Bluebonnets...

Jenny and I made plans several times to take pics of Hannah in the bluebonnets, only to be frustrated by bad weather. Grrrrr.... In the meantime, I headed out early one morning before teaching to catch some shots in the golden hour. I don't normally shoot into the sun, but am trying to experiment more lately. It was VERY dewy that morning....I was a mess by the time I'd walked through it and laid down in it...but it was worth it for all the sparkly highlights and that golden light. Shots with Hannah to follow in tomorrow's post.

Gold...

The other day our challenge was "gold". I'd already shot every interesting piece of jewelry I own, so I was wracking my brain for ideas. Didn't have much time that day, so I wound up shooting a gas can and calling it "liquid gold"...especially at these prices. Funny, but not such an interesting shot. Thankfully, it was still light when I finished teaching that day, so I headed to the hill at Richland College to see if I could catch some sun flare. While I was there, the sun was setting. I stepped back to include the tree in my shot and got lucky...5 boys headed over the hill to play basketball and I was able to catch their silhouette. I really love this shot...love that you can clearly see the boys' limbs ...also that 3 were walking towards me and 2 away from me, so their sizes are different and adds a depth to an otherwise "flat" photo. I learned something too....this kind of shot seems to work better with a small aperture. I don't think the image would have been as graphic if I'd shot as wide as I usually like to.

Who needs toys?

Who needs toys when you can play with random stuff around the house? We have this wooden photo box with doors on the front/top that open/close. She loves to look at the pictures and point to people when prompted. And she delights in opening and slamming the doors! Love her expression in the last shot as she prepares for the bang!

Julia, pt. 3

My final faves from that day...There are no good words to tell you how much I love this girl. She bounded into my heart 11 years ago as an eager 2nd grade piano student. She used to tell me she wanted to be like me when she grew up, a piano teacher and church pianist. :) She has excelled in every way and her character is as fine as her musicality. She was chosen as the 2011 winner of the Lois Boyer Senior Pianist Award for Richardson Music Teachers and they'll present her in her own recital later in June. She's off to Moody Bible Institute in the Fall and I will miss her! Congratulations Julia! You deserve every honor you've received!

Julia, pt.2

Pretty sure there was a sign that said to stay out of the water, but we couldn't resist at least a toe dip. These are heavily processed...probably more than I normally like, but I like what was happening with the textures of the denim and stone.
And I loved how the pond acted as a natural reflector with that golden light. Didn't notice that while I was shooting...a bonus when I downloaded to computer!

Julia, pt. 1

I had the pleasure of shooting portraits for my student, Julia, that day at the Arboretum. We've known each other for a long time, so it was a comfortable, easy shoot. And she's super photogenic! I tried to venture outside of my comfort zone of open shade portraits to experiment with some different lighting. Even had a reflector so I could look like a real photographer. :) Kim, I just realized I never answered your question about that. It's a 38" reflector that's white on one side and gold on the other. I've only used the white side so far, because I'd read it gives the most subtle lighting. My biggest challenge with it is getting it to fold back up properly. It's kind of tricky! :)

Side light

Back-lit with reflector (really want to experiment more with backlight as I love the rim light around the hair)
I've also been experimenting with various actions in Photoshop Elements. I love the Perfect Portrait action which is a free download from the Coffeeshop Blog.There are also a few nice actions from the Pioneer Woman blog. All free and easy to use with good instructions for installation and use.

More faves tomorrow...

Sonrise...

Nature...

Shot for the ODC topic of "nature". I am so in love with my Japanese Maple tree...especially in the spring with its leaves are tinged with scarlet. Added a texture to the background here, but the leaf itself is pretty much SOOC.

Remember...

"This is my body, which is broken for you. Do this in remembrance of Me". Luke 22:19.

Come and see, look on this mystery
The Lord of the Universe, nailed to a tree
Christ our God, spilling His Holy blood
Bowing in anguish, His sacred head

Sing to Jesus, Lord of our shame
Lord of our sinful hearts.
He is our great Redeemer.
Sing to Jesus, Honor His name.
Sing of His faithfulness, pouring His life out unto death

Come you weary and He will give you rest
Come you who mourn, lay on His breast
Christ who died, risen in Paradise
Giver of mercy, Giver of Life

Sing to Jesus, His is the throne
Now and forever,
He is the King of Heaven.
Sing to Jesus, we are His own.
Now and forever, sing for the love our God has shown.
(Fernando Ortega)

Macro day at the Arboretum...

I met my friend Judy at the Arboretum a couple weeks ago. She has a new DSLR, so it was fun to shoot together. It was my first time to use the macro there. It was WINDY...SUPER windy, so it was kind of worthless that I lugged my tripod through the park. Flowers were swaying so much, it didn't matter if the camera was steady. These were the only shots I got worth keeping. I do like them though. Really love the soft backgrounds you can get with the macro.

Strange "bird"...

I've been wanting a bird feeder for a long time and we finally got one! The guy in the store told us it would take 3 weeks for the birds to come to it, so I settled in to be patient. After a few days, the food was disappearing so I was hopeful the birds came early. Apparently not...

Smoke gets in your eyes (and your lungs)...

