Not a Holstein...

but isn't it close enough?!!? This calf was so interested in me when I stopped this morning to take shots of a bunch of calves that were congregating close to the country road I was driving down. I love the sunlight in the background. I actually just pulled over and started shooting, didn't have to even take my seat belt off! LOL
f/5.6
1/100 sec
ISO 200

Feelings fairies...

We had our fourth 'Meetings at the Moon' mother/daughter class this week. We focused on becoming women in feeling and made these feelings fairies, similar to worry dolls. They were fun to make and turned out beautifully!

ISO 1600
f/5
1/40 sec

I'm cheating

I DID take pictures today, albeit not many, but I did pick up the camera and shoot, which was the point of making ourselves post a picture each day. BUT...Dylan turned 16 today and instead of bugging him on his bday to let me take his picture, I decided to post one I took 2 days ago. This is him trying to look scary, he does smile, just not for the camera! LOL. I think it's ok since I did take some shots today, but nothing would seem right to post on Dylan's 16th birthday, but a shot of him! I'm reeling about this age, I think I might just have a midlife crisis to be honest. The time has gone so fast, it seems like yesterday I was a new mother with this little bitty guy and now he's taller than me and driving. I must have done something right b/c he's amazing and although I miss when he was little, I love the man he's becoming. Now I'll have to stop before I cry!
f/1.8
1/200 sec
ISO 200

Ice cream cone...

ISO 200
f/ 5
1/ 160 sec

f/5
ISO 400
1/320 sec

Today was a beautiful day, we spent most of it outside and lots of it with good friends. Before spending the afternoon outside, we went to the library program where I took this shot...
I was messing with my settings and putting the white balance on Florescent and I won't do that again. It adds too much red to the picture, I actually had to adjust the color b/c there was too much red in it.

Today we went into St. Louis to celebrate my neice and nephew's 16th birthday! They were actually born on the 10th, but who is keeping track here? It's bad enough that they are 16...I remember BEING 16 and that makes me feel terribly old. They were good sports and even sported the party hats and tolerated singing and horns being blown in their honor. LOL

Old Glory...

Photography is not for the faint of heart. There's a carnival this weekend and they started setting it up today. I stopped by the park with good intentions to get some colorful shots of rides being set up, etc. The trouble is that I don't have the courage to just snap pictures- I'm just too self conscious. So, I snapped the flag in the drive instead.



f/ 5.6
ISO 100
1/1000 sec

Artist at work...

f/5
1/10 sec
ISO 1600












f/5
1/30 sec
ISO 1600

garden...

heart's not in it today so you just get a snapshot of my garden...weeds and all.

Barn stall...

Okay, this is the small shed but there is a door for a stall and its painted like a barn so I'm counting it.

f/5
1/1000 sec
ISO 200

Sunset...

f/16
ISO 400
1/15 sec

Country road, take me home...

It's funny, I've been out here for over 6 years now and I never tire of the beauty of the back country roads out here. In the summer they are lined with wild flowers and I spend most mornings driving them, going back and forth for my petsitting. This morning I stopped quite a few times to try and get a shot and capture them. You are in luck that I got a few shots I couldn't decide between! I'm sure this is a surprise. ;o)

Ambiance

Today we went to get Dylan's haircut and his hairdresser had moved to the new renovated schoolhouse/salon/restaurant/boutique in town. This place was a photographers dream, I had a good time taking some shots although some of them would have been better if I could have gotten better angles and I was a little self-conscious getting down on the floor or getting in people's way to get a shot. We will certainly go back, it was fun and I liked the renovated/antique/modern mix!

so you get more than one shot. LOL
first shot wasn't as crisp as I wanted b/c I forgot about my ISO for a moment...
f/1.8
1/2 sec
ISO 200
Next shot I had realized that it needed to be changed:
f/1.8
1/160
ISO 800
they had antique chandeliers all over the place and they were all different...I thought chandelier might be a scavenger word, but it wasn't. DRATS!
f/1.8
1/160 sec
ISO 800

Adirondack chair

ISO 200
f/ 5.6
1/1250 sec

Busy afternoon and evening ahead so I wanted ot get this up now! My dad built these chairs for my kids. They are a little small now but I can't bear to part with them so they live in my flower bed. :)

Hot!

f/22
ISO 200
1/125 sec

Ornate or unusual mirror(s)

Wish this was my bathroom!
f/2.2
1/60 sec
ISO 200

Butterfly...

