Look what came in the mail today! My county's 2012 Visitor's Guide! And my paddle boarder photo made the front cover! How cool is that?!
Showing posts with label photo of the day. Show all posts
Showing posts with label photo of the day. Show all posts
Friday, December 30, 2011
Saturday, December 24, 2011
Photos of the Day: December 23 & 24
While I should be putting out gifts tonight, I'm posting my photos from the past couple days. :)
{December 23}
I've seen this a few times around the blogosphere and decided to try it myself. It is harder than I thought - trying to keep the candy canes together while photographing them. :)
{December 24}
The kids after Christmas Eve service. If only I could have gotten a photo of them with genuine smiles. {sigh} They were more than ready to go home at this point. :) I love the way our church decorates for Christmas. It is always so beautiful.
Tuesday, December 20, 2011
Wild & Wonderful Wednesday #8
Hello! And welcome! This week's Wild & Wonderful Wednesday will be relatively short and sweet. 'Cuz it is late and I am tired. And I have a cold. Ick.
However, despite all that I had a pretty good day. Alex and I got some last-minute Christmas shopping done this morning. I was finally able to pick up my Christmas cards at Sam's Club. (don't ask!) And I got the envelopes all filled out ... just need stamps, return address labels, and sealed. (When I have a bunch of envelopes to seal I always remember that Seinfeld episode when George's fiance died from licking all their wedding invitation envelopes. Remember that one? Makes me laugh every time.)
Anyway, when I got home from running a few more errands this afternoon (without my little helper), my wonderful mail carrier had left a package for me on my front porch. My new lens! It is just a 50mm 1.8, but I was still so excited. I ripped open the box, put the lens on my camera and ... had to wait about an hour before I could play because it was all fogged up from being out in the cold. :) But I did get to play.
Keira was her usual willing model. I love the fact that I took this indoors without a flash at ISO 800.
This is Keira's ornament this year. I'm so glad she enjoys the violin so much. Thursday is her school concert that we are really looking forward to. Except for the fact that it is at 8 o'clock in the morning. What's up with that? Oh, and she taught herself how to play another song today just by listening to it and figuring it out. I wish I could remember which song. All I can remember is that it is a Christmas song because that's the Pandora station I had playing. :)
This is today's photo of the day. Just because. Look at all that delicious bokeh! :)
And here's Nick's sweet little snowman he made last year in school out of a sock and rice. I just love this little guy. I wish we would get some snow so we can make a real snowman.
You'll notice I took all of these with the Christmas tree in the background. I can't get this kind of bokeh with my other lenses. Although this new lens is going to take some getting used to. My other three lenses are all zoom lenses and since this one isn't, I need to get my distance right. I'm sure I'll do a lot of playing over the kids' Christmas break.
Okay, so much for short and sweet, huh? :)
Now it is your turn! Link up your Wild & Wonderful photos below.
Just a few things first ...
You'll notice I took all of these with the Christmas tree in the background. I can't get this kind of bokeh with my other lenses. Although this new lens is going to take some getting used to. My other three lenses are all zoom lenses and since this one isn't, I need to get my distance right. I'm sure I'll do a lot of playing over the kids' Christmas break.
Okay, so much for short and sweet, huh? :)
Now it is your turn! Link up your Wild & Wonderful photos below.
Just a few things first ...
1. Grab my button for your post and link up below (or at least use a text link) so others can find out about Wild & Wonderful Wednesday. (I reserve the right to delete links that don't follow this one simple rule. K? Thanks.).
2. Link up your post URL (or Flickr photo URL), not your blog URL.
3. Photos must be yours please.
4. Try to visit and comment on a few other linker uppers (mine too please!). We know how much everyone loves comments!
5. You have until Saturday at midnight to link up!
Thank you for stopping by and linking up! I would like to wish each of you a very Merry Christmas!
Also linking up with these beautiful ladies:
Monday, December 19, 2011
Photo of the Day: December 19
We got about 1/2 inch of snow yesterday - just enough to cover up the yucky brown. Today it warmed up and rained. Doesn't look good for a white Christmas.
Sunday, December 18, 2011
Scavenger Hunt Sunday 12.18.11
This week's Scavenger Hunt items are: What is it?, Children/fur babies sleeping, Joy, Window, and Half.
Wednesday, December 14, 2011
Happy Birthday to Me!
Celebrated my birthday today with breakfast at Panera with Alex (and Laura and Mike), shopping at Kohl's for a few things for myself, then Doug brought home dinner from one of my favorite restaurants. He also bought me two bouquets of flowers (roses, daisies, and carnations) and an Amazon gift card, 'cuz that's what I told him I wanted.
He handed me this huge box after dinner. As I held it, I thought it was pretty light for being such a big box. The smirk on his face told me he was toying with me. As I finally got into the box through the super strong packing tape that he used, I was greeted by brown packing paper. Lots of it. Wrapped around my gift card many, many times. The kids kept trying to guess what my gift was. Nick thought it was a pillow at one point since that was the shape of the packaging. Once I finally got through the multiple layers of packaging, I was delighted to find the gift card.
Doug prefers I not know what I'm getting for birthdays/Christmas. He likes to surprise me. But I keep telling him that I prefer to get something I will use every day (like a new lens) as opposed to something that will sit on a shelf and collect dust (like another carousel horse - even though I love them). I guess he finally listened. :)
With the gift card he gave me, along with the others that I had bought recently with the money I got for winning the photo contest and for taking pics of a friend's baby (she totally surprised me by giving me money since I did it for free so I could practice), I finally had enough to buy a new lens. It has been ordered and will be on its way soon. I can't wait!
Finished up the day with a phone call from my mom. She's as bad as me when it comes to sending cards :), but she always calls me on my birthday.