These challenges are just that...challenging! One day the topic was "smoke". I never really thought about it before, but it's not that easy to capture. The recommendation was to try with incense. Can I just say how much I HATE incense! But I gave it a whirl...nearly gave myself an asthma attack too. And tho' I did manage to capture some smoke, I wasn't too happy with any of my shots. All too noisy. I needed more light. So I went a different route...locked myself in the master bathroom (only room where I can get total darkness in the daytime) and lit and blew out this candle over and over until I got some decent smoke. I had a pile of matches when I was done! But I'm pretty happy with the result. This was my first time to add a colored filter (in post processing) and I decided I like how the red enhances the smoke.
If you have a few minutes, check out the group pool from that day. There are some amazing smoke photos as well as a link to a tutorial.
http://www.flickr.com/groups/odc_the_new_one/discuss/72157626395847272/

Don't fence me in...

Really corny title...

Illusion...

Shot for the 365. I've seen some of these illusions before and they intrigued me, so I wanted to try one. There is no power source to the lightbulb. Can you figure out how I did it?. (And no...it was not done in software).

You are my sunshine...

Just hate that I cut her hands and the top of her head out of the frame. But I love her expression...so I'm posting it anyway.

Little ladybug...

Love her SO much! And look...her curls are growing (a little).

She was excitedly signing "chair", because it was her first time to sit on the big girl bench. :)

Hopin' for the big one!

.

Bob Woodruff Park...

Kara and I went to Bob Woodruff Park in Plano for the first time a couple weeks ago. Very nice place! Loved the cloud ribbons...

Still working on action shots! This was taken at 1/500. Still think I need a faster shutter speed for birds. They're HARD!

Keep your hands on the wheel!

Little Miss is busy showing us the sign for "car". It's basically turning an imaginary steering wheel. It's cute the way she does it, cause she wiggles her whole body! :) I love this pic...love Bob smiling in the background and Hannah's delight over her little car. BTW, I ran an action from the Coffeeshop blog on this. It's called "Creamy chocolate black and white" and I really like it.

Great Eggspectations update...

I'm making progress on Hannah's dress. Kim, I'm hoping this shows better what smocking is. Every stitch that I take fastens the pleats together to hold them in place. When it's done and I remove the pleating threads the smocked portion of the fabric is stretchy...almost like elastic. And the fabric beneath the smocking will fall into gathers (like the bottom of so many little girls' dresses). I've finished the smocking entirely now and just need to get busy constructing the dress. Wish I had a few more hours in each day!

Peas in a pod...

How cute are these? (SOOC, BTW)

How delicate the dandy...

Who knew dandelions had such delicate little tendrils? (Have to say I'm losing a little detail on these macro shots when I reduce the resolution for the blog).

Purple columbine...

Still loving the macro. This is probably the last year we'll have columbine. Seems like every year we have less. Believe we only had 2 survive the winter this year. This was the first bud.

Hope and believe...

One day we were asked to shoot something to portray hope in the wake of the disaster in Japan. I enjoyed this one very much. I loved this quote about being at the end of your rope and wanted to try for an image to illustrate it. I hung a black cloth over the back of the sofa in the living room, tied the rope to a doorknob, set up my tripod, held on to that rope with all my might and (using my remote shutter release) hoped for one shot in focus. :) I played with texture a little in post processing, hoping for a more gritty feel.

Sparkling symmetry...

For the challenge of "symmetry", I decided to shoot my ring. I inherited the diamond from my grandmother. It's an antique mine cut...something they don't do anymore. I received it as a loose stone and Bob had it set for me when Jenny was born. It's special to me. This was the first time i set out to intentionally try to capture reflections, so I shot this on a mirror and I learned something new. I was confused by the "ghosting" in the reflection. A friend explained that it's because the reflective part of a mirror is the back surface of the glass. So you get one reflection off the top surface, another (the strongest one) off the bottom, and double and triple bounces of light reflected within the glass. He said it was probably more than I wanted to know, but that he was after all a physics major! :) I thought it was interesting!

You lookin' at me?

Love and war...

Most interesting sight that day...At first glance, these 2 look like they're nuzzling, right? NOT! They're fighting. There's a 3rd duck behind (referee?), and he and the duck on the right were ganging up on the white duck. Don't know why...but it was very entertaining!

Visit to Duck Creek...

Kara, Jenny, and I were excited to take Hannah to see real ducks for the first time. One of her favorite signs is "duck" and she loves her little rubber ducky. I was just sure she would be signing "bread" the whole time we fed the ducks, because this girl LOVES her bread. But, she actually wasn't feeling too well that day. She'd just had her 15 mo. immunizations. She wasn't running fever YET, but she was pretty sick by that evening and for the next 3 days. Think she got a virus on top of the immunizations. At any rate, she had no appetite...so no wonder she wasn't interested in the bread. She loved the ducks tho' and it was a good distraction for her before her nap.

Do not disturb...

Apparently, a very good book. But she did not like the ending!

Splash!

I've been seeing lots of cool splash shots on flickr lately and really wanted to try one. This was fun! Set up was camera on tripod, macro at f/8, flash on...and took a bunch of pics with my remote shutter release while I dropped banana slices with my other hand. It was easier than I thought. I want to try again in natural light with a more colorful bowl. Note to self: pick up something cheap and colorful at Walmart).

Fiddlehead...

About a year ago, I posted a picture of a fern unfurling. I mentioned that it reminded me of the scroll on top of Kara's cello. I've since learned that their nickname is actually "fiddlehead". :) And some people EAT them! Did you know that? At any rate, one day our challenge was "shaped like a letter". Couldn't resist the fiddlehead....quite obviously, the letter P. Love the detail with the macro. And be impressed...this was handheld on a breezy day. Wish I could have had a more interesting background, but this was the only angle to get the P. :) Again, I did not have to crop at all.