Beauty is in the Eye

So it isn't poetic to photograph your child who has just sleepily laid his head down in the big pile of (clean) laundry you've thrown on your bed for folding...but it's my blog and I'll post if I want to :) And besides, I like the naughty glint in his eye LOL.

Ode to Poppa

Well today when we got home from Sam's Club we saw a ladybug crawling down the side of our garage and then into the flowers that we have around the border of our house. This isn't the best picture ever because I ran inside, changed my lens, ran outside and snapped a few... all the while really trying not to hear the plaintive whining of the cheese and yogurt I had in the car waiting to be put away.

Since this is a new blog, I'll explain the Poppa thing. That's what the kids call my dad, who passed away a year before Zach was born. A ladybug came to me the night he died and I always felt it was a sign of him being there. So whenever we see a ladybug we tell Poppa hello.

Dew the Dew

Just a few shots from the other day that I forgot to upload because I got busy. Yep, I get busy too LOL. I am not living the life of leisure as it appears, I just take my camera everywhere :)

Panning

Well, I have newfound respect for those panning photos you see. The one where a subject is relatively in focus and the rest of the scene implies motion. It's harder than it looks. I suspect even those who have mastered the technique still come up with a handful of blurry wtf pictures.

I took about 20 photos and only 1 truly came out the way I wanted and 1 came out more interesting than I had expected, but I threw a zoom pullback into it as well because of where I was standing. I'm just throwing the last shot in because it was cute.

In Pieces

The challenge this week was "in pieces". The interpretation was up to the participants, but two influencing things were either literally something in pieces (broken eggshell, a puzzle) or 2 or more photos that were merged together in a creative way.

So what I tried to do was go even deeper. I may be kidding myself as far as my depth, but I'm rather proud of my entry. I call it "Pieces of Ruined Lives". I don't want to explain away the emotion that I think it could bring, but the broken rear view mirror is really from an accident that my husband was in a long time ago and the obituary in the background belongs to my grandfather. My husband and I are no strangers to the lives affected by drunk drivers or vehicular accidents and the 'pieces' that are left to pick up after those loved ones are gone.

This seemed the perfect concept for this challenge. It was very personal.

Lake Tahoe - Birthday Day!

I pulled the blunder of all blunders and at least (i guess) I pulled it while not shooting an important event. Shot the whole day before in ISO 1600 for indoor model homes...went out and shot outdoors with the same ISO...You can say 'noise' til the cows come home. I opened them up and yes, they're grainy, but I removed some of the noise and some I left in...at least I got photos and at least I got to go to Tahoe as a surprise for my bestest birthday yet because of my awesome hubby :)

The weather turned on us something wicked...you'll see it in the progression of photos.

Don't get used to this - seeing photos of me, I mean. We just had to 'cause we rented the car.

Here's where it started to go downhill

And voila - snow.

Again, don't get used to this, but I had to because I've never been in snow while it was coming down. It took me til my 20th birthday to actually see snow on the ground...11 years later I got to finally be in snow whilst it was snowing.

After the storm

More after the storm

Back at home.

Birthday Weekend

Matt and I had the opportunity to go do 'grown up' things today because my ILs watched the kids for us for several hours for my birthday. We went to test drive a car and I returned to the Structure Park and went down the left path this time. I was given an hour or so to take photos, but I could have stayed for many more hours. Here are a couple of gemettes from that day (Saturday)...

This little guy was just waiting for us to take his close up. If I could have I would have moved the twigs out of the way, but he would have been gone like the wind LOL.

Well I super duper wish that there wasn't a stray hair or fiber on the petal of this tiny flower. This flower was very very tiny.

I know, I know, the whole horizon in the middle of the photo - however I liked the path, I liked the sky and that's where it ended up.

A silhouette

Reflecting

Without a tripod to catch the long exposure this turned out to be the clearest of the bunch. I used a nearby rail to help me keep the cam steady.

More Tiny Things

To see how tiny these flowers really are, check out the next blog - it's the flowers the bee and wasp are sitting on.

My princess tree has exactly one flower on it and here it is LOL

This is our bamboo plant inside the house - this thing can't be killed, but we've come close.

I like this pic

You Really Bug Me

No, not really. Just being semi-clever. Quasi-cute. Ok, I'm out.

Took these in the front yard while Sean was napping. I really don't like bugs, but like I said before I am at least learning to respect them more. However Mr. Grasshopper did not respect me. Apparently he was camera shy and didn't like the paparazzi. He jumped on my head after the shoot.

Little Things

I've missed the forest for the trees...or rather the flowers for the grass. I was swinging my macro lens around today in the backyard and I'm continually surprised at how many things live here besides us LOL. If they all chip in for groceries we'd be set.

I noticed these tiny little yellow flowers - nothing much when you're looking at a yard (are these the things that grow up to be those ugly yellow bulby weed flowers?), but through a macro lens, it's interesting as is everything else. I know I've toyed with the idea of the MP-E65 lens and I might rent it because I seriously wonder how much closer I could get to know this flower. There was a tiny thin clearish bug on one of the petals too if you look really closely.

I've also taken a picture of the yard so you can see how small this flower really was.

One of my 3 Favorite Subjects

Look at me up here on this bridge!


The classic "Dad" look




Great day for the park




Say Bye to the Park


Yes, I know, these are more snapshots (but I tried), but you try getting a 22 month old to stand still and pose... Good luck with that. LOL

Cold Sunrise

Sean woke me up early and I saw the sun peeking up - just the rays ... ran to get my camera and stood out in the backyard in my jammies taking pictures. Wish that I had a clear, non telephone-wire view, but you get what you get sometimes.

More Macros

What can I say, I like getting close. I'm wanting the E65 Macro, but I'd have to get a Twin Lite to go with it and probably a focusing rail and quite honestly I'm wondering if seeing stuff that close will scare me lmao.