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)

lots of petsitting today, I got this shot of a Maine Coon cat named Blue. He's HUGE and looks like a lion.

Familial lines...

My friend Courtney added another branch- or line- to her family tree last week! Next week I get to go to their house to take lots and lots of pictures- I can hardly wait!

Prayer lines

I am so stuck today. It was a down day for me, but I really did try to stay motivated with my photography and find a shot. I had a few ideas throughout the day and each time I would shoot them, I would fail. I was nearly in tears and ready to post anything, but found this when looking through the disaster shots I took today and decided to play with it a little and post it. It's not perfect, but either am I. I can't take the "perfect shot" every day for a year, I need to stop being hard on myself when I have a bad day. I had to remind myself that I am doing this b/c I WANT to, I don't want to dislike it. Today I felt like I had photographers block or something! LOL. I think the prayer flags were fitting.

You don't always find what you seek...

I went out this evening to get shots of the horses in my neighbor's pasture but when I got there they'd all moved to far back. So then I decided I'd look for something to go with the WOTW and set out in search of lines. I wasn't seeing anything and was feeling less than inspired.

Then I noticed that my other neighbor's mules were still in the front pasture. When I stopped the car they started moving back and I thought I was going to miss the shot but this one stopped and posed first.

Feeling a little nostalgic today. At the rec center they have a wall where they used to let the kids put their hand prints. We go to the rec center all the time, but we don't always remember to find the kids names. Savannah found hers today, it's hard to believe time is passing so quickly. My kids are growing and I feel like everything is slipping by so fast! SLOW DOWN LIFE, please!

Joy...

I think the moment she found the right dress it really hit home that she'd found the right guy.

Wedding Lines

Hope & I decided that since there weren't too many suggestions for WOTW, we would just do them all! This week's word is LINES. Our very good friend is getting married and today was the day to go dress shopping! Hope & I were shocked when the women at the dress shop told us that we couldn't take pictures! WHAT?!?!?! Luckily, when Summer found "the dress", they allowed us to get some shots. I shot in RAW and to tell you the truth, all it did was make them harder to upload and slow my computer down. Maybe I just don't edit my pictures enough to use RAW, but I didn't see the benefit.

Fruit...

I wasn't feeling creative today and actually almost forgot to take a picture- I was already in bed and had to get up to do it! So, it's not much but it's something. :-)

A bright new morning

Today started off so much better than yesterday. Nothing has changed, but it's amazing how the little things in life can perk a person up. Our first stop of the day was to feed the baby calf and there was enough light for me to get a shot this time. She's just the sweetest thing ever! Today can't possibly be as bad as yesterday starting off the day this way.

Color...

Thanks to Karen mentioning the other day that she found a way to do selective color with her editing software I thought maybe I could find a way as well. We've talked before about this being something we really miss by not having the pricier software. Thankfully Karen didn't give up and now I'm ridin' her coattails because I found a tutorial on youtube for my software. :-)

Today was not a good day. I didn't pick up the camera, I felt awful, and a myriad of things in my world are not going well. One little blip of cuteness was the baby calf that I had to bottle feed tonight, but alas, I couldn't get a shot b/c it was not only too dark, but YOU try getting a picture of a baby calf while feeding it with THIS ginormous thing! So, you get the cheeziest shot yet (hey, be thankful, I actually considered not posting a shot at all today!)

My three

times two!




I just couldn't pick one, I liked them both! The boys agreed to a picture b/c it was Mother's Day, I may have to make this a tradition since the last shot of the three of them was a few YEARS ago! They are my joy, they have made me who I am, and I adore them.

Three reasons to celebrate...

Today I celebrate my mom who taught me how it feels to be loved unconditionally. And my kids who taught me how it feels to love someone else unconditionally. Happy Mother's Day!

Lucky three...

I was given this shamrock as a gift despite my extreme bad luck with even easy to care for plants. With the help of Robbie and Kya so far I've managed to keep it alive. I guess it really is lucky... but none with four leaves yet!

Three Peonies

So forever I have thought I could not do selective color with my Nikon Capture softwear, but in the middle of the night I looked it up on youtube of all places and right there in front of my face was the ability to do this! I'm so pleased that I can do it, but it takes a little more work than I thought! Perfect for our WOTW!

Three wheelin'...

Three boys a playing...

I babysat for friends today and you have no IDEA how hard it is to get a shot of these three! I took quite a few and only a few came out without some sort of blur...they move FAST!

After our trip to the mine today we headed over to the park where I snapped this shot. M was wary at first of me taking his picture but after a few shots he was all smiles.

As for the WOTW I didn't see any intersting shots today with three. There are a couple of things I have in mind but I figure if I can get an interesting shot that I'll save those ideas for a day when I'm stumped. ;-)

Not three again!

LOL. I think I'm making ignoring the WOTD a habit! Today we went on an interesting field trip with our homeschool group to S&T University Experimental Mine. The kids had a little class and then enjoyed checking out the mine. This was my favorite shot of the day!

Butterfly...

NOT three!

Today we went into St. Louis to visit with my mom and we went to Laumier Sculpture park before lunch and Grants Farm after lunch. I took lots of shots, I had three on the brain and even got some good shots of THREE stuff, but this picture of my mom and Savannah won hands down.

Strategic three...

I am addicted to Rummikub! Too bad I can't win, lol.

**CHALLENGE FOR OUR READERS!!!**

Hope and I thought it would be fun now that she has her camera back to have the readers pick our WOTW for next week! Here is your chance to decide what kinds of shots we are taking, give us a challenge, and come out of lurkdom....ahem. ;o) So, post your ideas here and we will pick as many as possible and have a poll where everyone can vote. Lets see how creative you can be!

Three

Today was one of those days that the word of the week helped me. I was struggling b/c I don't have enough gas to go anywhere to shoot and I'm tired of my yard, but the WOTW gave me the opportunity to see things just a little differently!

Fiesta...

Karen and I had our weekly Disney day- something we do so we can talk about planning and to build aniticipation for the trip. Since Cinco de Mayo is this week we chose the movie The Three Caballeros and had a Mexican fiesta. As usual the girls didn't watch the movie but we still had lots fo fun!

Spring revisited...

This is the very same snowball bush that was barely budding in my first entry on this blog. Then spring was barely a promise and now it's in full bloom.

I suffered for my fun yesterday! Not only did I run yesterday morning for the first time in a week, but then I drank copious amounts at the sip & savor and THEN ate a ton of stuff last night I shouldn't. Needless to say, I didn't feel much like picking up the camera today, I considered taking a photo of the Aleve bottle. I made myself go outside and take some though and this is what ya get!