My Favorite Photos - Coffee and a Book - Photo Contest

It was the perfect theme for me - I love coffee, books and taking photos:)

My winning entry - Morning Coffee in my Garden - planning my next mosaic project.

When I received the e-mail that the gather editorial team had selected me as a runner up I couldn't wait to see which one of my entries they had chosen.

It was a creative experiment for me, since I usually only take pics of my garden, chasing butterflies or trying for the perfect macro. Of course I take the occasional travel, nature or event photo wherever we happen to go.
But actually setting the stage to capture something I do every day anyway, was a little weird.

Here are a couple of my favorites.....

Where else - in my garden - trying to identify one of the many butterflies who come to visit.



Richard already brought me the soil for planting the fall tomatoes, but the tomatoes can wait.
I have to look up into the sky above and watch the oak tree slowly loosing it's foliage - leaves spinning through the air.
There's a Blue Jay making a big raucus and I remember the young red tail hawk that came to visit me during the spring gardening. 




The next day it's all done and I'm just hanging out on my favorite garden bench.




Here's where I curl up with a good book when I get a chance.
I like this particular shot because of the ambience.





Then I caught a glimpse of one of Mr. Bill's wonderful images and I realized that he was light years ahead in the 'creative photo shoot' department. Looking at his entries encouraged me to do better on mine, but alas it was too late, because my camera died.

So instead, I played with one of my last shots taken with my sons camera, which took downright crappy pictures. 
This was my only entry where I edited an image with free software from the net, Picasa 3.

If you want a free photo editing program see the post by Bobbi K. who listed several free downloads in one of her posts. Thanks again, Bobbi:)





Thanks to gather, I won 500 points - yay - found a new gather friend and inspiration in Mr.Bill - was enticed to try out Picasa for editing for the first time and best of all, surprised myself by taking a step outside of my comfort zone.

I shared the joy of winning 500 points each with Heather W. who entered a cool black and white photo.
Heather M. winning entry
http://www.gather.com/viewImage.jsp?fileId=3096224745316595

Mr. Bill won the grand prize incl two different $25 gift cards.
His winning entry:
http://www.gather.com/viewImage.jsp?fileId=3096224745315414

CONGRATULATIONS to both of you!




My new camera is on order - yay! 

If you have a camera on your Christmas list, check out the best websites to buy a new camera listed in my current post http://www.gather.com/viewArticle.jsp?memberId=197955&articleId=281474977513853&nav=MyGather


So thanks, gather editorial team for selecting me! 
It was wicked cool to win some extra points!


This is one of the photos I chose not to enter in the contest, because of the lighting - the sun sucked the color out of the book cover and the coffee mug and I had no idea how to fix it.