Snow Day

What you can't tell is that Ellie is fuming because I made her pull Grace....

I LOVE the beach

She FINALLY cooperated!!!
She's sure pretty when she smiles at the camera, isn't she?

I think I need to crop her arm a bit, but I'm pleased so far.

FINALLY

I'm embarrassed to admit that it's taken me forever to figure out my free Pioneer Woman PSE actions. But finally, FINALLY I did it tonight.

WOW.

I am so excited to play around with this more.

First Grade Rocks

Ellie had a concert last night. I got this shot of her as we were walking out. A tiny bit overexposed, but I love her face and hair. SOOC. And I LOVE her natural expression.

Carver's pleadings

I think I'm making headway in manual mode, but not so much on this blog. Here's a series of pics that made us smile. Carver had been in the sandbox and wanted to come in, but the light caught my eye and I made him suffer through some pictures before I let him in. :)

This was the first one and it was all downhill from there...

It's a little like watching him whine. Only in mute!
(But I promise the whole shoot only lasted 30 seconds and then I let him in.)

fall pics... SOOC

I intend to edit them.... later....someday :)

Editing practice

Before (SOOC "straight out of camera"):

AFTER:

I liked the cropping and the effect of the higher contrast on her eyes.
Is it too edgy? Maybe. I'm still considering.

Watercolors

A couple old favorites: Pre-DSLR

Alki Beach

I can't take it anymore. This poor blog NEEDS to be updated.
Here's a few favorite shots of my favorite people, playing at my favorite place - the beach.

Carnival Rides

It's not perfect, but still... what a shot!

It was fun to get Lydia in focus while the ride twirled around.

Waterfall

I wanted to experiment with shutterspeed on this little waterfall, golfing in Leavenworth. The leaves are over-exposed. Hmmm... how do you NOT overexpose the greenery and still keep the lens open long enough for the blurry effect on the water? Is it all in the PSE work after?

Sunday Walk

This was my favorite, at the very end of the our walk on the trail by our house.

too bad there was chocolate on her face. I love those serious eyes.

making wishes

don't you love these flowers? they just LOOK like a sunny day.

tulips

I dug these out last weekend as I planted my Mother's Day flowers. They were sure pretty while they lasted! I've been a terrible camera slacker the last while. Time to get practicing again.

Easter

hmmm... why did that one have funky colors when I switched to manual?
Sometimes it's right on, sometimes it's weird. What am I missing?
I've still got a LOT to learn.

This was is blurry if you open it bigger, but Derek was making the kiddos laugh for me.

Otherwise, this is the best I could do. Not too bad since I only had 5 minutes to get a good one.

After church, I tortured the girls for more picture practice.
I wanted to try to really emphasize their eyes - it was really fun!!

outside 3/27/09

Same lens, same attempts to balance shutter speed and aperture. Just so much easier outside. I loved the holes in Lydia's jeans. She had a bump on her forehead that day that might be a good experiment in Elements. But that'll be another day's project. I also love Ellie's grumpy faces. She is most fun to photograph when she's in that kind of mood. :)





Derek didn't love that her whole face isn't in focus, just one of her eyes. I personally thought it was kind of cool. What do you think? (click on it to see better)

Going manual

I'm pushing myself to stay in manual mode more. My new lens, the basic Canon 50 mm 1.8, has been super fun. Last night I played with black and white, balancing shutter speed and aperture. And of course, my kids are stuck being the models. I try to just take pictures of whatever they are already doing and tell them it's my "homework." Which it is!