ISO 400
f/5.6
1/20 sec

Back to the farm!

My client has left town again for the arrival of their first grandchild, and that means more pool time for me! I took this shot this morning and I'm happy to say that my camera is going to stay home the remainder of the day. Today is just one of those days that I'm happy to get my shot early and take a little break from lugging the camera around. It's going to be HOT and that pool is calling my name!
f/4
1/250 sec
ISO 200

Clock in Station

well, MY interpretation of it! LOL...had to get a new tire today, so I took this shot while waiting in the station! When I told the guys there what I was doing, they agreed with me that it was a service station! ;o)
f/2.8
1/500 sec
ISO 200

Body art...

When I noticed what Kya had written on her hand I knew immediately that it would have to be included in my shot of the day. This is the absolute truth about my daughter and the thing I admire most about her.

ETA:
ISO 200
f/5.6
1/13 sec

Life is just a bowl of cherries... (aka: fruit)

ISO 1600
f/5.6
1/15 sec

Happy Summer Solstice!

I was up this morning when it was officially the first day of summer, but when I headed out to petsit, the sun had come up too much (at 6:15...jeez!) and so it was too bright for most of my shots. The rest of my day was busy with movies, errands, and babysitting, so I just didn't have time for a better shot. I'll have to add the settings tomorrow, I'm not feeling so hot tonight and need to go to bed.

Do you have the time...

I figured since I got two scavenger hunt words yesterday I could slide in a picture today that wasn't from the list. ;-) I actually noticed this shot a little over a week ago when I didn't have my camera with me. I was back in this neighborhood today so I was finally able to capture it.

f/11
ISO 100
1/250 sec

Barn STALL?

The scavenger hunt list says stall, and I could have taken a barn stall shot, but barn stalls are really ugly to be honest, so you'll have to settle for the outside! ;o)
f/8
1/320 sec
ISO 200

BONUS: Weathervane...

Because who knows when I'll get another shot of a weathervane. ;-)

f/11
1/80 sec
ISO 200

Pool fun...

f/11
ISO 200
1/200 sec

Outdoor dining

Ok, there's no food in the shot, but it IS outdoor dining and today all I needed was the wine, the pool, and the company of good friends. What am I going to do when my clients come home and I no longer have a pool?!!??

Ornate gravestone...

I waited until 'the magic hour' to go out and take these shots. I still had difficulty with exposure. *grrr* In the shot with blue sky the gravestone- which is the focal point of the shot- is underexposed. In the shot with white sky the gravestone is properly exposed and the sky in this direction actually was white so I suppose the sky is as well, it just doesn't look the way I wish it did. The sky from the top pic with the foreground from the bottom would be nice. *roll eyes*

Top:
f/5
ISO 400
1/640 sec

Bottom:
f/5
ISO 400
1/250 sec

Butterfly

Glad I caught a scavenger word early today, the rest of the day was busy and I enjoyed not having taking my camera with me and having a little afternoon break from it.

and the shot

I LOVE this picture. I spent a bit of time taking shots of these three kiddos at our Summer Solstice party. At first I had the little one in front in focus the whole time and his sisters blurred, but just as I decided to focus on P, the little girl in the middle, she turned to look at me. It's one of those shots that just happens when everything is right.
f/5
1/25 sec
ISO 200

Smores and more...

So I had the shot (ok, there were a couple) of smores from our scavenger list, I got some great ones at the Summer Solstice party yesterday, but then ran across a gem of a shot that I love as well! What's a girl to do? It's not like I get smores shots very often! I think we may just have to change this blog name to the 700+ project! LOL.
Smores:
f/5.6
1/60 sec
ISO 200
The next picture gets it's own post...

Bubble...

