Daddy Daughter Date Night!

For my husband’s recent birthday, I bought and presented him with two tickets for a Daddy Daughter Date night event that was sponsored by our favorite Christian radio station.  The event featured a concert by Christian recording artist Jonny Diaz, dinner and dessert.  I thought it would be the perfect evening for him to spend with our 10 year old daughter.  They ended up having a wondering evening together – although his date did fall asleep in the van on the way home!

And of course, no special event would be complete without a few pictures before hand… (disclaimer:  my daughter has the hardest time with bright light and although her eyes are a little squinty in the first one, I loved it nonetheless!  For the rest, I enlisted the help of my oldest son to be my reflector holder.  For some, he held the reflector under her face to add some brightness and for others, he used the reflector to add shade over her head.)

Aren’t they cute?  I’m so glad they had the opportunity to spend the evening together and I suspect it was an event neither one of them will ever forget!

[linking up for This or That Thursday]

[almost] Wordless Wednesday

The blessing of new life…

ISO 320 … 1/200 … f/5.6 … 100mm

[linking up with Kristi at Live and Love Out Loud]

Somebody’s celebrating a birthday today…

 

Happy Birthday to my best friend and the love of my life!  Your life is truly worth celebrating today!  Love you!

[oh, honeysuckle, how I love you!]

Our woods are full of the sweet smell of honeysuckle and apparently I’m not the only one enjoying their beauty and aroma…

All I had to do was stand there and eventually the butterflies came.  One even landed on my pants!  I had to be quick, though, because any movement at all sent the butterflies fluttering away.

I purposefully shot these a little warmer than normal and then didn’t do much with them in processing (sharpened and made a few, very slight adjustments – contrast and clarity – in ACR).  I really like the end result!

[linking up for This or That Thursday]

[the zoo]

While in Chicago for spring break a few weeks ago, we visited the Lincoln Park Zoo.  The zoo, which was built in 1868, is one the oldest zoos in the country.  It is also free and open year round.  Since I have fond memories of visiting the zoo as a child, I was excited to be able to share the experience with my own children.

We had a beautiful, sunny (although chilly) day to enjoy the animals, the gorgeous spring flowers and trees, the stunning Chicago skyline and most importantly, time together as a family!

Linking up at Sweet Shot Tuesday

Feeling Purple-y

When I was looking through my recently edited images, I realized that I had quite a few purple shots so I thought I’d group them all together in one post.  Enjoy!

[this next one was actually taken by my 14 year old son!]

I’m thinking I really like the purple/green color combination!  It reminds me of my childhood bedroom!

[this girl]

I really, really like this girl and who she’s growing up to be…

Chicago three ways

Color Edit:

Edited with my favorite hazy action:

Black & white edit:

I like all three for different reasons.  What about you?  Which one is your favorite?

[linking up for This or That Thursday]

Wordless Wednesday

 

Chicago’s Michigan Avenue at night

Last week our kids were on spring break so we decided to take a quick, overnight trip to Chicago.  We were fortunate enough to get a hotel through Hotwire that was across from Water Tower Place and right on Michigan Avenue.  I’ve always wanted to play around with night photography, but our little town doesn’t really lend itself to great nighttime, street shots, however, Chicago is the perfect place to play around!

It probably would’ve been better to actually be down by the street, but I’m still pretty pleased with how these came out from our hotel window on the 8th floor.

I placed my camera with my 24-70mm lens (on an upside down plastic trash can for stability) right next to the window.  Because I wanted to catch the movement of the traffic, I lowered the shutter speed and used the timer on the camera so once I pressed the shutter, I didn’t have to touch the camera again until after the picture was taken.

I took quite a few as the sun went down, but these two are my favorites…

ISO 200 … shutter speed – 0.50 sec. … f/2.8 … 24mm

ISO 640 … shutter speed – 1/10 sec … f/2.8 … 24mm

It was a lot of fun to try something new and I can’t wait to be able to try night/street/motion photography again.

[linking up for Sweet Shot Tuesday]

Happy Easter!

 

Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.  [Hebrews 13:8]

[dandelions]

It’s that time of year again.  The dreaded dandelions.  In my opinion, about the only thing they’re good for is photographs!  They may be unsightly in my yard, but through the lens of my camera, the detail can be magical.

[Psalm 104:24] … What a wildly wonderful world, God!  You made it all, with Wisdom at your side, made earth overflow with your wonderful creations. (MSG)

Even dandelions…

iso 250 … f/5.6 … 100 mm

Edited with my favorite “go to” actions from Pure Photoshop Actions (It’s All About the Bling Baby, Lookin’ Sharp Baby, Hazy Baby I)

[Linking up with Deb for This or That Thursday]

Wordless Wednesday

 

ipad photo collage

I use my ipad a lot to take pictures.  The quality is generally bad but I could care less.  In fact, I think that’s one of the reasons I like to use it – it takes the pressure off getting all my camera settings right, making sure my composition is okay and editing properly – all things I worry about when using my dslr.  And because of the ease in using my ipad, I’ve pretty much been able to keep up with taking at least one photo a day – something that I haven’t been able to keep up with my regular camera.  So it’s a winning situation!

Here are a few recent shots (in no particular order):

(from left to right and top to bottom):

1.  a friend and I enjoyed a spa day where I finally got my hair cut and for fun had it straightened

2.  Andrew has taken a renewed interest in playing his guitar

3.  Matthew had a run in with a piece of playground equipment at school which resulted in a mild concussion and being sent home from school early

4.  Matthew and our neighbor waiting for the state chess tournament to begin

5.  late afternoon sun coming through the branches of our front yard flowering tree

6.  temps were warm enough for Joel to ride his motorcycle to work

7.  locally made bracelets that my family got me for my birthday

8.  Matthew modeling my sunglasses

9.  Andrew and Joel working on our basement finishing project