The Human Form

Tanith Belbin and Ben Agosto


This month's photo contest theme on Boston.com is "The Human Form." (http://www.boston.com/community/photos/raw/2011/03/march_contest_theme_the_human.html) The goal is to capture the beauty of the human body in a portrait or photograph. This past Friday, I joined friends at the 'Stars on Ice' show here in Boston. Ever since I was a child, I have been fascinated by figure skating. I was never allowed to ice skate, but I would watch figure skating for hours on end and choreograph routines in my head. So given all of this, when I had a chance to join my friends for a chance to see a live show, I counted myself in! I was also psyched because I had gotten a new telephoto lens for Christmas (thanks Mom and Dad!) and had not yet had much opportunity to break it in. Now I had my chance and I have to say, I was quite pleased with the results. I am having trouble choosing which photo I want to submit to the contest, so I am posting a few of the contenders. Opinions are welcome!

Sasha Cohen


Tanith Belbin and Ben Agosto

A Steaming Pot of Soup...

I love to cook...and if it were not for the clean up afterward, I would cook a heck of a lot more than I do now. I really enjoy making soups, pot pies, mexican dishes, and lots of other good stuff. For this item on the photo scavenger hunt, I had to photograph a steaming pot of soup. Voila!!! Looks good, doesn't it?

BUT.....the end product that I was cooking this night was NOT soup! (Although if I stopped cooking at this point, I could have indeed had soup for dinner). Instead, I kept boiling it...and boiling it, until much of the liquid was gone. I was not making soup...I was making chicken pot pie instead! And boy was the end product good! Don'tcha wish you had some???

And if you are wondering why I am posing with my pot pie in front of my computer with a picture of my friends on it, it is because they cooked the same recipe on the same night, all the way down in Tennessee!

Show me a Sign

During the month of February, I kind of halfheartedly took part in a photo scavenger hunt. I did not get nearly as far as I had hoped. But even though I was not online or behind the camera as often as I liked, that's okay.

So back to the scavenger hunt. One of the items was to show a sign at a museum. It just so happened that I had plans to go to the Fuller Craft Museum in Brockton with a friend of mine and her daughter. The museum was beautiful and we had a great time. Funny enough, while we were at the museum, I ran into some other family friends of mine who I had not seen in well over a year! I absolutely LOVE when I have "small world" experiences like this, especially since this particular museum was no where near where my friends or I live! So not only was I able to get one of the scavenger hunt items, I also had a great time with ALL of my friends!

The Truffle Fairy Strikes Again!!!

Random acts of kindness can really make one's day. The other day I was in a bit of a grumpy mood when I got to the office, however my chagrin quickly turned to a grin when I saw that overnight, the Truffle Fairy had visited my office and left me a treat! Thank you Truffle Fairy! You know who you are! ;)

Scavenger Hunt: Traffic Light at Night

25. Traffic light after dark, red light facing you, green light facing left or right

The other night I spent some time out in Central Square while waiting to have my hair cut. It was a frigid night and it might not have been the best idea for me to be out there photographing with my gloves in my purse. But a girl has got to do what a girl has got to do. It took me about 20 minutes to get a shot that I was actually somewhat happy with. I was out there with just my little point and shoot camera, sans tripod, so it really was challenging to get a shot that came out sharp enough. However, in the end, this seems to have worked.

In regards to this scavenger hunt, I am finding that I am having trouble being creative. Many of the items are quite easy, but I do not want to take sub-par shots just in order to fill a requirement. Therefore, I think from here on out, I am going to be doing this just for myself and not to fulfill the requirements of a contest. I want to take quality photographs. I want to make art. So if I do not finish the scavenger hunt by the deadline, that's okay! Something beautiful will come out of it.

Scavenger Hunt: Tall Snow Pile

23. Snow pile taller than an adult with an adult in the photo for perspective

As I may have mentioned before, this has been an unusually snowy winter here in the Boston area. We have already received over 70 inches of snow... and it is only the beginning of February!!! Typically we receive just over 40 inches in a given year. Seeing that I live in the city, you can imagine that this means we have a LOT of really big snow piles. Really big!!! Therefore, I did not have to search all that hard to find a pile that was taller than an adult. Actually, for the past few weeks I have been really impressed with the growing snow piles at church. And today, you get to see just how tall they are.

Scavenger Hunt: Heart Shaped Candy

20. Piece of candy in the shape of a heart - any candy, including chocolate

I am stuck at home this morning waiting for the roofer to come and shovel off our roof because we have had a ton of snow this season and we heard weird noises coming from up there yesterday. He was supposed to be here an hour ago, but alas, he is not. So I am trying to use my time productively...folding and putting away laundry, taking photos for this scavenger hunt, and blogging. Not a bad way to spend a Sunday morning, right?

One of the items on the scavenger hunt is to take a photograph of a piece of heart shaped candy. I made a late night grocery run last night (might have been a bad idea!!!) and came home with cupcakes and heart shaped marshmallows. Now I am not too sure how literally the judges of this contest are going to be judging. This particular item said "a piece" of heart shaped candy. So I guess I am not going to be able to use those cupcakes that have multiple pieces of heart shaped candy on them. I am going to have to eat those. What a pity. However, I could photography just one marshmallow. So I did. Enjoy!!!

Oh, and for those of you who are thinking that marshmallows are not candy, here is a copy of my receipt from last night, just to prove you wrong. ;)