And just so you know ... I had fully intended on posting a self-portrait today in honor of my birthday, but it was so dark and rainy all day today that I just wasn't able to get a decent photo. I did try though. Maybe tomorrow. So today you get to see one of the flowers from Doug. With a little Christmas tree bokeh in the background. :)
Tuesday, December 13, 2011
Photos of the Day: December 12 & 13
{December 12}
Got up early to go shopping all day with Doug. I didn't mind so much because I got to witness this beautiful sunrise and get my POTD out of the way early. :)
{December 13}
Since I failed to photograph Honey on her birthday, December 10, I made a point to capture her today. She is officially three years old. And she's as bad as the kids when it comes to the camera. She thinks if she keeps looking away that I'll stop taking her picture. :)
Sunday, December 11, 2011
Photo of the Day: December 11
I bought a set of lights to decorate a bush in our front yard. Doug and the kids put them up today. I love all white lights but there's just something about the colorful LED lights that I really enjoy.
Wednesday, December 7, 2011
Christmas Bokeh
Doug bought me a bouquet of flowers the other day and I finally had a chance to photograph them. Or at least one of them. :)
I've been playing around with shooting in B&W instead of always converting to B&W in processing. This started as B&W and then I added a layer of light purple at about 70% opacity.
Tuesday, November 29, 2011
Be thou the rainbow ...
Photo of the day November 29 - ISO 400, f/5.6, 1/2000s, 18-105mm lens
Be thou the rainbow in the storms of life.
The evening beam that smiles the clouds away,
and tints tomorrow with prophetic ray.
~ Lord Byron
Tuesday, November 22, 2011
Photo of the Day: November 22
ISO 400, f/22, 1/100s, 18-105mm lens
If you had any idea what our weather was like today, you would know this photo wasn't taken today. It has been raining pretty much non-stop all day which leaves me with little to no inspiration. Therefore no pictures. (Plus with all the running I did today, I just didn't stop to take any photos.) So I thought I'd pull out a photo from a couple weeks back that shows some gorgeous autumn leaves and some sunshine to brighten my day. I hope it brightens yours too.
Also, my edit for the Edit Me Challenge last week was picked in the Top 3! Yay! Hop on over to the Edit Me Challenge blog to check out the other winners!
Friday, November 18, 2011
Outtake
{Photo of the day - November 18 - ISO 800, f/9, 1/125s, 18-105mm lens on Nikon D3100 - processed with Paint the Moon's Jubilee action}
This is just one (of the many) outtakes of my kids during our quick photo session this afternoon. I wanted to get a good photo of the three of them together for our Christmas cards this year. We can't seem to get together as a whole family due to Doug's work schedule these past few weeks and we are running out of time to get cards made. I did manage to get a few good shots, although I think we will try again tomorrow when the weather is supposed to be warmer. Their main complaint this afternoon was that they were freezing! So I rewarded them with hot cocoa when we were done. That made them happy. :)
Now I'm off to bed. We're going to see our local Christmas parade tomorrow morning. The kids can't wait! Like they almost need more candy. :)
Wednesday, November 16, 2011
Raindrops ~ an Irish Blessing
May the raindrops fall lightly on your brow.
{Photo of the day - November 16 - ISO 800, f/7.1, 1/50s, 18-55mm lens on Nikon D3100 w/10x macro filter - Shadowhouse Creations Oil Painting 3 texture added along with a gradient fill}
May the soft winds freshen your spirit.
May the sunshine brighten your heart.
May the burdens of the day rest lightly upon you,
and may God enfold you in the mantle of His love.
We've had quite a bit of rain these past few days, but today was the first time I was able to get outside and capture a few raindrops before they were all dried up from the wind. In fact, it was still raining lightly while I was out photographing them. I'm a little hooked on playing with my macro filters lately. I hope you'll indulge me for a while. :)
It stopped raining around 4:00 but the sky was so dark already. And then I happened to glance outside to see if any deer were in the neighbor's yard only to see a gorgeous sky of oranges, purples, and pinks. I quickly asked Keira if she'd like to help me try to capture a silhouette. She agreed and suggested she bring along her violin. While this isn't exactly the photo I was hoping for, I am glad she agreed to let me practice.
Tuesday, November 15, 2011
Photo of the Day: November 15
ISO 800, f/7.1, 1/15s, 18-55mm lens on Nikon D3100
These polar bears are painted in the hallway where I drop Alex off for child care while I attend a women's Bible study on Tuesday mornings. (How's that for a bunch of prepositional phrases!) :) I kept promising him I would bring my camera and snap a few photos of the animals in the hallway, and today I finally remembered. It's a good thing too, because I didn't take any other photos today! :)
This is just a small sample of the fabulous artwork in the hallways of the children's classroom wing. There are so many wonderful paintings! I have no idea who did them all, but they are incredibly talented.
Sunday, November 13, 2011
Take Heart!
(Photo of the day - November 13 - ISO 400, f/5.6, 1/60s, 18-105mm lens on Nikon D3100)
This is our verse for the week in our weekly Bible study. It comes at the very end of the 16th chapter of John when Jesus has just spent a great deal of time teaching his twelve disciples and explaining that He will be leaving them soon.
Sheila Walsh writes in her book, The Shelter of God's Promises:
"What may seem to be discouraging to us, Jesus offers as encouragement. There is nothing that can happen to you today or tomorrow that hasn't passed through the merciful hands of God. Even when we suffer for a time, we will always be victorious because of the battle Christ has won. So take heart and have courage; we are strong women of God because He gives us His strength."
We were never promised as Christians that life would be easy. But we do have the promise that God has already won the battle and overcome the world.
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