Photo Club at Borgo Antico Agriturismo

This past Saturday night the Sig Photo Club met up at the Borgo Antico Agriturismo.  Our goal? To take a few good pictures of the beautiful scenery and to eat a fantastic dinner.  I think we succeeded on both accounts, and as a bonus we had a great time!  The dinner conversation was great, interesting and often hilarious.  What a great group of people!  I really enjoyed myself and am glad to have these people as not only fellow club members but as friends.

 Les, intently taking a photo of a flower (or flowers)

Derwin, Kristina, Katie, Ryan, Les, & Me

I look forward to many more evenings of sharing pictures, stories and laughter.

Something else I've been up to

Last week I took materinty portraits for a dear friend of mine.  This week, one week after the photos were taken, she had her baby!  Its a good thing we took the pictures while we had the chance.  I really enjoyed photographing her and her growing family.  Here are a handful of the best:

Abandoned

The theme for last month's Photo Club challenge was "Abandoned". I had high hopes of going out and photographing old buildings, discarded items, possibly even stray animals, all of which are plentiful in Sicilia.  My high hopes, however, didn't happen.  I've been way too busy and when I've had the time it has been way too hot.  So, now that today is Photo Club, and me being the facilitator, I must have something to show for the challenge.

I laid in bed last night trying to come up with something and my idea was for a nearly empty cup of coffee sitting on a newspaper with coffee stains on the paper.  You can find an abandoned coffee cup like this at almost any hour of any day in our house (perhaps minus the newspaper).  With a picture in my mind I set out to create the mood of abandonment, sharp focus on the cup with the words of the newsprint blurred out in the background.  Here is what I came up with:

1/8 sec, f4.5, 34mm, ISO 100

Edited in Adobe Lightroom 2 - Cropped, Aged Photo Preset, Point Curve-Strong Contrast

What do you think?  What mood (if any) does the photo convey to you?