do-over

after posting my pic yesterday I had more time to edit some of them and look at the shots I took closer and I have one I like better! Blogger has been down, so I couldn't add it until now, but I wanted it here b/c I like it even more than the first shot I posted!

Today I got a little (and I stress LITTLE b/c Mike wasn't very cooperative, we'll have to work on that!) practice for Summer and Mike's upcoming wedding! I guess you could call this an engagement shot! I learned a few things and got some new ideas taking shots of them at the bride's grandma's farm, where the wedding will be held in September!

Happy Birthday Ella!

Savannah's good friend is having her birthday party this evening, so we went over for a while when we dropped Savannah off and helped with tie dying! I took over 400 pics, but to be honest, Rey is home for the first time in five weeks and I just can't find the heart to go through every single one tonight! I thought this one captured the heart of a just-turned-12-year old girl! LOL

Making a splash...

f/ 4.5
ISO 200
1/50 sec
taken outside in a partially shaded area at about noon

Our trip to City Museum was a hit! Savannah commented several times that it wasn't mu-seum it was a FUN- seum, lol! The kids had a great time climbing and exploring. I would have a great time just going in to take pictures. Unfortunately to really take good pictures I have to be a little removed from the action. That just wasn't possible today since I was trying to keep up with a pack of kids! I also REALLLLLLY need a new lens. It was a little dark in there and I had trouble getting decent shots in certain places. At times I just gave up and switched to auto WITH flash (gasp) because I didn't want to miss the moment trying to get the shot. It wasn't a total loss, I did get a few good shots and some fun snapshots as well. I think I foresee an adult field trip in my future so I can just focus on pictures...

When in doubt...just shoot the dog.

Today was not a day for the camera. Rey is coming home tomorrow after having been gone over 5 weeks and I spent the day taking the dog to the vet, cleaning, cutting the grass, and taking Dylan to drums. HOPE was off having fun taking pictures on a fieldtrip with our homeschool group! I can't wait to see them! Savannah was with Hope and our group on this little excursion, I'm excited to hear all about it! So, I took Max to the vet b/c he's been limping and found out that he has a torn ligament (basically without going into technical stuff) and will need surgery to the tune of TOO many dollars! This dog should be in pictures b/c then at least he would earn his keep! ;o)

Make a wish...

I can hardly believe that she's 10. In some ways it has gone by so quickly. In others it seems like forever because I can barely remember life without her.

f/ 4.5
1/80 sec
ISO 1600

She rocks...

what more can I say? I only took 24 pictures today and this was the last one. I just liked it, kind of a raw looking shot, completely candid, which seems hard to catch lately.
f 4.5
1/100 sec
ISO 200

Just messing around with the sunlight this afternoon and my blooming hydrangeas.
F16
1/160 sec
ISO 200

ISO 1600
f/5
1/15 second

I understand now why baby photographers get paid so much- it is NOT an easy thing to do! I took over 200 shots of this little guy and kept only a handful. The lighting was poor so every little movement created blur (and babies move A LOT) not to mention that he was very unhappy. His mamma kept saying it was okay, she didn't mind crying pictures but I did. We're going to try again this weekend with some outdoor shots. Hopefully the natural lighting will help and we'll be able to do more!

f/ 5.6
1/200 s
ISO 800
WB- flash (I used filler flash on this shot to compensate for the window)

Can I just say that I HATE fluorescent lights!! My white balance was difficult today under the harsh lights but I managed to get a few decent shots. This was an attempt to learn to use filler flash. Not perfect but not horrible either- which is just fine for learning new things.

Birthday girl!

or almost! Her Birthday is actually Thursday. Today was Kya's bday party and hopefully her mother had a better camera day than me! The lighting was frustrating and I had the wrong lens, so I wasn't very pleased with my shots today. It's not a big deal, I find it comes in cycles, I have a great day and then a not-so-great day. But, I liked this shot of the birthday girl, she was looking at Hope and showing her the telephone that she painted.

Mancala anyone...

I don't have any great Memorial Day shots to share. We pretty much just hung out at the house today because we have a busy week ahead. Kya and I enjoyed several games of cards and Operation today but our favorite is Mancala.

BONUS shot!

I know I already posted today, but this evening as Savannah & I were driving home it was raining but the sun was out. I told her to keep an eye on the sky for rainbows and she immediately said "right there!" (I thought she was joking she said it so quick!). I pulled over and jumped out in the rain, the sun was shining on the field and I was just in the right place at the right time, it was gone 5 minutes later! I didn't even have time to mess with my settings, so all I could do was meter and shoot!
f4, 1/1000 sec, ISO 200
I wish I had another lens on, but I had my zoom, so I could only get the shot at 55mm and no wider, but I was happy to catch it!

Memorial Day

Couldn't pick just one again today!

Lilies...

I carried lilies just like these in my bouquet when Robbie and I were married. I love that I now get to enjoy them in my garden every year.

Swimming!

I have a client that offered to let me swim at their house while I was petsitting! Savannah & I had a great time in the sun and I snapped a few shots as well, naturally!

Banjo

Our little Banjo, a wire-haired Jack Russel/ Beagle mix is pretty difficult to get a good shot of. He's in constant motion so I usually just get a blur or worse- a view from behind, lol. Tonight with a little patience and some help from Robbie I finally managed to capture his cute little face.

timeframe

Not much time today, lots of petsitting this holiday weekend!

Birthday Girl!

Fun times today with friends for Leslee's 11th Birthday!

