong theme. Above is one of pics I took of "People at work" showing 3 islanders building a fence. There really wasn't much work to be seen happening on the small island of Nevis so this was a rare find.

As for a picture taken DURING the theme week of the actual theme here is a pic I got from on top of a parking structure while standing on top of an enormous pile of melting snow piled up by a plow truck. It is a view of the work going on to the new Sonic (America's Drive-In) being built down the street from my house. Sure it looks like the circus is moving into town but they say it's just a new restaurant.

9/52 of 2010: Flare

I spent the week on the Caribbean island of Nevis. 7 days of sunshine, beaches and 85 degree weather. You would think this environment would have offered many photo opportunities for the subject matter of "lens flare" but I got my weeks mixed up and spent my time looking for "People at work" (which is the theme for next week.) So here is a sunset as my flare.

8/52 of 2010: Diptych Collaboration

Diptych: any object with two flat plates attached at a hinge OR a photograph that uses two different or identical images side by side to form one single artistic statement.

August vs. February.

What a difference 6 months can make.

7/52 of 2010: Waves or Water

February in Michigan. Plenty of snow and ice. Here the Saginaw River is frozen over hiding it's waves and water from me for this weeks theme of "waves or water." The frozen version of the theme will have to do.

6/52 of 2010: Close Up

(Not so much) ready for my close up! I spent a day and a half watching a house full of dogs and cats and various aquatic creatures so I figured they were prime candidates for this weeks theme of Close Up. I found the kitties were not overly cooperative and also not too happy with a macro lens stuck in their faces.

5/52 of 2010: Season Winter

Here in the Motor City we were having an extended January thaw but just in time for this week's theme of "winter" our temps plummeted once again. With a lack of snow I wondered what could be a good subject matter for "winter" and then I remembered seeing posts on Detroit Moxie (click for more info) of this mysterious Ice Tree on Belle Isle and decided to go see for myself.

4/52 of 2010: Yellow

Driving around town on a dreary rainy day in January the yellow can really stand out. Come to find out there's more yellow out there then I realized. From yellow-yellow to blue-yellow and green-yellow. But I was only looking for true yellow-yellow for the week theme.

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Driving down Woodward Ave. this angelic yellow creature jumped out at me from a store front. Not the yellow I was expecting but perfect for what I was looking for!

A bit too friendly

Yesterday while crouching down along a river adjusting shutter speeds and exposure settings in an attempt to learn more about photographing flowing water and bright white snow I wasn't expecting a critter to try to get into my jacket pocket! Too bad for Mr. Squirrel I was out of snacks at the moment. Maybe next time I'll bring lunch.

After posting this I discovered that today was actually "Squirrel Appreciation Day" according to the National Wildlife Federation. Coincidence? Maybe THAT'S what Mr. Squirrel was trying to tell me!

3/52 of 2010: This is me

The weather men say it's a January thaw but there's still plenty of snow on the ground. This is me taking a stroll in the sun the other day during this period of thaw.

January Jack

Jack Frost visited my garage the other night and covered the window with ice crystals. They lasted until afternoon when the sun made a melting appearance.

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2/52 of 2010: Happy

Even when the temperature is hovering around 20 degrees fahrenheit the shining sun can make it almost bearable. Happy is a full weekend of sunshine in the middle of winter.

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As I was beginning to post my idea of happy the power went out in the neighborhood. A few hours later after cooking dinner on the gas stove by flashlight the power returned and I thought of another happy thing: artificial sunshine.
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1/52 of 2010: New

While driving up Woodward Avenue the gold, purple and red colors of this new construction jumped right out at me making me remember the first theme for my 52 1/2 week photo project is NEW. It also made me remember it was just back in May when I posted a series of pictures from this very same city of various empty store fronts all with "For Lease" signs in their windows.

My 52 Week Photo Project

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

After the first year of 'something to say, every day' this blog had no real direction (a lot like me these days) and was being sporadically posted to. Now direction has been found (at least for the blog) and will consist of a photo a week, every week. That gives me 7 entire days to come up with an original blogable photo and perhaps something to say about it. This also means I don't have to think of a witty title for each post. Oh what a relief it is!

I will loosely follow the Flickr group '52.5 of Twenty Ten' and companion Wordpress blog 'fifty two point five' when added inspiration and/or direction is required. I mean I would hate to make an actual commitment and join the group!

Soon the lights will fade

Only a few more days of merry Christmas lights remain.

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Merry Merry

CHRISTMAS!

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Merry Christmas (or Happy What-ever-you-celebrate) from This is Eric's Blog. The pic is a scan of my holiday card for this year. Nothing says Christmas like a sheep in a Santa hat!

Happy Holidays from me to ewe!

Looks like it's already winter.

Tomorrow is officially the first day of winter.

May it hurry on out of here!

Only 90 days until the first day of spring!

20 degree hike

Yup, it's winter alright.

The sun was shining making for a fairy pleasant hike in the woods.
(Well, for the first quarter mile the sun was shinng.)

Brrr - finally winter

Suddenly it's winter here complete with snow flurries and single digit wind chills! All summer while biking and hiking and photographing I told myself I would continue doing this all winter no matter what the temperatures (with the proper clothing of course) and maybe even try snow activities like cross county skiing and ice skating. But now that it's here I'm really not so sure anymore. (Brrr)

I guess it will depend on how inside-stir-crazy I get.

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Here's a mid-summer pic of a bird and a boat on Lake St. Clair.

Toasty, like a warm crackling fire.

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Welcome to December!

The last month of 2009 is here very suddenly and the Winter Solstice is approaching fast. Yet here near Detroit there is no sign of Old Man Winter. (No complaints from me!) Although the weather men warned that today we would finally wake up to snow flurries we got sunny and 45 degrees instead. Perfect weather to put up the holiday lights - no jacket required!

YEAR ONE DONE

This is Eric's Blog started one year ago

on November 22, 2008.
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Something to say... every day.
A collection of my daily thoughts, rants and pictures.

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There have been 358 postings. Once a day. Everyday. Something to say. More or less with a few exceptions. A couple days of double posts and for some reason nothing to say on April 30th. There was also 8 days off in February to go to St. John for an internet free week.

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Now the blog (meaning me) needs a break. From here on in posts will be sporadic. Perhaps once a week. That sounds good in theory: Something to say... once a week. (But it doesn't rhyme.) Or as one commenter suggested to me the posts could be: When I freaking feel like it! (But that's kind of rude and I would NEVER be rude!)

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Check back in from time to time!

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To see the sky through the trees

All the leaves are down.
And the sky is blue.
I went for a hike.
On a late autumn day. (Well, actually a few days ago.)

We can only dream of summer days for the next 6 months.

Sad Lion

Although this lion should be guarding the entrance
he just heard there is a change coming to
This is Eric's Blog and is somewhat melancholy.

K-roo, thinks.

Kangaroo relaxes, contemplates what is to become of

This is Eric's Blog.

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. Resident of The Detroit Zoo

November dragonfly!

So I saw a butterfly in my yard the other day. A bit unusual for late fall in Michigan but it was an unseasonably warm and sunny November day.
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TODAY on the other hand I'm driving 50 mph down the road (and yes, the speed limit was 50 mph-ish) with the windows up and the sun roof closed and from out of nowhere this thing flew at my face! It finally landed on the dashboard and turned out to be a dragonfly.
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My first thought was to take a picture. My second thought was to watch the traffic. Before a third thought could happen it flew into my face again.

After it landed on the A-pillar (automotive lingo) for a rest I got a quick cell phone pic before letting it out the window into the chilly day. At least I think it went out the window into the chilly day!