Today was another HOT day to be outside but we braved it for our homeschool group's annual summer solstice party. We had s'mores, a sprinkler, water relays and BUBBLES! It was hot but also lots of fun, as always.

f/5.6
ISO 200
1/125 sec

Adirondack chair

I think I'm getting used to staying at my client's house! AND bonus (as you saw from Hope's post...ahem) my client has a large number of the items on our scavenger hunt list! I took this shot a few times throughout the day, but at sunset with a storm rolling in the lighting was the best!
f/1.8
1/13 sec
ISO 200

Ox bow

Today we got to see the AMAZING farm where Karen is staying. There just happened to be an ox bow on the wall and Karen just happened to point it out to me. ;-) She's probably going to KILL me for using it but it really was my favorite shot of the day. *sheepish grin*

Taken inside with natural light at about noon:

ISO 400
f/ 5.6
1/30 sec

Needlepoint

Staying at my client's house, I've found a few of the words for the scavenger hunt, but having a hard time making myself get the shot! Luckily my client made it pretty easy, the decorations in this place are amazing! My mom used to do needlepoint all the time, I even tried my hand at it, I guess you could say it was something we did together occasionally. Last night I got to do something with my own daughter, but it wasn't needlepoint. We spent the evening swimming, playing, having dinner alone by the pool, reading a goddess book, and snuggling up watching tv. It was such a nice night, I wish I could have caught it in a shot, but it's in my head and I don't think there would have been a way to capture our whole evening, so I thought it fitting to post a scavenger hunt shot that was related to my own mother!

Holstein??

I admit it, I've lived right in the middle of farm country for most of my life and I don't know one cow from another but these COULD be Holsteins, lol. At any rate I drive past this field all the time and think about stopping. I am usually rushing to get somewhere or ready to be home but today I decided to stop. I wish I'd had time to really play with some different angles and settings but I'm pretty happy with this one. I think one of the reasons I have trouble getting inspired is because I over think things and if I don't have lots of time I don't even want to try. To get this shot I had to stop on the way home when I knew I needed to start supper but also knew this was one of my scavenger hunt shots so I stopped. I realize now that I need to try to be more spontaneous and grab those moments- I think the scavenger hunt is really going to help with that.

This shot was taken at 6:30 PM with a polarizing filter and the sun at my left.
f/22
ISO 100
1/40 sec

Rain, rain, go away!

I have a gorgeous pool at my disposal and wake up to rain?!?! From here on out, I will have to delay my shots by a day. We took the computers back home (where I'm at this moment) b/c it was just too stressful to have them at my client's house. So, I will take my shot and then post it the next day when I go by the house to check my email, etc. I think I may end up ahead or behind, but I'm too tired to figure it out. Either way it will be less stressful and I won't feel pressured to have a shot by 10am or whenever I head back to the house each day! Looks like after today it will be all sun and fun!
f/1.8
1/60 sec
ISO 200

Time for a vacation!???

As soon as it starts feeling like one, I'll let you know. I'm staying at a clients house for the next week and it's paradise...so why am I all stressed out?!?!? I couldn't get "the shot", then I couldn't figure out Dylan's computer (which is the one we brought over) and I'm just frustrated. BUT, I'm persistent and I needed to get something posted, so here it is....now I'm off to jump in the pool! WOOT!

It is HOT!! Too hot to do much but stay in where its nice and cool. We managed to venture over to Karen's for a bit this afternoon and I did attempt some pics for our scavenger hunt on the way home but I didn't like the way those turned out so...

When we got home we decided to play a game- in my bed, lol. You can tell by the look on Kya's face how she felt about me stopping to take pictures of our fun. ;-)

Both shots had the same settings:
f/4.5
ISO 1600
1/40 sec

Surprise!!

Today we celebrated my father-in-law's 70th birthday! Here he is with my sister-in-law who was the mastermind behind the surprise party held at the river. It was HOT but a fun day! Here's to many more happy birthdays. :)

It is HOT!

I've been messing around trying to get my bokeh into neat shapes, but it's just too hot to mess with it anymore today! I did manage to get a few hearts in the background (can you see them?!?!?)