The child within...

Yeah, she's 16 and growing up fast. She looks so stylish in her trendy clothes and pretty make up. Still, if we're lucky, we can sometimes catch a glimpse of the child in her. I'm grateful she has not abandoned the whimsy that makes her uniquely her. I hope she never does!
As you probably guessed, this was for the 365. The challenge was "caught in the act" so I tried to capture the motion of the pinwheel and imply that I caught a teenager enjoying a childish toy. The bubbles from yesterday were attempts for the same challenge, but when I saw how pretty the late afternoon light was in this shot, I knew it was the one I'd use. Love how the bokeh is radiating out from the pinwheel. Pure luck...In hindsight, I think I should have used a slightly faster shutter speed. I wouldn't want to freeze the pinwheel, but would have liked to see some of the individual blades in the blur.

Bubbles...

Finally had a chance to experiment with some bubbles. Want to try this again sometime with some better solution. This stuff worked for about 5 min. I liked the spray of solution in this shot tho'.
Love how Emma has solution all down the front of her clothes! When we first gave her the wand, she put it directly in her mouth. :) Guess we should have known since she's only 2! She held the wand so close to her mouth that I'm afraid she ate a lot of soap. At one point, she opened her mouth to say something and a big bubble came out. :) It was hilarious! ...like something out of a cartoon.

That last shot was a killer...

Found it humorous that on the day Kara turned 30, I made her pose for the following shot.
I know, it's nutty...but it was for the 365. The challenge that day was "the end"...and I thought this would be funny. Notice the cause of death...ODC stands for "Our Daily Challenge". Yep, it was only day 50 of the 365 and I could already tell these challenges are gonna kill me. :) I'm having tons of fun, but it really is relentless. I feel such accomplishment each time I finish a challenge, only to realize there's a new one the following day. They just keep comin'! :)

Kara was a great sport about this. In fact, it was shot in broad daylight with Kara sitting up on the floor. I tucked a black blanket in the background hoping it would look like she was on a gurney. I monkeyed with the temperature in processing to make it look like morgue lighting. My favorite part is the subtle stripe on the sheets. I didn't have any plain white ones. One of the comments on the 365 was "Which morgue was this? Looks like Beverly Hills"....and another was "When I go, I want it to be on luxury sheets". Too funny!

Happy Birthday to Kara!

Found these fun glasses at Party City too...Yep, Kara just joined Geezerville! :)

Alien invasion...

One of our challenges for the 365 was "neon". I had no desire to drive down Greenville at night shooting bar signs, so I headed to Party City instead. Picked up some little green glow-in-the-dark men...cheap party favors. Kara and I camped out in my bathroom for a while (only room in the house that's totally dark in the daytime) and played with different exposures.

For this first one, there was no other light source than the little men and the glow in the dark ball behind them (their planet). Trust me when I say these guys are not that bright....but they sure turned out that way in this shot.
For this one, I introduced a battery operated spinning toy that lights up. This was something like a 25 second exposure and for app. 5 of those seconds I circled the lighted toy once around the little men. Very "Close Encounters"...
For this one, I used the same battery operated toy. This was again a 25 second exposure, but I just whisked the lighted toy into the frame for a brief moment....less than a second. I love the way the marble countertop turned into a misty atmosphere.
Kara isn't always thrilled about helping me with my projects (understandable). Usually I hear "I'll give you 5 min." :) But on this day, she said she actually had fun. It was awesome seeing how each little adjustment completely changed the image! BTW, this stuff isn't really what I want to shoot, but I'm learning so much about my camera from these challenges.

Smart 'n' Sassy...

She's growing and changing so quickly. She now loves to look at books and point to things and sign what she sees. She still has very little interest in talking, tho' she does say "uh-oh". She knows a LOT of signs tho' and babbles a lot, so I guess she'll start talking when she's good and ready. Is is just me, or does she suddenly look a whole lot older in these pics?

Two moods...

One day our challenge for the 365 was "doors". We're only allowed to submit one photo for each challenge, which is hard but also good for me. It's teaching me to self edit. :) Fortunately, we can add a second photo in our comments if we're wavering. I'm glad, because on the door day, I wound up with two images so vastly different I couldn't begin to choose. It amazed me how much the lighting affected the mood.

"Welcome, the door's always open."

"Mom, there's someone at the door!"