Photo 101: Water everywhere, including the kitchen sink

/ March 4, 2015

No matter the assignment on this third day of Photography 101, I was determined that my post was not going to include one flake of snow.

And then comes the word. Water.

Horizontal view of water. Vertical view of water. Perspective included, reminds instructor Cheri about lesson two, because this month’s instructions are meant to be cumulative.

So much water-turned-white around the cherished Little Bitty my dear wife Karen and I share in the Syracuse city neighborhood of Eastwood, but I’d already used up feet and feet of snow on Monday’s essay illustrating my vision of Home and Tuesday’s shots designating Street. Not to mention my patience for trudging out in it with my iPad Air (Monday) and iPhone 6 (Tuesday). I would not be shooting wides and narrows of the water dripping from my roof. Or driving to parking lot puddles, because, yay, today’s temperature had crept above freezing for the first time since Noah had built the Ark.

I thought of going back into my iPad stash for shots of Karen and Ellie B aka Dogamous Pyle I’d taken last June at the Atlantic Ocean in Provincetown. They were quite nice, published on this blog previously. Or shots of my dear wife walking the shore herself in Cape Cod, a pretty picture if there ever was one. Alas, I never turned my iPhone 4 vertical.

So I waited until after I’d eaten my bologna and cheese sandwiches and chicken soup for lunch. I’m the designated dish-washer around here, unless it’s our once-a-month-or-so Polish dinner of any other rare instance of my taking over the cooking chores. We have a simple and happy formula. One cooks, the other washes. Old-school that I am, I go by hand, saving the dishwasher for the family stacks on holidays.

Wash on the left, rinse on the right, stack on the far right.

Wash on the left, rinse on the right, stack on the far right.

But since I work at home and Karen goes to the SMG office, I’ll do the two morning coffee cups and my lunch dishes before Karen gets home from work and we unwind for the evening routine.

Closer, taken second, bubbles and water rising.

Closer, taken second, bubbles and water rising.

I attempted to keep my iPhone 6 at the same distance and level to the sink on each shot. Because I took the horizontal first, had the sink plugged and kept the water running — this was a real life situation, not some staged props — the water level to my coffee cup the size of my head is higher in the vertical photo.

Here’s the link to my post from last summer that includes two pictures of Karen and Ellie B at the ocean in Provincetown. Dang, I love those two photographs.

Which picture do you prefer, and why? Hand wash or dishwasher? For this assignment, crop one of the old ocean photos to a vertical, take two new ones of dripping icicles or good call on the kitchen sink?

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58 thoughts on “Photo 101: Water everywhere, including the kitchen sink”

  3. Leave it to Kerbey to point out the coffee. Poor gal must be jonesin for a decent cup of joe by now. Is that a magic eraser? I love those things, great for getting crayon off the walls. I love getting really close up on objects so I prefer the 2nd shot. Nice job hermano!

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    • Yes, that is a magic erase, Sandra, proving the cleanliness factor, Kerbey! Thank you, sis, for backing me up on the brown ew, explaining it is coffee that will obviously be washed away with my dishwashing process. 🙂 The second shot is nice because of the increased view of bubbling, too, I agree.

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  4. I LOVE the fact that the new kitchen comes with a built in dish washer. I still hand wash a few mugs but I love the fact that the main meal stuff is all taken care of by German engineering. 🙂

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  5. I like the second better. And I prefer the dishwasher over hand-washing unless I’m binge watching something on my Kindle while I wash them. (Most recently it was Big Love so dishes only got washed by hand while the kids were napping!) Glad you opted for no snow. I can’t stand another snow pic from either of us!

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    • I took two that included snow today for Bliss, Rachel, but snow was secondary to my theme.

      My dear wife Karen and I were serial “Big Love” watchers when it was on HBO. Cool show!

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  6. Great ‘action’ pics! I see my sink so often I would never think to take a picture of it. I would go for vertical, more bubbly action there. and where is that dishwasher? I am still dreaming of mine…long overdue kitchen refurb…one day…Oh, and your low tide pic beats the lot! give a stroke to your doggy 😉

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    • Sometimes good pictures are right under our noses, Eugenia!

      The dishwasher is great for the big-day loads, for certain. And our kitchen remodel was so due. The old stuff when we bought our house was REALLY outdated. 😦

      Thanks fo your kind words about the low tide shot. It’s quite a natural beauty there in Cape Cod.

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      • You are most welcome Mark. 🙂 I will keep thinking of the wonderful Cape Cod in low tide and try to push away this annoying kitchen remodel issue…not happening any time soon for me. Keep well and talk soon

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  9. I will let everyone else talk about photo quality and ask you instead about your Polish cooking fests. What do you serve at these feasts?

    Clever clever on the dish water for your photo. Same old-school rule applies at our house: Cook doesn’t wash dishes. Except for when they do. Last night Larry ended up helping Anna with homework so somehow I did both the cooking and cleaning. Hand washing for hand washing stuff, dishwasher for dishwasher-safe plates, etc. Always some of each. Though we run the washer once every couple of days.