The sunlight was so harsh today! I took over 300 pics at playgroup and some came out nice, but some not so nice b/c of the lighting. I caught this pretty while sitting on a log chatting with one of my bestest friends evah. I wish I could have found a way to capture a picture of how grateful I was today to have such a friend, hopefully she knows that I wouldn't have half the sanity or serenity I have in my life without her around.

Bubbles

Framing was nearly impossible at playgroup today. I did get one or two shots that fit more with the WOTW but I didn't like them as much as I liked this one. So I figured I'd go with what I like instead of limiting myself to what I think I 'should' do. ;-)

Framing the moon...

Purrfectly framed

Lotsa frames!

Today I dropped by a small local photography show. I really liked a lot of the shots, but I was surprised to realize that I could have taken some of these shots. I decided that I want to submit a shot next year! I'm technically late posting, but our electricity was out most of the night and then when it came back on I was busy with the boys!

Step right up...

Seriously playful...

The WOTW is framing so when I spotted Jace playing with his action figures I just had to get a shot of his serious concentration, framed by his favorite toys!

Oh, and btw- that orange shirt is his pajama top! You've seen it a few times this week and I didn't want you to think I was cheating and taking all of the shots on the same day- or that he never changes his shirt, lol!

It was HOT in my house today!! I finally let Robbie talk me into turning on the AC but not until it got dark and I knew it wouldn't take as long to cool down the house. In the meantime we were doing everything we could to keep cool- including lots of popsicles. YUM!

P.S. I might have had time to take a more creative shot today if I hadn't been LOST most of the day. ;-)

Eureka!

I broke my block this morning, I'm hoping it's not temporary! Apparently I just have to stay up all night and then go petsitting at 5:30 in the morning! I literally slept from 11pm to 1am and then was up with my teenage boys until they decided to go to bed at 4:30 and I realized it was too late to sleep before heading out. EVERYTHING looked different with different lighting. I noticed how warm the colors were, the dew, the fog, the shadows... I couldn't pick just one shot, so since it's my blog (well, OURS!) and I make the rules, I decided to make up for the past week of not enjoying any of my shots by posting more than 1! It was even hard to pick these three, I had quite a few I loved. Guess I'll just have to become even more of an early bird than I already am!

In shadow...

I didn't take many pictures today- we were just too busy! But Kya wanted to go to Lowes this morning for one of their 'Build and Grow' workshops and I snapped a few there. This was my favorite.

I almost forgot to post! Today was a beautiful day here and I was out in the dirt digging up weeds and planting tomatoes. Still felt stuck when shooting today, I took a lot of pics and didn't care for many of them, but found a few I liked. I think part of it is my subject matter. I really would like to shoot people, but I'm surrounded by trees, grass, and green growing things (which is WONDERFUL, don't get me wrong, just tired of taking pics of these things!)

A father's love...

I'm having a photography block, I think! I just can't seem to find a shot I like. I took a lot today, but I'm just not happy and I seem to be searching for something new and different and can't find it! In any case, I have a client with a TON of humming birds, so I caught this shot of them today. I don't love it, but I didn't love anything I shot today really.

Brotherly love...

partners in crime...

A symbol of our love...

I LOVE our life...

One of the perks of homeschooling is that our days belong to us. All of them. We don't pine for a couple of days a week that we're too exhausted to enjoy, we get to choose how we spend each and every day... and sometimes, like today, we get to be spontaneous and silly with those choices. Just because we can.

We had to go to a town about an hour away to pick up or beef from the processor. It was a long drive and no one really wanted to go but the lure of fast food got the kids out the door without too much grumbling. On the way home we were tired of being in the car on the first sunny day we'd had in over a week so when I spotted the sign for the 'World's Biggest Rocking Chair' at the next exit I just had to stop. A 10 minute detour turned a tedious chore into a grand adventure. :-)

A mother's LOVE

The sun finally came out today and I was so excited to get out there and get some shots of billowing white clouds against blue sky, but alas, that was not my fate today. My girl is sick with a fever and has only held down a single cherry Popsicle today(as you can see on her lips!). So, she is taking my attention today so billowy clouds must wait.

City of light and LOVE...

We had another great Disney day. I got to drag out some of my souvenirs from my (very brief) visit to Paris. Today you get a photograph of one of my other photos.

Vive la France!

We had our Disney Day today and the theme was France/Aristocats. Hope outdid herself with the table once again, so it was easy to get my pic of the day! The wine wasn't too shabby either! ;o)

Lined paper...

Well, I must admit that I found LINES to be a particularly challenging WOTW- good job Wendy! I honestly looked for lines every single day and was just coming up short. I think it has a lot to do with the weather- I enjoy taking outdoor shots so much more than indoor shots. I also must admit that I'm much better at SPOTTING the right shot than I am at SETTING UP the right shot. So, I'm sure there were plenty of things inside and around the house I could have done with lines but it just wasn't clicking with me. I like that though- it showed me an area where I need to work to improve which is the whole point of this project. :-)

Fog

This morning I was on a mission to capture fog. It's not an easy feat, usually the grey/white sky swallows up the fog and the pics just look icky. I learned quite a bit by messing with my aperture and shutter speed and metering for the fog. They aren't perfect shots, but I felt they were better than any other foggy shots I've tried to take in the past. I thought this would work perfectly for today so I could have my shot done and posted (tonight is the Survivor finale and I'll be glued to the tv! LOL)...AND...bonus, did you notice the LINE?!?!? ;o)