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    • My Polish feasts are boil and fry, Liz. Boil fresh kielbasa, best here made by Utica butcher and shipped to Solvay butcher. Boil potato-and-cheese pierogi and then drop them in frying pan with chopped onions that I’ve scalded in butter. Serve with heated from can sauekraut and baked beans. I put horseradish on the kielbasa. Karen loves it, too. I need it near-monthly.

      Your routine is a good one. I see the dishwasher needs with four sets of plates, etc., at each meal. 🙂

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  10. Washer by hand all the way Mark! I’ve never even owned a dishwasher. ❤ I really like your splash guard, or whatever you call those pretty little tiles behind your sink. ❤
    Diana xo

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  11. nice choices, mark. happy you chose the sink scenes. i prefer the vertical, though each tells a different story in a way. i’m a hand-washer, and i really have no choice, having no dishwasher, but i do prefer it anyway. )

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    • When we finally got a dishwasher, Beth, I envisioned changing over to easy living … But, no. I see all this wasted water for two people’s worth of dishes. So I remain a handwasher, happily. Thanks for your support of my sink scenes.

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  12. I think your sink shot is great and very creative! David’s a handwasher, I prefer to run the dishwasher once a week (except for hand washing good glassware and knives). Love the picture of Ellie B. and your lovely wife at the shore!

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    • David and I will be great friends, I think, when we all meet at our big Nano Poblano bloggers party someday, Kimi! (I like to keep that dream as a blog enticement.) We think alike on handwashing the dishes, after all. 🙂

      Thanks for the kind words on my creativity, and the summer shot of Karen and Ellie B at the shore. Oh, that day was quite nice indeed. 🙂

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  14. I like the second, but I’d crop out the brown because ew. Makes me want a warm bath. Or to be inside your beach pictures, where the weather is fine! I use the dishwasher several times a week and also hand wash stuff that crowds the dishwasher.

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  15. Nice sink. I like the spigot. Mine is ugly and cheap and the cold water comes out really, really slowly (didn’t before, now it does) but man I hate plumbing more than anything. Crawling under the counter. Ugh. Now I’m inspired to change mine. Thanks for that. Thanks a lot.

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    • I don’t plumb much. I pay a plumber too much. I hate that as much as you hate plumbing. I try plumbing and break stuff and get me, the house and my spirits drenched. Tinyt ittle tape. Counter-intuitive threading. Plastic pipes that don’t really seem to fit together in my opiniion. Rubber gaskets that snap. Tight spaces, as you mention. Oy.

      Thanks for the kind words about the looks of our spigot, Chuck.

      Do you think your cold water is slowed by your pipes being frozen?

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  18. Good call on the kitchen sink Mark. Just wondering, are you left handed? I go the other way, wash on right, rinse on left, drain on far left, mainly because it seems to work better and more naturally for me, because I’m right handed. I’m really jealous of your kitchen sink setup though, nice and large, while mine look more like the basin they give you in a hospital, only not plastic or moveable. As for dishwashers, I’ve had the same dishwashers all my life, and if I were smart I would own stock in a good hand lotion company. Great photos brother.

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    • I am a righty, like you, sister Angie. This is the way our kitchen seems to flow best. It’s not even a conscious thought. It just is! Karen and I made sure we ordered a deep double sink. We carefully designed our kitchen remodel. It was really fun to put our heads together and go to different stores to find the matching colors and styles we liked best for cabinets, countertop, backsplash, floor tiles and wall paint color.

      Thanks, sis, for your kind words.

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  19. I like the second better, the bubbles look cool! The bubbles are the only thing good about dishwashing. It is probably my least favorite household chore. I wish I had a dishwasher. Also, love the Red inside that cup…it is my favorite color!

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  20. I like the vertical.
    I don’t know why. My eye just prefers it.
    I like that mug floating there with the soap bubble.
    Hand wash. I take serious issue with water spots on glasses and detergent residue on colored dishes. My Fiesta dinnerware is precious to me, and I don’t want it all cloudy. For years I tried all the different stuff and all the different rinsing agents, and when my new deep blue bowls came out of the dishwasher with white scum on them, I gave the dishwasher up entirely. I’m trying to get my hands on an old dish drainer sink…

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    • I actually enjoy doing the dishes by hand, Joey. It’s relaxing, and good for the mind and soul. And as you say, no spots. We had our kitchen remodeled four years ago and got the dishwasher after eight years without one, but I’m glad we still chose the double sink, too. But on the holidays, when we have five adults instead of just MDW Karen and I, the dishwasher is much easier. 🙂

      Thanks for pitching in with your thoughts on the kitchen, and the vertical. Glad to see you here.

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  22. Nice clear and crisp photos, Mark! I really like the splash tiles and the pretty counter top, too. I use the same exact way you organize dish washing, Mark. Left to right is exactly how my Mom, my Dad, my brothers and I all do this, (oh, my oldest daughter, too!) We wash on left, rinse on right and drip dry on the far right, Mark!

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